Cider Advice

[adz2332]

Due to moving into my new house ive been absent from the forum for awhile and also unable to brew due to the move.
But im back. And yes i heard a few of u *groan*....

What im thinking and never tried is a all juice Cider.
Heres the thoughts so far

18 Ltrs of Apple Juice. Presvative free
1kg Dex
1Kg Lactose
250g LDME
(2 Ltrs Of boiling Water to desolve the above)

What yeast to use for temps of around 20 degs?

Anything i should add or delete?
Looking for a sweet bubbly cider

ideas?
cheers

 

[Wolfy]

There are a number of threads/suggestions in the 'Non beer brewing' forum: http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...hp?showforum=50

 

[Airgead]

I put down an all juice cider this weekend. Thread is in the non-beer section.

lactose is fine if you want something a little sweeter. I wouldn't worry about the DME though. Unless you like a malty taste in your cider. Wouldn't worry about the dex either. It should be plenty strong enough without it. The juice I pressed came in at spot on 1.050.

Cheers
Dave

 

[adz2332]

hmmm ok ill remove the LDME then
and with the 1kg Dex. That will DRY it out wont it? so removing that should also aweeten it up also correct? So mayb even cut in half?

Any ideas on yeast?
I have some yeast enhancer worth chucking a bit in when pitching the yeast to?

 

[Airgead]

hmmm ok ill remove the LDME then
and with the 1kg Dex. That will DRY it out wont it? so removing that should also aweeten it up also correct? So mayb even cut in half?

Any ideas on yeast?
I have some yeast enhancer worth chucking a bit in when pitching the yeast to?

Ok... cider is a very different beast to beer. Its more like a wine.

Malt has a lot of complex, unfermentable sugars in it. This is why beer finishes fermentation with some residual sweetness. You can control the amount of unfermentables (to some extent) with your choice of malts, mashing temp etc. Adding more malt to make a stronger beer will give you more unfermentables and thus a sweeter beer. Dextrose is a simple sugar and will ferment out completely giving you a stronger beer without the extra sweetness (in effect drying it out).

Cider is different. Apple juice contains mostly simple sugars. Cider will naturally ferment out pretty much completely dry. Getting any residual sweetness in a cider is remarkably difficult and really comes down to selection of yeast and control of the fermentation process to stop the yeast early. Or you can add an unfermentable sugar like lactose which most people do (I can't because my wife is lactose intolerant). Adding dextrose will make a stronger cider but will have no effect on the dryness of the cider.You use dex when the juice won't give you the strength cider you desire. Most apple juice will give you a cider between 4 and 6% so unless you want to make something really strong you shouldn't need the dex at all.

Come join us in the non-beer brewing section. There is a lot of discussion on this sort of thing.

Cheers
Dave

Edit - you also asked about yeast. I tend to use Wyeast 4766 (cider yeast) others use ale yeasts. It really depends on what you want the end product to be like.

 

[adz2332]

ok thanks for that! i didnt relise a few points u brought up then!
i will jump across to the non beer (as i didnt relise thats were cider was) to ask about what changes do the different yeast u use make in the final product

 

[zoidbergmerc]

I just made my 2nd batch off "all Juice" Cider last night after the raging success of the last one.

4x 3L bottles of apple juice
3x 2.6L of Apple and Pear Juice.
4x Granny smith apples cut into 1\4s with cores removed.
4x brown pears cut into 1\4s with cores removed.
300g LDME dissolved in some apple juice on the stove.
1kg of frozen raspberries.

Throw all that into the fermenter and wait. The apples and pears I got were fresh from my garden so there would have been wild yeast on them, after about 16 hours it was bubbling away quite nicely. But I'm not sure if the stuff you'd get from the supermarket would have wild yeast on them still though so you might need some cider yeast I heard Wyeast 4766 was the way to go for Ciders.

 

[manticle]

No need for dex. Apple juice should give you an OG of around 1050 and most yeasts will ferment down to 1000 or below unless you stop fermentation with chemicals or crash chill and keg.

If you want to add malt look at graff recipes - otherwise you'll be fine with just juice and yeast.