Cider Recipes

[barls]

im thinking about doing a small batch of cider. im thinking 4L of apple juice, 350g of honey and about 500g of coopers brew sugar. im planning on harvesting some of the yeast from the cider kit im brewing at the moment which is a wine yeast. i also have some yeast nutrient to add as well.

 

[Stuster]

Sounds good barls. You could also just use more honey, no brewing sugar, and you will be making a cyser. (I am yet to make one, but have read about them on some of the US sites and it is in my to-brew list.)

Just make sure the juice is preservative free.

Cheers

 

[Airgead]

im thinking about doing a small batch of cider. im thinking 4L of apple juice, 350g of honey and about 500g of coopers brew sugar. im planning on harvesting some of the yeast from the cider kit im brewing at the moment which is a wine yeast. i also have some yeast nutrient to add as well.

[post="103207"][/post]​

barls

You might find you don't need the sugar. Straight apple juice usualy has a gravity of around 40 so you are looking at 4-5% just with that. It will ferment out pretty dry, esprcially with a wine yeast.

Depending on the juice you may not have enough acid to make a really good cider (bit like an underhopped beer) so a dash of citric or tartaric to bring it up a bit may be worth while. Can't remember the recommended ppm off the top of my head. I'll look it up if you are interested.

I have been using the austro vino cider kits from Ibrew (no affiliation and all that) which are very good. They are made from cider apples which means they have enough natural acid to make a good cider without additions.

Adding honey does indeed turn it into a cyser and very nice they are too. I did one last year with 4l apple juice and 1kg honey aiming for about 10% alcohol in the finished product. A cold snap caused my yeast to finish early and I couldn't rouse them which left it with a FG of 12 which was way too sweet for what I wanted. I fortified it with a bottle of brandy to bring it up to 20% and it makes a very nice after dinner liquer.

I'm planning on doing another one later this year. With a better yeast.

Cheers
Dave

 

[GMK]

TRy a 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of Tartaric acid - can also add 1/4 to 1/2 of grape Tanin - will give it a little more bite.

I would also add some granny smith apples - decored and cut into eights.
Pinot Noir wine yeast is good - so is wyeast cider yeast.
Also - some Dark Brown sugar - 50 to 100gms works well.

Hope this helps.

 

[Pumpy]

Barls making cider is not so easy, however if you can youse 40% pear juice you will get pleasant result ,I used just juice Apple & pear juice which was on special at the time .

YOu want to get some residual sweetness so use an ale yeast add half a kilo of dried malt and a cup ful of minced sultanas this is to give the yeast some nutrients that the apple juice just dont have and will give your cider some body a kilo of fresh Grannie smiths wont hurt .

Dont use champagene yeast as it eat up all the sugar and you want some residual sweetness.

My missus likes Strongbow dry and whilst it was no where near Strongbow it was higlhy drinkable refreshing and clear it takes a little time to ferment and condition in the bottle so be patient .

Pumpy

 

[Pumpy]

Barls I an not a great honey fan, personally it does not need it you will find the original gravity quite high and i dont think it will be authentic with honey in leave out the sugar too.

Pumpy

 

[deebee]

At Vlad the Pale Alers brewday last Saturday Asher pulled out a bottle of cider, easily the nicest I have ever tasted. It was also a small batch and also had some malt extract in it.

I don't drink cider but this was very good. I was meaning to ask him if he ever wrote down that recipe, especially the yeast, and here's a perfect opportunity.

Asher?

 

[barls]

barls

You might find you don't need the sugar. Straight apple juice usualy has a gravity of around 40 so you are looking at 4-5% just with that. It will ferment out pretty dry, esprcially with a wine yeast.

Depending on the juice you may not have enough acid to make a really good cider (bit like an underhopped beer) so a dash of citric or tartaric to bring it up a bit may be worth while. Can't remember the recommended ppm off the top of my head. I'll look it up if you are interested.

I have been using the austro vino cider kits from Ibrew (no affiliation and all that) which are very good. They are made from cider apples which means they have enough natural acid to make a good cider without additions.

Adding honey does indeed turn it into a cyser and very nice they are too. I did one last year with 4l apple juice and 1kg honey aiming for about 10% alcohol in the finished product. A cold snap caused my yeast to finish early and I couldn't rouse them which left it with a FG of 12 which was way too sweet for what I wanted. I fortified it with a bottle of brandy to bring it up to 20% and it makes a very nice after dinner liquer.

I'm planning on doing another one later this year. With a better yeast.

Cheers
Dave

cheers mate ill look to see what gravity i have before i start adding things. i could change the sugar for some light malt but im thinking that the honey is definitely going in as its too small to brew my beers with. hey dave i would like to know how many ppm its suppose to be. ill stick to the wine yeast as i had a cider kit that the yeast didnt kick and put safale in it i couldnt drink it it was like a syrup even cut with soda water it was undrinkable. i might also pm vlad and try to get his recipe

 

[ausdb]

TRy a 1/4 to 1/2 teaspoon of Tartaric acid - can also add 1/4 to 1/2 of grape Tanin - will give it a little more bite.

I would also add some granny smith apples - decored and cut into eights.
Pinot Noir wine yeast is good - so is wyeast cider yeast.
Also - some Dark Brown sugar - 50 to 100gms works well.

Hope this helps.

[post="103251"][/post]​

Gotta disagree on the wyeast cider yeast, too dry

Also be careful with the dark sugar, I used some dark palm sugar and after adding it to the fermenter decided to have a taste of some thta was leftover. At that point I realised I should have chosen something else as it had a burnt caramelly flavour that took 6 months to age out of the cider, at which time the cider was tasting quite nice but the 3 gallon keg was empty as I had been forcing myself to sample it every week to see if it was becoming drinkable!!

I have since been kncking out drinkable oztops ciders which my beter half will actually drink. I do have a sweet mead yeast as well to try which is supposed to work well for ciders too.

 

[Uncle Fester]

I have been recommended to go AA (All Apple, instead of AG) for my next Cider.

My LHBS has guided me to a local orchardist who sells fresh crushed apple juice by the 20 litre. I figure, one of the aforementioned cider friendly yeasts, and off you go. Maybe a little Lactose if you want to do a sweet cider.

20 litres of juice sells for $48

Going to give it a go when brewing temps have dropped a degree or 2. B)

Until then, it's Ales, Porters and stouts for me! :beerbang:

M

 

[Airgead]

hey dave i would like to know how many ppm its suppose to be.

The recommended range for cider is between 5 and 12ppm (1ppm = 1g tartaric acid in 1l). The sweeter your end product the higher the acid needs to be to balance it.

Natural apple juice tends to come in at around 1-3ppm depending on the apples used. Real cider apples come in around 5-6ppm.

I check mine with an acid test kit from the LHBS the adjust as necessary.

Cheers
Dave

Edit - fixed typos

 

[barls]

cheers dave for the info

 

[barls]

ok just looked at what i have and i have 4.8L of berri apple and pear juice. so what i want to know is if i have to boil it or if i can just throw it all together and hope for the best

 

[Stuster]

You don't need to boil it IMO.

 

[barls]

cool thats what i thought i might just mix it up this arvo

 

[barls]

i did mix it all together and it came to a gravity of 1090 and has been sitting down there since the 20th