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Brewing hard cider
I have been trying to brew some hard cider , I have read a lot of articles to improve homebrewing. Do you heat/boil the juice or just add to it at room/fermenting temps and on getting it to clear out do you filter or just let settle out . I also would like to know about any kits that are good to try or just use a recipe and if using a recipe what juice to get that’s best to use. I have been homebrewing a few years now and have had some Hornsby and Woodchuck hard cider which is pretty good , but there again I haven't
tasted any other types . Also what is the approx. time for fermenting and clearing the cider
thanks
javier
Javier, I have had very good luck making cider this way for years. First, I keep all my supplies for making hard cider seperate from my beer supplies. including airlocks, siphon wands, hose, stoppers and the 3 gal carboy...I use a 3 gal carboy just cause. The only common tool is the 5 gal SS brew pot. Also don't use store bought cider or juices, they have preservatives in them that don't allow fermentation to happen for our friends the yeasty's...I am blessed by being able to drive to the apple orchard about 20 miles from my home here in Maine and get fresh pressed, cider...they make it by mixing several different types of apples to make their cider..it is just amazing how good it is. * fresh cider in not clear, it is cloudy..it only becomes clear after you make it hard and it settles out..(not sure if they are on the web, but their name is Conant Orchards, in Etna, Maine. (207) 269-2241 Anyway, when I make cider, I place 3 gals into my brew pot and add 2 lbs of brown sugar, and 2 lbs of dextrose, brewing suger. Remeber this is cider, not beer...brown sugar and beer don't pan out very well....Temperature is very important if you want clear cider, DO NOT boil the "must", (cider is called "must")....it is important to kill any bacterica but if you boil it you break down the pectin in the apple and it will become cloudy at serving temps...I usually keep it at between 160-170 degrees for at least 45 minutes, stirring a few times to make sure all the sugars are dissolved.. After 45 minutes, I cover it in the brew pot and let it cool down to room temp...then I add a few yeast nutrient tablets. Just plop them into the room temp "must", that way they slowly dissolve and feed the yeast over time. I use a champagne yeast, I recall using Red Star, I think, but I use champagne yeast...once I pitch the yeast I give the carboy a little mix and put an air lock on it...Things happen slowly with cider, slow to start, slow to ferment, slow settle...I recall things just sitting there for days without much happening, then the fementing begins. I recall a batch I had taking 2 weeks before all activity stopped...once its stopped, I siphon the cider back into the original 1 gal plastic, sanitized jugs and put them into my storage fridge at 42 degrees. In a few days you will see how it settles out. In a few weeks you will see how much clearer it is. Don't be surprised when you open a jug that air pressure comes out, yeasts are tough and love to eat. I usually mix my cider with ginger ale for a spritzer.
I don't take OG readings or FG readings, but I know it is hard but very drinkable...I would guess somewhere about the 8-10 % range...just a rough guess...
Hope this helped.
Good luck
Uncle Pete
Uncle Pete,
Welcome to the board. We have been hoping an experienced cider brewer would grace us with his presence.
Usually in the fall, ripe apples (duh), a lot of us get motivated to do a hard cider and many questions are asked.
Maybe this fall, if we don't get another hard freeze this spring, I'll go the cider route. I'm in Missouri & have an orchard about 3 miles north of me.
What I'm trying to come up with is a sparkling, tart but a little sweet product that the sweet little lady will like.
I just wanted to point out that the off-beat grocery stores DO sell unfiltered apple ciders without any preservatives whatsoever. Local to me here on the West Coast is a huge chain called Trader Joe's. Trader Joe's sells unfiltered and unadulterated Gravenstien apple "cider" (unfermented) which can then be used in making hard ciders, or cysers (mead using apple juice instead of water...the only way to go imho).
I would be surprised if there wasn't some similar type of store pretty much everywhere in the US that also sells appropriate cider for brewing.
I have made both hard ciders and cyser-meads. Right now I am entering a 6 year-old cyser into a brewing competition here in CA. This cyser won this competition when it was 1.5 years old, so I have high hopes for this much more aged version.
If you are putting it in the fridge after 2 weeks, then you're probably correct about the 8 to 10% ABV range.
If you're using champagne yeast, if you let it go a few months, racking every two months for clarity, the yeast will actually still keep going until it reaches 14 to18% ABV; unless you stop the fermentarion, or the yeast run out of fermentables. My cysers regularly get to 14-18% using champagne yeasts. This does take months (sometimes 6 months) however. OG needs to be in the neighborhood of 1.1 or higher though. After racking, I often top with pure grade A maple syrup, which helps keep activity up as well.
I might also point out that many of us have great success using brown sugar in beers. In fact, it's one of Stephen Harod Buhner's favorite fermentables (author of Sacred and Herbal Healing Beers).
Sage Dyssan
New here, nice site.
i've been making hard and fruit wines for years and never used a gadget except a thermometer. I have them all, and will learn this year. Before the cider is done!!!
Got a bigAss jug of my signifother's family, 150 yr. old Keag (Gig) Owls Head, Maine, heirloom apples from 18 different beautiful trees going now. Bought a cheap Hamilton Beach juicer for $45 (worked great), and did up 4+ bushels 1 apple at a time!!hahaha! Skimmed off the foam. Great compost, too.
Got 28 gal. just apple going, added 1 pound per gal. sugar and Red Star Cote des Blanc yeast, which I let ferment until it slowed down (2 weeks) racked most of it, added 1 more pound sugar per gal. A little Fermax and it is crankin’ again. hope to hit 14-16%. Will it be too sweet?
Have 5 gal. apple working that I added 1 gal. of fresh juiced blackberries from the front hill, with water to reach 1 gal., 5 pounds sugar, 5 tsp. Fermax, Lalvin EC-1118 yeast and it is bubbling like a drunk drooling for a pint!!
Trying 1 gal. cider with 1 pound simmered raisins, 1 1/2 pounds sugar, 1 tsp. FermaX. some Red Star yeast from above batch, real slow steady in 64 degrees ferment. Raisins got something on’em?
Whatever the reason for brewing you gotta love it. Anyone have luck freezing a batch for the Jack? Years ago I built a still and distilled 110 proof that was fantastic with ginger ale and ice.
If you can!! I let 5 gal. sit in the cellar for 11 months then bottled and corked it last month. That was a regular 5 gal. apple, 5 pounds frutose, Red star yeast. simple and probably the best semi-dry I've ever had. In fact so good I hate to drink it because it'll be gone.
I sterilize everything with bleach for big tubs and buckets and B-Brite for others. No boiling, no ph testing, no nothing. The raisin apple mix tastes a bit like a sherry already.
happy fall.
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