Cider Recipe

[reviled]

Im not a pro on ciders, never brewed one, but im looking at doing a Perri soon hopefully...

What I would do, is rack onto a few litres of apple juice and let it ferment out, but its gonna keep fermenting dry, so I guess you have a couple of options which are either to add some more lactic, or try and either kill the yeast off before its finished, or crash cool it so it drops out, leaving some residual sweetness in there...

I wouldnt add sliced apples, im sure they will have a heap of bugs living on them...

Also, just had a thought so ill throw it out there, you could maybe crash the yeast out before you add the extra apple juice, and add it slowly till you get to the sweetness that youre after?

Im probably gonna get told im wrong, but would be keen to know lol, sorry if I wasnt helpfull..

 

[bowie in space]

Well folks, racked to secondary this morning. Racked onto 2L of "daily juice" apple juice (the fresh stuff)

Have just fixed some glad wrap and the "o" ring to the top of the 25L drum. Never done this before but have read a few posts on this site so hopefully will work out ok.

The gravity has changed
OG 1.035
13 days - 1.005
14th day - 1.010 after racking onto 2L juice

will keep checking until FG is reached, then bulk prime and bottle.

cheers
Bowie

 

[Franko]

What does the addition of LDME bring to the party Franko?

Ive made ciders in the past using apple juice and occasionally apple and pear juice and would never use any other yeast than 4766 but am intrigued by the LDME addition.

Cheers
DrSmurto

Hey DrSmurto,
I've found with the addition of LDME it gives the cider a bit more body and adds a little to the overall alc%.
I've done it and without the LDME and it alwaystastes better with at least 200gms of it.
The wife loves it and Pumpy says its one of the better ones he's ever tasted

Franko

 

[Franko]

I wouldnt add sliced apples, im sure they will have a heap of bugs living on them...

I've always added sliced apples to the fermenter have done my recipe a good 10-12 times and never ever had a problem.Just make sure your preparation is clean.
Franko

 

[dustnode]

Does anyone know how long the blackrock kit should take at about 24 degrees?
I've got one brewing at the moment and it's been about 2 and 1/2 weeks, 1012 but with quite a bit of foam still at the surface.
just the kit and 1.5 kg of plain sugar and about 400ml of cascade raspberry syrup.

 

[cdbrown]

My next brew is going to be a cider using the berri apple juice (8 bottles 2.4L), 200g LDME as recommended by franko and the Wyeast 4766. I'd like to be able to build up the stock of this yeast so should I just smack the pack and mix it with 1.5L of the Berri juice or use a malt/water wort like you would with other yeasts?

 

[bowie in space]

dustnode,

from what i have read ciders take a lot longer, up to 3 or 4 weeks. I took the opportunity to rack to secondary on some juice and may still add some sliced apples. It has been 15 days and is fermenting in the secondary quite well. I will anticipate another 10 days or so, maybe longer, but will keep checking gravity until it has been stable over a couple of days, then bulk prime.

bowie

 

[pokedad]

When using only juice + yeast what alcohol % can you expect ??

I just put this into bottles today. I actually let it ferment for two weeks since everyone said it takes a while, first reading was bang ... zero. Which I assume means it's bottling time.

12L Apple juice
9.6L Apple / pear juice
1.75 Dextrose

Topped up with water to 22L

SG - 1.070
FG - 0.00

Est Alch % - 9.45%

I decided to make a base batch, with no flavouring in it at all so I can drink it and think how I'd like it to taste from here and have a better idea what to add next time.

My question is this, what sort of storage time you think this needs, before I can sample this bad boy....

 

[drsmurto]

Been drinking my latest cider over the past few days.

Only have 6 bottles so i am on rations till i get some fresh pressed apple juice.

Was a 1:1:1 mix of fuji/sundowner/grannys put thru a juicer. Add some metabisulphite (campden tablet) and let it sit for 24-48h. Rack off the clear juice from under the crusty top that forms.

Pitch Wyeast 4766 and some nutrient.

Definitely my best cider yet, has more complexity than the straight berri apple juice i have been using in the past.

 

[komodo]

Hi every one.
I've been reading with much interest about every ones cider making.

I've got about 35kg of apples and about 7kg of pears ready for juicing.
Apples chosen are granny smiths, fujis, red delicious & some very small and quite "sharp" for want of another word apples sold as "childrens apples"

I juiced about a litres worth of the apples and a couple of pears and tasted the juice. Very nice I must say. A little sweet but that should ferment out. I was thinking that I will juice the fruit add some vanilla pods, some cinnamon and some LDME and set it to ferment with Wyeast 4766.

Couple of questions - is there any harm in splitting the batch and trying different yeasts and blending them back after fermentation has completed? I thought I wouldn't mind trying some made with the natural yeast some with the 4766 yeast and some with a Safale US-05 yeast and then consider blending. Plus its a way of experimenting with what yeasts bring to the ciders.

How long (roughly) does it take for cider to completely ferment? I've used the Oztops in the past to make cider and thats very fast but from what I'm reading it takes quite a while for cider to ferment properly.

Also does any one see any major flaws with my "recipe" for my cider?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

Cheers,
Kirk

 

[pokedad]

My question is this, what sort of storage time you think this needs, before I can sample this bad boy....

Well a small update on my recipe and progress. I've drunk a few bottles of this. It's a bit young. As previously mentioned the carbonation is light right now. It tastes suprisingly drinkable, I really wuite like it. It's a little tart and dry for my taste. Next batch I am going to add some Lactose maybe 200 grams or so. I've been thinking about what to add to spice it up a bit, and the answer is nothing really, I like it the way it tastes. I am going to put down another batch of it today maybe a couple of sticks of cinnamon and lactose, that's it. Oh and use the proper cider yeast.

Lesson learnt was, at roughly 10% alch don't put it in 750's. Anymore than two and I feel like I have to go lie down for a while. I've got some 330ml, so I'll use those.

 

[manticle]

Bottling mine in a bit. Just bulk primed.

There's still a slight odour when the lid is off but the smell has dissipated considerably since a week ago so hopefully some time in the bottles makes it go away all together.

 

[MHB]

Can someone explain the benefit of putting Apples (cored sliced or otherwise) in to a cider?



I don't believe you would extract much from below the first fraction of a millimetre in from the exposed surface much better surely to juice the apple to get all the goodness out.



On the use of "Malt Extract" in cider, it can help the ferment along; pure juice is deficient in most of the trace elements and a lot of the other cofactors that help yeast to thrive, malt contains everything yeast needs.

I have always used a bit of yeast energiser (the complete yeast nutrient, not just DAP).

With a bit of malt or energiser, I always get a good clean ferment that's over in less than a week.



Yesterday I was down dropping off a pallet load of cubes to get filled with Cider Juice from an orchard that grows proper cider apples.

I git to taste a real cider apple, how to describe it?



Can you imagine chewing mushy cardboard that is both sweet and sour at the same time, with a big hit of tannin?

Not at all like any apple I have ever tasted before but I am really looking forward to the brewing this when the juice gets back.



It was also great to get a look at a real cider making operation.



MHB

 

[mattcarty]

My recipe is ~20L of Berri Apple Juice and 4766 Wyeast smacker.

Fantastic and very simple

i have this brew in the fermenter as we speak for the misses, should be ready to bottle in a few days. from taste tests of the SG reading samples it doesnt taste too bad and im not normally a fan of ciders,

cheers
carty

 

[cdbrown]

The kegged cider took a bit of a hammering on saturday. It's not my type of drink, but everyone loved it being a dry cider. Even had one of my beer drinking mates getting stuck into it for most of the afternoon. The brew was so simple and straight forward that I'll make sure to keep making this as the keg runs out.

 

[pdilley]

Does anyone know how long the blackrock kit should take at about 24 degrees?
I've got one brewing at the moment and it's been about 2 and 1/2 weeks, 1012 but with quite a bit of foam still at the surface.
just the kit and 1.5 kg of plain sugar and about 400ml of cascade raspberry syrup.

I have the Blackrock bottled in the cupboard carbonating up. I don't think I'm a fan of it from the little taste test I did while bottling, considering the price I paid at the LHBS I'd rather do my own all apple juice or pear/apple juice must mixture.

That said I keep a brew diary on everything except, you guessed it, the Blackrock. But I am sure it fermented out before the time on the tin (mine is tossed, so if you read 2 weeks, I was done a couple days before then.

I'll see how this one tasted after the carbonation is done and its chilled, but I have a gut feeling you really need to shrink the brew size to keep any flavour, mine seemed lacking in that department.

I used the kit yeast and supplied no additional adjunct juices/LME etc. outside of the recommended additions on the tin.

Cheers,
Brewer Pete

 

[davewaldo]

Don't be in a rush to toss it down the drain though if it doesn't taste good in a few weeks (not that you would...).

I once made a Cider (a long time ago now) which tasted AWEFUL when I was bottling it. It had a bad, slow fermentation.

Anyways, to cut a long story short, after 3 months in the bottle it tasted quite good. Very similar to cheap commercial cider, so it wasn't great. But all the nasty flavour disappeared....

 

[pdilley]

Don't be in a rush to toss it down the drain though if it doesn't taste good in a few weeks (not that you would...).

I once made a Cider (a long time ago now) which tasted AWEFUL when I was bottling it. It had a bad, slow fermentation.

Anyways, to cut a long story short, after 3 months in the bottle it tasted quite good. Very similar to cheap commercial cider, so it wasn't great. But all the nasty flavour disappeared....

I'll keep it, no worries. I'll give it a fair go. No nasty off flavours, just what I would consider a rather weak flavour of apples in general :blink:

 

[manticle]

I'll keep it, no worries. I'll give it a fair go. No nasty off flavours, just what I would consider a rather weak flavour of apples in general :blink:

I would say the black rock could do with a flavour boost but it's alright for a straight kit. The two that I've done came out reasonably dry. It's on a par with a mercury (not shabby but not great, not strongbow but not aspall etc etc)

I'm also looking for more of an apple flavour which is what led to my recent fresh apples, perservative free apple juice and kit experiment. Bottled on the weekend, smelling slightly funny. Hopefully that dissiptes. The next one I do, I may ditch the potassium metabisulphite and take the risk with the apple yeasts.

 

[Verbyla]

I'm doing a cider at the moment. Do you think its important or is a good improvement to use cinnamon sticks?