Easy Cider...

[Airgead]

Thanks Mate. Lucky, here in Canada, we use the metric system as well, so I'll feel fully at home with your measurements.

Cheers

Ahh I thought I recognised the accent... I do a lot of work with some Canadian guys some of whom are into brewing. If they struggle to get ingredients locally they find the big US based online brewshops are great (morebeer/norther brewer). They ship no problem to Canada.

Welcome to the forum.

Cheers
Dave

 

[zoidbergmerc]

wow. Just watched that craigmans channel for about 6 mins....

It's.... It's interesting... if you're nine.

 

[Hatchy]

Does anyone know how fermentable various fruit juices are & if they go any good in a cider? The reason I ask is that the 1st cider I did for SWMBO turned ouf pretty dry even with 500g lactose. I'd planned on using a percentage of pear juice for a cider because it's not as fermentable as apple juice but the shop only had it in the unpastuerised bottles in the fridge & there's wild yeast in the unpastuerised juice. I was bottling at home & had sent SWMBO to the shop for the juice so I didn't get to check out what they did & didn't have. We were a bit limited with our options as I'd already smacked the 4766 & I'd never used a liquid yeast before so I wasn't sure how long it would be good for. We ended up with 9L apple juice & 14L "paradise punch" (46% pineapple, 39.9% apple, 10% orange, 2.5% mango & .5% mango). Is this likely to be dryer than the original 1 I did with 21L apple juice, 500g lactose & e118 wine yeast?

I don't actually drink cider but if I can make 1 that SWMBO is happy with then it'll help with my efforts to turn more of the house into a brewery. Does anyone know what temp 4766 should be fermented at? I just chucked the fermenter in the bath where it should stay around 20 for the next couple of weeks.

 

[Screwtop]

Welcome to our Canadian brewing brother. Lets hope we see some refererence in his teaching to where he accesses information.
Craigman, many of us here on AHB are dedicated to the propagation of "accurate and correct" brewing information and techniques, and can become a little (well maybe a fcuking lot) antsy about the dissemination of dodgy info. Not saying this is what you do, just a warning that the brewers on here will call a spade a spade. We all want to see brewing/cider craft advance and help other learn to produce good quality beverages, no matter how basic or advanced their equipment and ingredients. Some of us can seem a little intense and full on, it's just the passion, hope you understand.

My simple cider, started out trying to emulate a Cheeky Vimto.

18L Aldi preservative free Apple Juice
2L Aldi preservative free Grape Juice
2L Aldi preservative free Blackcurrant or Apple/Blackcurrent Juice

Tip into fermenter
OG Around 1.046
add 1 pkt Safale S-04 English Ale
Fermentation will be finished after around 1 week
FG around 1.010
Keg/Bottle after 2 weeks

Most love it, including the womenfolk


Screwy

 

[Screwtop]

Does anyone know how fermentable various fruit juices are & if they go any good in a cider? The reason I ask is that the 1st cider I did for SWMBO turned ouf pretty dry even with 500g lactose. I'd planned on using a percentage of pear juice for a cider because it's not as fermentable as apple juice but the shop only had it in the unpastuerised bottles in the fridge & there's wild yeast in the unpastuerised juice. I was bottling at home & had sent SWMBO to the shop for the juice so I didn't get to check out what they did & didn't have. We were a bit limited with our options as I'd already smacked the 4766 & I'd never used a liquid yeast before so I wasn't sure how long it would be good for. We ended up with 9L apple juice & 14L "paradise punch" (46% pineapple, 39.9% apple, 10% orange, 2.5% mango & .5% mango). Is this likely to be dryer than the original 1 I did with 21L apple juice, 500g lactose & e118 wine yeast?

I don't actually drink cider but if I can make 1 that SWMBO is happy with then it'll help with my efforts to turn more of the house into a brewery. Does anyone know what temp 4766 should be fermented at? I just chucked the fermenter in the bath where it should stay around 20 for the next couple of weeks.

Hatchy, attenuation can be varied using Lactose or the use of different yeast strains.

Screwy

 

[guerd87]

wow. Just watched that craigmans channel for about 6 mins....

It's.... It's interesting... if you're nine.

Or if your just starting out like me. I seen a beer brewing kit in coles and thought it would be good to get into, 10 mins of searching when i got home and was learning stuff from craigs videos, been watching him since then and enjoy them.

Screwy, that cider sounds pretty good and I have been wanting to try a cider. After you bottle it does it clear up or is it clear from fermentrer? How long would it last in bottles?

Other thing i guess is should I rack a cider for a certain time before bottling? Or just let it sit in first fermenter?

 

[CraigMan]

wow. Just watched that craigmans channel for about 6 mins....

It's.... It's interesting... if you're nine.

I have over 4000 subs. I'm sure none of them are nine, but whatever floats your boat dude.

 

[CraigMan]

Welcome to our Canadian brewing brother. Lets hope we see some refererence in his teaching to where he accesses information.
Craigman, many of us here on AHB are dedicated to the propagation of "accurate and correct" brewing information and techniques, and can become a little (well maybe a fcuking lot) antsy about the dissemination of dodgy info. Not saying this is what you do, just a warning that the brewers on here will call a spade a spade. We all want to see brewing/cider craft advance and help other learn to produce good quality beverages, no matter how basic or advanced their equipment and ingredients. Some of us can seem a little intense and full on, it's just the passion, hope you understand.



Screwy

I understand. I'm just trying to bring people into the world of brewing who would normally not have done it. I've been labelled a "Concocter", and I'm proud of it. I don't believe that there's any wrong way of doing things, as long as there is fun involved and nobody ends up sick or poisoned. I also understand that some people take this stuff very seriously, like it's a religion. I tend to treat it more like an experiment that never ends. To me, as long as people are enjoying making and drinking what they make, it's all good. I don't care who gets out of joint. We all have choices and there's no law against concocting. Cheers.

 

[Hatchy]

Hatchy, attenuation can be varied using Lactose or the use of different yeast strains.

Screwy

Lactose is on the shopping list for my next visit to the LHBS. I just had a look at the wyeast site & they list attenuation for 4766 as "na". I'm happy to chuck some lactose in future ciders, I was just wondering if there's fruit juice that has non fermentable sugars that would give some sweetness without using lactose. Different yeast is definately an option but from what I've read on here most yeast will chew through apple juice & leave behind nothing but alcohol.

 

[manticle]

Various things you can do and use for sweeter cider but to my mind, if you're not lactose intolerant, it's the easiest and if you add it in at the beginning there's no 'milk'f lavour in case that's concerning you. No idea about backsweetening as I've never done it but I know I wondered about milky cider when I first tried it.

 

[Hatchy]

I'm guessing that as lactose isn't fermentable then there's no danger of bottle bombs if I put a couple of grams of it in a couple of bottles? I'll see how SWMBO feels about milky cider.

 

[manticle]

Pretty unfermentable but check before you do if there's any fermentability as it may alter you priming rates. I don't think you'll get a lot of milk. Taste some dry and see if it's just sweet or if it's like sucking the teat of the sweetest cow in the meadow.

 

[barneyb]

See Franko's recipe here:

http://www.aussiehomebrewer.com/forum//ind...st&p=398723

That's the best ive seen (and tasted) so far and it really is easy as pie. If you want to up it a notch, throw in a stick of vanilla bean & 2 - 3 sticks of cinnamon quills.

I'm planning to give this a shot tomorrow for my first cider ever. Is there anything special to know about priming a cider? Is it just the same as beer - especially regarding the amounts etc?

Also temps: what temp do you ferment a cider at? If my LHBS has Wyeast 4766 Cider Yeast I plan on using it but I don't think they do, in that case I'll use champagne yeast.

 

[Airgead]

I'm planning to give this a shot tomorrow for my first cider ever. Is there anything special to know about priming a cider? Is it just the same as beer - especially regarding the amounts etc?

Also temps: what temp do you ferment a cider at? If my LHBS has Wyeast 4766 Cider Yeast I plan on using it but I don't think they do, in that case I'll use champagne yeast.

The recommended temps for 4766 are 16-24. I tend to ferment right at the low end of the scale.

Cheers
Dave

 

[Hatchy]

The 4766 is pretty serious stuff. I've got krausen bubbling out through the airlock at the moment. I'm glad that fermenter is in the bath.

 

[Airgead]

The 4766 is pretty serious stuff. I've got krausen bubbling out through the airlock at the moment. I'm glad that fermenter is in the bath.

It does take off a bit. I'll need to scrub down the inside of my fermentation fridge after my current batch is done. And the air locks will need a good soaking.

Cheers
Dave

 

[jzani]

Never brewed a cider before so I thought that rather than taking anyone's word for it, I would have a go at a mother of an experiment. Just put down 8 different ciders changing everything in the "easy cider" from the juice to fermentables, cinnamon, vanilla, yeasts and nutrient.

Minimum brew size was 3L, which I hope wasn't too small (part of the fun, I guess), but I have everything up to a 10L brew going. It seems to have been a bit slow to kick off in some of them (four days or so), but everything is rocking along now.

Will be lining up a number of guinea pigs once everything has been bottled and conditioned, so I will post the results when done.

As long as SWMBO likes some of it and grants her blessing on further home brew purchases!

Juz

 

[Hatchy]

It does take off a bit. I'll need to scrub down the inside of my fermentation fridge after my current batch is done. And the air locks will need a good soaking.

Cheers
Dave

I was going to replace my airlock, I'm not sure if the 1 that's in there at the moment will ever be clean again. I suppose there's no harm in soaking it in some sod perc though.

 

[Airgead]

I was going to replace my airlock, I'm not sure if the 1 that's in there at the moment will ever be clean again. I suppose there's no harm in soaking it in some sod perc though.

This is why I use the good 3 piece ones...

 

[barneyb]

I put down a 1/2 batch of Frankos recipe last night. Stupidly I didn't know there was a difference between White Labs liquid yeast and Wyeast liquid yeast (I've alway used dried yeasts in the past) so just asked my LHBS for "liquid cider yeast" and ended up with white labs WLP775 English Cider Yeast.
http://www.whitelabs.com/beer/strains_wlp775.html

Still I imagine it will be better than just using champagne yeast. Has anyone tried it before? I also attempted cultivating it which I have also never done before. A lot of firsts for me!

This morning it was bubbling away happily, albeit a bit slow compared to what I read about it's Wyeast cousin (I'm sure it only being a 1/2 batch attributes to this).

On the recipe it says:
Ferment for 8-12 days then chill for 2 weeks at 2-3 degrees or cold filter
Keg and enjoy

Now I'll be bottle conditioning this one so is it still worth cold conditioning, then bottle condition then drink? I've never cold conditioned either so new on that one.