How to get started in Cider. The definitive(ish) guide to beginner&#39

[fuseo]

Thanks Dave!

Good info there. Ultimately I am a dry cider drinker but wanted to ask the question for the sake of the Mrs as she will undoubtedly not like it too dry.

 

[Airgead]

I dunno... my Mrs likes it dry (that sounds so wrong...)

I should have added that you can use an unfermentable sugar like lactose (unless your mrs is lactose intolerant) or use an artificial sweetener (unless you think they taste foul).

Sweet cider is a challenge.

 

[Not For Horses]

Sweet cider is a challenge.

Making it AND drinking it.
Yuck!
Cider is dry. The abomination that is Rekorderlig is not cider.

 

[Airgead]

Ahh yes... but what about a sweet Normandy style cider? Made by keeving the juice to retard the fermentation?

Cider is a broad church and we must accept all comers. Except rekordelig. That really is muck.

 

[manticle]

returdalig

 

[Wilkensone]

Just started my first cider attempt ~5l fermenting at 18 degrees.
Berry preservative free juice
Yeast nutrient
MJ cider yeast rehydrated.
OG was 1.046

I'm no expert but seems to have kicked off after just 3 hours



(Not the best pic!)

OT these 5l demi's seem a great way to test out small batches!

 

[fuseo]

Looks the goods to me mate! :beerdrink:

 

[Yeastfridge]

I've wanted to brew a really good real cider (dry, wild ferment, non-back sweetened) for a while now and I think maybe this is the year for me.

I spoke to the maker of my favourite cider a few weeks back and I was surprised to hear he wasn't using cider apples. It's very dry, appley, refreshing and somewhere around 7.5%. Can't seem to find it online, only a link to his wines. He told me he makes the cider with a mix of all kinds of dessert apples, leaves the pressed juice on the pulp for a day or so (a process similar to leaving wine "on skins" to get a bit of tannin and tartness in there), then wild ferments in an oak barrel.

I could do the skin contact but at this point in my life don't have space for any barrels.

Done anything like this?

 

[Wilkensone]

I haven't but I'd be keen to hear some feedback too!


Wilkens

 

[TimT]

Done anything like this?

Hah, there was that failed mead attempt of mine where I just chucked in the honey and water with cut up bits of apples and oranges. Oh, foolish, foolish, foolish me! If there was wild yeast it didn't have any enthusiasm at all about the fact that I'd just chucked it in a gigantic vat of yeast-food. As a consequence an acetobacter soon found a happy residence in the barrel....

Next time I try a trick like that with mead, I might try something rather different -
reserve a small portion of must first;
make sure to add some sort of nutrient to keep the yeast happy; honey on its own just ain't going to be good enough;
when there are definitive signs of a yeast fermentation, chuck in the rest of the brew.

Cider, however, is different: I've heard that just by pressing the juice out of the apples and then leaving it to itself a natural yeast fermentation will kick off. Well, maybe: if we collect enough apples this year for cider I might give it a go.

 

[Yeastfridge]

I got 7 litres of already-beginning-to-ferment Nudie apple juice in swollen plastic bottles free last Sunday, put a couple in the freezer, put a couple into a 2L glass flask with a peel of plum just in case (apparently that white coat on fruit skin is yeast). It dropped from 1.050 to 1.032 in a week and has some nice looking yeast sediment on the bottom and a very light yeasty ring on top. Hopefully with time it'll completely ferment out. No airlock on top but bubbles of CO2 keep rising up out of it, you can see them going. If it tastes good I was thinking of adding it to the big batch.
If it's bubbling from the bottom does that mean it's lager yeast?

 

[Airgead]

Apple skins do have quite a bit of yeast on them so getting a wild fermentation started isn't too hard. It is a lottery though. Some will turn out great. others not so much. For me its too much work pressing and crushing to risk it. I'll stick with adding yeast.

When crushing/pressing, put the whole apple through, skins cores, stems and all. that will give you that little bit of tannin. If you need more yuo can always look at adding some black tea or some grape tannin.

 

[TimT]

Oh yeah, and why would you peel the apples before? That's just adding another couple of hours work!

 

[Not For Horses]

Oh yeah, and why would you peel the apples before? That's just adding another couple of hours work!

Good lord that would be horrible!
We're doing about 300kgs of apples in a few weeks. The thought peeling them makes me feel bad inside.

Going to do a split batch, half with a cider or ale yeast and half with a natural ferment.

 

[Greg.L]

Leaving the pulp for a day before pressing is fairly common practice, it is helpful if you are keeving. If you are not keeving I can't see the point of it, though it certainly doesn't hurt. They macerate perry that way but it is actually to reduce the bitterness, I think it helps to precipitate out the tannins in some high tannin perry pears.

 

[Tahoose]

Made a small batch cider the other day.

8ltrs
7 ltrs Aldi Apple Juice
500g brown sugar dissolved in 500mls of water
2 tea bags soaked in 200ml of boiled water

Fermenting at ambient temps with Nottingham ale yeast.

OG 1.056

Will report back when finished

 

[Yeastfridge]

Curious to hear how the tea goes. Thinking about juicing some pomegranates for tannin and acidity

 

[Tahoose]

I'm hoping I get a little bit of tannin from the tea, and maybe a little bit of residual sweetness from the brown sugar, although I should look at how fermentable brown sugar is I suppose.

I made the recipe to these specs so it would be easy to double or triple if it goes ok.

 

[Mutaneer]

Hi all,
I'm new to cider making and am up to my 3rd batch now, although none have come to drinking stage yet. I'm aiming for 8 weeks or more conditioning if i can resist the temptation.

Being from Tassie I have access to some great local apples, and a heap of great craft cider-makers who's brains I've been picking at every opportunity.

I've just been keeping it completely simple at the moment with fresh unpastuerised juice, two different strains of yeast (DV10, EC1118) to experiment with and some go-ferm nutrient.,
My aim is a simple, dry, carbonated cider.

Curently the juice has been 80% Jonagold and 20% Fuji
But I believe the new season juice coming through will have a mixture of red and green delicious, although no less than 50% Jonagold
If anyone has some thoughts on juice/ fruit selection, then I'm all ears. We have a huge variety of Apples produced down here and a number of different suppliers I can get it from.
Currently seeing an Initial SG at around 1.06. and 18'c.

Anyway,
Started off doing 2 x 5L batches, one of each yeast and just using pure white CSR sugar for bottle conditioning
My next 2x 5L batches were still one of each yeast, but come bottling, I've split them each and used white sugar in half and brown sugar in the other.
My hope is that may impart some of the caramel flavours

And my third batch which was thrown together only yesterday is simply 23L using only the DV10 yeast
I've found the DV10 gives a smoother and sweeter flavour, and on the second batch even had a slight "creamy" taste after 3 weeks racking.

 

[Not For Horses]

I had good success last year with 50/50 Jonagold and Granny.
This year I've got Jonathon, Jonagold, Granny and Pink Lady and maybe some Fuji later on if the first 150L from those 4 doesn't suffice...
They would be my pick of the commercially available apples down here.
If you could find someone growing Coxs Orange then that would be great. I had a feeling that there might be some around in Huonville somewhere.

I've tried the brown sugar at bottling. It makes extremely close to zero difference to the flavour.