Simple Cider

[petesbrew]

G'day guys,
SWMBO has commissioned me to brew a dry cider. As far as cider goes, we're megaswill drinkers, so let's just say strongbow dry, and aim up from there.
Been doing a bit of searching the last 30min and so far have the following.

23L Apple juice
Champagne yeast.
Anything else I need?
How long does cider take to ferment? Best temperature?
Cheers
Pete

 

[manticle]

Are you kegging or bottling? If bottling you might need a bit of lactose. I added lactose to my recent cider done with white wine yeast. Still drier than a three oaks dry (and quite nice to my taste buds).

I reckon it's best to ferment low - 12-14 and treat it a bit like a lager. The wine/champagne yeast should be able to cope with those temps. Obviously lower it takes longer. Cold condition it for at least a week or more and it's drinkable sooner.

 

[petesbrew]

Are you kegging or bottling? If bottling you might need a bit of lactose. I added lactose to my recent cider done with white wine yeast. Still drier than a three oaks dry (and quite nice to my taste buds).

I reckon it's best to ferment low - 12-14 and treat it a bit like a lager. The wine/champagne yeast should be able to cope with those temps. Obviously lower it takes longer. Cold condition it for at least a week or more and it's drinkable sooner.

Cheers Manticle,
Haven't got a brewfridge, but with a bit of effort, I can get it down to about 18c with freezer bricks & a dark room.
I'll be bottling these. Is the priming rate the same as for beer?
Pete

 

[manticle]

18 will be fine. I like to ferment low but it seems to give a nice clean result and those wine yeasts allow that range. Cidermaking articles I've read have suggested a low ferment but 18 will do it.

The reason I asked about kegging is if you keg, you can stop the ferment when you hit the desired level of sweetness. If you bottle, like me, then you can't and champagne and wine yeast will take you to 1000 which is absolutely bone dry. I'd recommend 200-500g lactose in there as well.

Keep all the juice bottles, fill them with water and freeze them. They make great cooling insulators - it's how I chill my AG wort to pitching temp and how I keep my lager and cider temps down.

 

[petesbrew]

18 will be fine. I like to ferment low but it seems to give a nice clean result and those wine yeasts allow that range. Cidermaking articles I've read have suggested a low ferment but 18 will do it.

The reason I asked about kegging is if you keg, you can stop the ferment when you hit the desired level of sweetness. If you bottle, like me, then you can't and champagne and wine yeast will take you to 1000 which is absolutely bone dry. I'd recommend 200-500g lactose in there as well.

Keep all the juice bottles, fill them with water and freeze them. They make great cooling insulators - it's how I chill my AG wort to pitching temp and how I keep my lager and cider temps down.

Thanks for the tips, mate.
Looking forward to getting it started. I'll start searching for specials on juice.

 

[Greg Lawrence]

Thanks for the tips, mate.
Looking forward to getting it started. I'll start searching for specials on juice.

Hi Pete

I found that the Aldi jiuce was fairly cheap. Under $1/L from memory.
I recently did a 24L batch with champagne yeast and a bit of nutrient.
It took roughly 4-5 weeks in the fermenter and ended up very dry (way dryer than strongbrow dry), so when I kegged it, I added 2L of apple juice to 17L of cider. Turned out pretty good.
Guess this would not be an option for bottling.
I'll bring a bottle along next Pizza night (you may need to remind me).
I have also done the above cider with 1/2 Kg of LDME. SWMBO didnt like this one as much.


Greg

 

[petesbrew]

Hi Pete

I found that the Aldi jiuce was fairly cheap. Under $1/L from memory.
I recently did a 24L batch with champagne yeast and a bit of nutrient.
It took roughly 4-5 weeks in the fermenter and ended up very dry (way dryer than strongbrow dry), so when I kegged it, I added 2L of apple juice to 17L of cider. Turned out pretty good.
Guess this would not be an option for bottling.
I'll bring a bottle along next Pizza night (you may need to remind me).
I have also done the above cider with 1/2 Kg of LDME. SWMBO didnt like this one as much.


Greg

Cheers Greg
You brought that LDME one the other month didn't you?

 

[Greg Lawrence]

I think that was the one, but not too sure.

 

[petesbrew]

So is champagne yeast the way to go?
I have a spare satchet of US-05, heaps of leftover coopers yeasts (don't we all?), and assorted liquid cultures.

 

[manticle]

I'd go champagne or 05. Champagne will dry it out a lot more, 05 less so. I'm also interested in trying as lager yeast with my next one.

 

[petesbrew]

I'd go champagne or 05. Champagne will dry it out a lot more, 05 less so. I'm also interested in trying as lager yeast with my next one.

Cheers. I'll flip a coin closer to the brewdate.

 

[crinos]

I fear my cider might be screwed.... after bottling the lot, I found the rubber grommet from an airlock sitting in the yeastcake... absolutely no idea how it got there...

Been in the bottle for 2 weeks, just cracked one open... and I'm not sure if it's going to be ok... there were certainly a heap of sulphur smells when fermenting, and I'm definitely getting some in the glass too, and some other minor off flavours

I might leave it for another couple of weeks, test it again and see if the flavour has improved(might just be too young!) and if not, tip it and get my bottles back!

Almost zero carbonation in this bottle for some reason, but on the upside, it's crystal clear and not as dry as I thought it was going to be, given the huge drop in gravity(I think it was 1046-1002).

Strong as hell though, I forgot to grab lunch before trying it, and it's gone straight to my head. Must eat something to make the fuzziness go away...

 

[Stagwa]

Strong as hell though, I forgot to grab lunch before trying it, and it's gone straight to my head. Must eat something to make the fuzziness go away...

NOOOO! Don't eat anything, just enjoy the fuzziness!

 

[manticle]

I fear my cider might be screwed.... after bottling the lot, I found the rubber grommet from an airlock sitting in the yeastcake... absolutely no idea how it got there...

Been in the bottle for 2 weeks, just cracked one open... and I'm not sure if it's going to be ok... there were certainly a heap of sulphur smells when fermenting, and I'm definitely getting some in the glass too, and some other minor off flavours

I might leave it for another couple of weeks, test it again and see if the flavour has improved(might just be too young!) and if not, tip it and get my bottles back!

Almost zero carbonation in this bottle for some reason, but on the upside, it's crystal clear and not as dry as I thought it was going to be, given the huge drop in gravity(I think it was 1046-1002).

Strong as hell though, I forgot to grab lunch before trying it, and it's gone straight to my head. Must eat something to make the fuzziness go away...

Cider often takes longer to age than beer (obviously dependent on beer) , sulphur is usual (and dissipates with time) and carbonation on one of my recent ones took at least 3 weeks. I can't imagine a rubber grommet will do too much unless it came from your bum. Don't be in a hurry to chuck it.

 

[komodo]

I had sulphur smells the first time I did a batch of cider.
I had read about adding copper sulphate to wine and cider to prevent this (apparently the copper adds some kind of nutrient for the yeast?)
Any way I wasnt game to try it but was speaking to a guy at work who makes distilled "water" and occasionally makes wine (has his on mini vineyard). He said that he was told to add a bit of sanitied copper pipe into the must to add enough nutrient to avoid most of the sulphur smell. IMO it works!

Cider is funny the way it goes to your legs straight away. I can knock back a couple of (about) 5.5% beers and not notice them. Give me two glasses of cider and I'm happy to grab hold of the bench - especially with "home brewed" cider.

 

[Peteoz77]

I have been brewing "Hard Cider" for a couple of years now, and I use Woolies or Aldi juice, 1 KG Dextrose, and Lalvin cider yeast. It finished pretty dry (.995 or so) and I keg it. It gets better with age. However, the initial firmentation takes at least 12 weeks! Leave it sit until it becomes clear.

 

[manticle]

I had sulphur smells the first time I did a batch of cider.
I had read about adding copper sulphate to wine and cider to prevent this (apparently the copper adds some kind of nutrient for the yeast?)
Any way I wasnt game to try it but was speaking to a guy at work who makes distilled "water" and occasionally makes wine (has his on mini vineyard). He said that he was told to add a bit of sanitied copper pipe into the must to add enough nutrient to avoid most of the sulphur smell. IMO it works!

Cider is funny the way it goes to your legs straight away. I can knock back a couple of (about) 5.5% beers and not notice them. Give me two glasses of cider and I'm happy to grab hold of the bench - especially with "home brewed" cider.

Fermenting low and 7+ days cold conditioning also helps (or at least the two batches I did that were done this way came out with no sulphur odour)

 

[crinos]

As luck would have it, I just inherited a working bar fridge which fits 20-ish longnecks, so I'll give the cider a couple of weeks in there and see how it goes. :icon_cheers:

 

[Tom909]

Hi everyone.

Sorry for dragging up this old thread, but i'm going to be brewing one of these over the next few weeks and was wondering how much to prime my cider with? I normally go with about 150g of dex for my ales, but i'm guessing a cider needs to be a bit higher? Anyone have any advice?

Thanks.

 

[manticle]

Personal taste entirely.

Cider doesn't need to be anything apart from what you want it to be.

I carb mine low (around 110-120 g per 20-ish L)