Simplest Cider

[vicelore]

So me and the my mate got it on tap tonight.. think we are stuffing something up with the force carbing as it seems pretty flatt. and didnt get the drop in presure on the reg that the instructions described but yea .. pretty good for a 1st attempt.

we are gonna back sweeten with either cherry or pear juice tommorow with the 1/4 of a empty keg we now have

Cheers Vice

 

[petesbrew]

Just gave the workmates a sample of mine then. Thumbs up. Looking forward to having this with Lunch on Christmas day.

 

[sirotilc]

Tried the first of my 'natural' coles Apple Juice and S04 cider tonight. Left it in 5L demijohns for about 2 months - I could still see fermentation. I ended up bottling last week as SWMBO was back in the country today. I really liked it - tart, appley - and with an interesting aftertaste that reminds me of a good champagne. Has anyone else tasted that particular aftertaste if they leave their cider on lees for that time?

 

[bum]

Good thing I didn't add sugar, it's now at 1.004, should have pulled it up at about 1.012 with some Pottasium Sorbate, might have to add something non fermentable to sweeten it a little. Next time I'll pull it up, wanted a low ABV cider for XMAS day.

Add apple juice on serving (or in the refrigerated keg). This will cut back the alc% and add some sweetness without detracting too much from the cidery qualities.

 

[user 14216]

Add some more to the total

23L of Apfelwein. 23L Aldi apple juice, 1Kg Dextrose, champagne yeast from brew your own at home.

My OG was 1092. It's been bubbling vigorously for a week at about 22C, I'm yet to invest in a fermenting fridge, but with the heat this summer, and how cold I know my brewspace gets, I probably will fairly soon, Chest freezer + Tempmate ftw!

 

[opposition]

As well as me....

Just put this down.

Ingredients:
------------
Amount Item Type % or IBU
0.15 kg Light Dry Extract (15.8 EBC) Dry Extract 100.00 %
2.40 l Apple/Pear Juice (Primary 3.0 weeks) Misc
18.00 l Apple Juice (Primary 3.0 weeks) Misc
1 Pkgs Safale US-05 (Fermentis #US-05) Yeast-Ale


Mash Schedule: None
Total Grain Weight: 4.54 kg
----------------------------


Notes:
------
Wooloworths Home Brand Apple Juice - 18L
Berri Apple & Pear Juice - 4.8L
150gm Light Dried Malt
6gms Yeast Nutrient
US-05
Ferment at 19C until FG 1008-1010

Looking forward to this.

Dean.

 

[431neb]

What a popular thread. Good one Pete. Thought I would share my experience thus-far.
2 15L Square cubes from Bunnings ( they fit in my esky).16 L Aldi apple juice2L Aldi cranberry juice.2L Aldi apple and black currant.Coopers leftover yeast. Ale yeast I suppose.
No nutrient.
Forgot the gravity so have assumed about 1.045 from my reading.Pitched my yeast starter after mixing and splitting the mix between the two cubes at 10L each.
Both formed a greasy looking pastel purple krausen. Weird after beer. This is my first "cider".
After 6 days the krausen started to drop away.
I should note her that the temp of the wort(?) was maintained at about 16 to 18 degrees after pitching into room temp juice.
Yesterday I siphoned(no taps on these suckers or hey don't fit into esky) one cube into the original Aldi bottles. The hydro reading was 1.016. It's sweet and tastes good, cloudy but clearing I think. Tat will put 'em at about 4.5% I think.
I'm leaving the bottles at ambient temps to carb a little then I'll store in the fridge. I also capped some in stubbies with a carbonation drop each and I'll keep a very close eye on them and refrigerate as soon as they reach a level I'm happy with.

I'm not going to store any of these they are for quaffing.
10 L remains in a cube to clear some more. Maybe do a dry cider carbonate and backsweeten if needed.
It's clear that this will be a workable drink for Summer.
There you have it . Very rough and ready but maybe enough to help others decide what to do.

 

[431neb]

What a popular thread. Good one Pete. Thought I would share my experience thus-far.
2 15L Square cubes from Bunnings ( they fit in my esky).16 L Aldi apple juice2L Aldi cranberry juice.2L Aldi apple and black currant.Coopers leftover yeast. Ale yeast I suppose.
No nutrient.
Forgot the gravity so have assumed about 1.045 from my reading.Pitched my yeast starter after mixing and splitting the mix between the two cubes at 10L each.
Both formed a greasy looking pastel purple krausen. Weird after beer. This is my first "cider".
After 6 days the krausen started to drop away.
I should note her that the temp of the wort(?) was maintained at about 16 to 18 degrees after pitching into room temp juice.
Yesterday I siphoned(no taps on these suckers or hey don't fit into esky) one cube into the original Aldi bottles. The hydro reading was 1.016. It's sweet and tastes good, cloudy but clearing I think. Tat will put 'em at about 4.5% I think.
I'm leaving the bottles at ambient temps to carb a little then I'll store in the fridge. I also capped some in stubbies with a carbonation drop each and I'll keep a very close eye on them and refrigerate as soon as they reach a level I'm happy with.

I'm not going to store any of these they are for quaffing.
10 L remains in a cube to clear some more. Maybe do a dry cider carbonate and backsweeten if needed.
It's clear that this will be a workable drink for Summer.
There you have it . Very rough and ready but maybe enough to help others decide what to do.

Update. Bottled 10 liters in the original bottles with no sugar and lo and behold they carbed enough to be a very nice drink. I bottled the other ten litres after racking previously and it's carbing slowly but I'm very pleased. They will be beutifully clear, with some residual sweetness and perfectly carbed I reckon. Will update again when testing resumes.

 

[drunkenmonkey]

started my first cider today, used a brigalow apple cider kit, seeing as the general consensus seems to be that brigalow kits suck i figured if i mess it up it wont matter as much, so i swapped the 14L of water for 5L of berri apple/pear and 9L of berri apple giving an OG of 1.076 now to wait

 

[bum]

What yeast did you use, drunkenmonkey? You're looking at an abv in the range that is known to kill most yeast. Depending on yeast choice and health, you may be looking at a brew that won't reach FG (might be something you're happy with) and won't carb in the bottle (might be something you're less happy with).

The above assumes your very high OG reading is correct - which looks likely if you have replaced all of the water with juice.

 

[drunkenmonkey]

what ever yeast brigalow put in the kit is what was used, if the yeast dies off leaving it sweet the ladies will be happy and i wont be to fussed, if it survives and comes out at the 9-10% mark we definately will be having a happy birthday party for my friend's 40th in feb.

as for carbonation problems from what i've seen from looking around the forums theres plenty of folks with nifty tips and tricks that might have a variety of suggestions on what to try.

and as i said before im not expecting much due to the kit brand so it'll be a learning experience at the least, plus it gives me something to mess with while my meads are bubbling away

 

[Tahoose]

Read this thread a few weeks ago and found it very informative, have put together one of the recipes found here and will see how it is in a few weeks.

Here's a big BUMP

The recipe was
12 Ltrs Aldi apple juice
8 Ltrs woolworths apple and pear
300 LDM + (700 ml water)
Wyeast 4766 cider
OG 1047

 

[Linz]

I had a go at cider for the first time after being inspired by Frankos Apple and pear cider....and been meaning to do it for ages

recipe was:

5 x 2.4lt Apple juice
4 x 2.4lt Apple and pear juice
3 x large Packham pears
8 x pink lady apples
1 x granny smith apple

fruit was stemmed, seeded and quartered then shredded in a food processor. Followed by being stewed on the stove top for approx 10 mins....

Mad Millies dry cider yeast used to ferment

poured 2 bottles of juice into sanitised fermenter and then added stewed fruit then emptied remaining bottles of juice then sprinkled dry yeast over the top and put into temp controlled fridge at 22oC for 10 days....last hydro reading was approx 1.010 but there was quite a bit of shredded fruit in the sample
bottled into champers bottles with the nominal homebrewers 'scoop' of raw sugar(it was in the sugar container at the time) and crown sealed......

now to see if Ive made weapons of mass destruction or something drinkable....

 

[manticle]

Might have a cooked apple flavour due to being stewed. Might be pleasant, might not be. See how it goes I guess but generally cider is made from juice from raw apples.

 

[Tahoose]

Was going to bottle the cider i mentioned a couple of posts ago today, but ater drinking a slab + of mercury draught as a music festival over the weekend the thought of bottling a batch of cider today was making me shudder.

I also have a cider which I previously bottled which was my very first attempt, brigalow can plus 22 ltrs of Aldi aplle juice wyeast 4677

came out with a bit of sweetness left but due to a mishap i stuffed my OG reading, thinki it is 7% ABV upwards, tastes a little bit like wine but not too bad for a first try i thought

 

[Linz]

Might have a cooked apple flavour due to being stewed. Might be pleasant, might not be. See how it goes I guess but generally cider is made from juice from raw apples.

...wanted to make sure the yeast got first go not the wild stuff on the fruit....thats the theory anyhoos

 

[431neb]

Had to laugh when I read through this thread and discovered some of my own posts from my early "cider" experiments. After experimenting with a myriad of supposed improvements, I continue to use a very similar method to what I started with.

20 l Aldi juice (some apple some apple and black' ) , 200 grams of dex', US05 or whatever is lying around - I should experiment more with yeast but I'm lazy - keg and backsweeten with Ribena or cherry cordial or similar.

So it's really an apple based drink. Hence the "cider".

Cheap, easy to brew hooch for the missus and the masses. Bloody nice after you have wiped out your palate on too many beers.

Bloody easy way to make sure one extra tap is running without finding the time for another brew-day.

 

[Wortgames]

18L Aldi apple juice onto the yeast cake of whatever was in the fermenter before it. Fermented 2 weeks then kegged.

Tastes like cider h34r:

I must admit I'm a bit puzzled why some people add dextrose, use champagne yeast, ferment for several months, and then complain that it's too dry :unsure:

 

[Tahoose]

I agree WortGames, pretty happy with my first cider attempt has dried out a little in the bottle but over all not too bad, SWMBO said that she likes it and she'll just have to be careful because it doesn't taste very strong

I just remember the other day that when I used s-04 for a biggish beer it didn't quite ferment all the way down, finished at 1020, so maybe for leaving some sweetness this might be go

 

[fuseo]

So I'm reading a whole bunch of posts around the best ways to ferment and go about brewing cider. It does seems a bit disambiguos and the whole thread does have some conflicting notes too.

So... In order to get my head rapt around this I decided to post my questions.

1- Can I definitely ferment the brew in my plastic coopers fermenter tub? (23L)
2- I can use "Woolworths" style canned or plastic bottle everyday apple juice to flavour the brew? Really?
3- Should I use the BE1 or BE2 to add some kick to the brew or just the sugar in the juice will be fine?
4- Yeast... It's seems to be 'wine yeast' that is the best one to use judging by many of the posts. Is this okay?
5- Do I need my Krausen Collar in the yeast adding segment of the brew?
6- Is two weeks okay for the initial fermentation? Then ensure consistent gravity is maintained.
7- Can I use my glass 700ml bottles the second fermentation? Or do I need 5l flagons?

Many thanks for the replies in advance guys. Really keen to pump out the cider so any info will be great!