Pages: 1
Ciderfest 2009
MA brewers who are interested in making hard cider are invited to attend the annual Ciderfest that my homebrew club (The Boston Wort Processors) hosts every year. For the past two years we've held Ciderfest at Carlson Orchards in Harvard, MA. This year it will be on Sunday, October 25. They give us a great deal on raw unpasteurized cider they press on site ($2.50/gal). All of what they press is sold commercially as sweet cider and is pasteurized and preserved with sulfites, but we get the cider before it is treated. I've fermented cider from this source for the past two years and I have to tell you it's turned out friggin awesome. Since all of you are brewers, I'd like to invite you to join us during our Ciderfest. We typically set up a tent and have a potluck lunch with grills going and hard cider and homebrew flowing. If anyone is interested in getting fresh cider to ferment or to talk about making hard cider, please sign up. Check out the link at the top of the sign-up page to see what others are bringing. Oh and you will need to bring your own container to fill with the fresh cider as they just provide us with a giant pallet tank full of cider. Cheers!
I am interested in your cider recipe. Would you be willing to share it?
10# honey into 5 gal of cider. Cider had a gravity of 1.047 and with honey added gravity went to approx. 1.116. Fermented with sweet mead yeast (WLP720). After 3 months I racked to secondary and aged another 5 months. Final gravity came out to 1.029 (11.5% ABV).
I also did 5# of honey into 5 gal of cider, which made a OG of ~1.082. This cider was also fermented with WLP720 but really dried down to a gravity of 0.991 (11.92% ABV). Not much flavor there so I added 9 cups of frozen apple juice concentrate and 4.5 tsp acid blend and kegged this cider. I must say that this was probably the best cider I've made and the keg was drained at my annual neighborhood picnic, so I think everyone else agreed it was awesome!
Good luck with your ciders! Cheers!
Pages: 1