Some Questions On Brewing Cider

[Hatchy]

I kegged a cider tonight that finished at 1.002 which is the same as my hydrometer is reading water at the moment. I put 18L of apple & blackcurrent juice on the yeastcake because they didn't have apple & pear juice at the local. I'm hoping that turns out well or I'll get months of "I told you so" from my wife.

 

[dingo34]

Mate, I'm guessing that cloudy is in the fridge and still going hard... yep, that always has leftover sugars to ferment slowly unless you leave it alone for a month or so, its actually the only supermarket juice cider I find worth bottling. Kinda self regulated. Glad you like it
With the other ones, you get what you make. Fermented to almost dry that juice was not going to retain a lot of flavour. Its why I let it be a sweet cider by chilling it before it finishes. My suggestion, mix with some fresh apple juice in the glass to drink, it would be cider (alcohol) + fresh juice flavour.

PS: I forgot to mention before, even though the temp in the fridge door might be 3C, the yeast will push it up a little, that wine yeast is really tough, it ferments at even really low temp, slower but does keep doing it.

PPS: Mark, thats an awesome read. Not sure I'll ever be arsed to work that hard for cider but gonna pick something easy up to better mine

Sure is..and yes it's well tasty!!!

I've learnt a lot about the sugars etc. I can see now what has happened between the straight apple juices and the A&B, as I have put the lid on the Apple Blackcurrent and already it's blowing out like Michelin Man.

I find it just fascinating the dynamics between the yeast, time, natural sugars etc.

I will try my next batch in the fridge early, I've actually turned it down (meaning fridge temp up) a bit, this time of year it doesn't need to be sitting at 3C

 

[Tanga]

I kegged a cider tonight that finished at 1.002 which is the same as my hydrometer is reading water at the moment. I put 18L of apple & blackcurrent juice on the yeastcake because they didn't have apple & pear juice at the local. I'm hoping that turns out well or I'll get months of "I told you so" from my wife.

If you Keg then you can keep some residual sugars if you want. Keg it at 1010 for a delicious drop with a hint of sweetness. I'm jealous, I can only do that 2L at a time.

Oh, and I just found my oztops caps =D. So this juice thing will be a lot easier from now on.

 

[Hatchy]

I could if I remembered to check it more often. I think I'll just chuck 2L of juice in there at some point for some sweetness assuming it doesn't get drunk 1st.

 

[Tanga]

LOL, or you could do that. Let us know what you and the crew think. For a pink drink this one is pretty popular with the bloke as well.

 

[dingo34]

an update and a question.

I did what was suggested, before the yeast had completely finished, I stuck a couple of bottles in the fridge (a week at room temp - then placed the lid on and straight in the fridge) and about 1 1/2 weeks later cracked one open and it was bloody beautiful...my missus wanted to fight me for the bottle!! only kidding! The taste was spot on, a little bubbly..GIDDY UP!

So, I'm all pumped up and I go out and buy 7 bottles of mixed apple juices...but then I made a big boo boo

I bought 3 * 2L Cloudy apple juice, and not checking back to Tanga's original post, I put 1/2 tsp of yeast in each, instead of 1/4!!!

So, now I have three 2L bottles each with 1/2 tsp yeast, and as such could only manage to get 1/4 tsp in each of the other 4, which are 3L.

So, my question(s) is/are....what to do? Will the cloudy's still be ok even though they have twice as much yeast? What about the 3L bottles, they really need 3/8 tsp, but instead only have 1/4 (1/3 of what they should have)..will it be enough, or should I go get more yeast and top up? And if so, does it matter when I do that?

Cheers

 

[Tanga]

an update and a question.

I did what was suggested, before the yeast had completely finished, I stuck a couple of bottles in the fridge (a week at room temp - then placed the lid on and straight in the fridge) and about 1 1/2 weeks later cracked one open and it was bloody beautiful...my missus wanted to fight me for the bottle!! only kidding! The taste was spot on, a little bubbly..GIDDY UP!

So, I'm all pumped up and I go out and buy 7 bottles of mixed apple juices...but then I made a big boo boo

I bought 3 * 2L Cloudy apple juice, and not checking back to Tanga's original post, I put 1/2 tsp of yeast in each, instead of 1/4!!!

So, now I have three 2L bottles each with 1/2 tsp yeast, and as such could only manage to get 1/4 tsp in each of the other 4, which are 3L.

So, my question(s) is/are....what to do? Will the cloudy's still be ok even though they have twice as much yeast? What about the 3L bottles, they really need 3/8 tsp, but instead only have 1/4 (1/3 of what they should have)..will it be enough, or should I go get more yeast and top up? And if so, does it matter when I do that?

Cheers

Don't sweat it, have another homebrew =). The cloudy apples will be fine, so will the others, but they may take a bit longer to get started. More yeast won't hurt though.

What mixed juices? Just a warning tropical and apple juices don't turn out real well. Passionfruit and mango ones both ended up all fruity lexia tasting. Best so far is apple and blackcurrant. Let us know how yours go.

 

[pk.sax]

I've had had a bottle of juice ferment without adding yeast. h34r:

Hehe, I was making some cloudy in a carboy and cracked open a normal one to take a cup of juice to carb the cloudy. Absent mindedly, I capped the bottle and stuck it in a cool dark cupboard. A week - week 1/2 later I'm looking for something in the cupboard and notice the swollen bottle!!!!!

Cracked it open, had a smell, taste, liked it so I stuck it in the fridge. That one was an instant hit. Quite honestly that is how I came about brewing in the juice bottle without modifying it at all. I just keep a closer watch on them than leave in cupboard and forget, n I add the yeast now, just to be sure

So, drink up n chillax

Btw, mixt be worth brewing only so many bottles as you can drink in a week to keep it sorta fresh

 

[Tanga]

Just checked the juice section at Coles. Turns out they have two different kinds of apple and blackcurrant. One is 5%, but the cloudy apple is on special atm, so I'm going with that. Looking forward to it.=)

 

[dingo34]

Cloudy apple is so nice..thanks for putting me on to that.
As for how much I can drink in a week, well, ummm, yeah, ummm, hmmmm, can't answer that really

I am finding, I can get a cloudy on the brewmat, leave for 4 days, put in fridge and later that day or next day, is ready to drink...and it's real nice....

The Apple and Blackcurrent was nice too, not as nice as the cloudy for me..and my missus really liked the straight apple, but not the first couple (which fermented dry), I put the second lot in the fridge a bit early and they fizzed up nice..she loved them!

I'm going to go to woolies at some point and try out the apple and pear.

So far
Cloudy 10 points
Apple 8 points as long as it gets lid on early enough
Apple Black current 6 points
Apple if left to go dry...3 points

Yum!!!

 

[seamad]

I've made a few ciders and would like to stop the next one @ 1010 to retain a little sweetness.
My keg fridge fits 3 kegs and I don't really want a keg of cider , would prefer to bottle as we don't drink cider that often.
I think I have a cunning plan..

If I dropped the temp of ferment to -4 or more ( I ferment in a small upright freezer) when close to 1010 and leave a few days would that kill the wee yeasties?. My plan would then be to force carbonate in a keg and transfer to bottles.

Would this work ?

cheers
sean

 

[Tanga]

... maybe. Sounds good. I'm not a kegger. Sorry. I know theoretically that should happen. But if your yeast misbehaves I don't want to be held responsible =).

While this thread is up though. Berri juice is 1.99 atm (2.4L) @ Coles. So 22L for $18. Not going to get much better than that.

 

[pk.sax]

I've made a few ciders and would like to stop the next one @ 1010 to retain a little sweetness.
My keg fridge fits 3 kegs and I don't really want a keg of cider , would prefer to bottle as we don't drink cider that often.
I think I have a cunning plan..

If I dropped the temp of ferment to -4 or more ( I ferment in a small upright freezer) when close to 1010 and leave a few days would that kill the wee yeasties?. My plan would then be to force carbonate in a keg and transfer to bottles.

Would this work ?

cheers
sean

Why don't you brew a small batch, 1-2 juice bottles worth and bottle just that @ ~1014 or so and refridgerate the bottles in the keg fridge.
I'm really not sure about freezing yeast. I pretty much froze a batch of beer once to clear it up and the yeast still survived enough to carb it up. The only options I've heard of that will kill yeast are pasteurization, using SO2 releasing chemicals and --maybeeeee ultra filtration of some sort.... Apart from that, bottle and keep cold. Even then, I'd be more comfortable bottling unfinished stuff in PET or steel.

 

[dingo34]

... maybe. Sounds good. I'm not a kegger. Sorry. I know theoretically that should happen. But if your yeast misbehaves I don't want to be held responsible =).

While this thread is up though. Berri juice is 1.99 atm (2.4L) @ Coles. So 22L for $18. Not going to get much better than that.

Thx Tanga..

were you the one who said you were going to try apple and mango? did you and how was it?

 

[Tanga]

Thx Tanga..

were you the one who said you were going to try apple and mango? did you and how was it?

Fuggin awful! It ended up tasting like fruity lexia. Drinkable, sorta, but more of a cheap and nasty wine than a cider. Passionfruit was the same. They may have aged alright, probably should have bottled rather than chucked them, but I doubt it was going to end up much better.

If you want to try something different then grape was fun. Not a fine wine by any means, no tannins etc, but I carbonated it in the bottle, like for cider, and it went great in Sangria (my intention) or even serve with ice to wine drinkers with no taste (ie lambrusco drinkers). =p

 

[KudaPucat]

FYI
Coles have berri 2.4l at $1.99 at the moment
I bought 3 bottles to try cos I'm out of cider from last year's harvest already.

 

[Tanga]

Look forward to seeing what you do. Which juices did you grab?

 

[KudaPucat]

Look forward to seeing what you do. Which juices did you grab?

Just apple, I will lightly flavour 2 of the three with real in-season fruit.

I've never used commercial juice before, so a bit of an experiment.

 

[dingo34]

I think I may have left my bottles on the heat pad a bit too long and they have fermented dry...the reason I reckon this is because I've had the lids on and in the fridge for over at least a couple of days now but there doesn't seem to be any carbonation, nor are the bottle getting hard.

I was wondering, even though I have put the lids on two days ago, can I still add some sugar now, or is it too late...I'd like to get some fizzy in them, even if just a bit...

Cheers

 

[Tanga]

No probs at all doing that dingo. Better yet, add juice, but sugar will get the job done. It'll work better if it's been dissolved in a little hot water first (don't add it until it's cooled though).