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apple cider for the season?
anyone starting on apple cider for october and november?
I actually did mine last month. I don't expect to be able to drink it for a while, though. It is in the secondary now, and I have at least a month before I bottle. I am going to try to keep a few bottles for next fall, as I hear that a year or more of aging can really help a cider.
Is that what they call applejack?
Applejack is concentrated cider. I read that people used to freeze the water out of it to concentrate the alcohol. Read another thread on why this can be dangerous (and give killer headaches). You could distill it also, but the equipment is a little more than I want to invest in for now.
I brewed mine about 4 weeks ago. I got apples from a local farm, it's a mix of varities, pretty much what they had available. It made a good sweet cider though, so I hope the hard will be good. I used the Wyeast Cider yeast after 24 hours with campden tablets.
I would be interested what you folks do:
- Do you use campden tablets?
- Do you add yeast or rely on natural?
- If you add yeast, what kind?
- What kind of apples or juice do you use?
I plan on bottling tomorrow. I am going to try using frozen concentrate for priming, which is new for me.
Please update for us after that. It's a really great idea to use the concentrate to prime with. How do you determine how much to use? I have 5 gallons going that will be bottled 3 weeks before Xmas and if your results are good then I may try that. I don't mind a little haze so I did nothing to assist the clarity. Of couse, this is my first of annual ciders so this is a learning batch. On the recommendation of my LHBS I added brown sugar and honey. After looking at OG and guessing at what my FG will be I'm almost afraid of this thing I've got bubbling away in my basement. I won't be adding any fermentables in the future. I get the impression that the guy might be a wine drinking kind of guy, not that I mind it, but I need less alcohol in my stuff because I want to have a couple pints of what I make not just 10 fl. oz. Oh and the yeast question, I took the LHBS advice and used a champagne yeast, Lalvin EC-1118. I'm fortunate enough to live in an apple state so I picked a sweet cider that I liked and got it from a local orchard. I don't know what apples went into it, but I'm sure I could find out if I like the results. I will probably just get the same stuff next year.
it's in the bottle now, so I'll let you know in a couple of weeks 
I used 1 can of frozen concentrate (thawed) that, since pasturized, i just dumped into the bottling bucket for 5 gal of cider. I got that ratio from someone on here.
I didnt add anything to the cider to increase the gravity. It shoudl be kinda strong though. The OG was about 1.048 if i recall right, the final gravity was pretty darn near 1.000!
PBergler, I will be curious to hear how your cider turned out. You may need to age it for a while before it really hits its stride, but if you try in a few weeks let us know how it came out.
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