Cranberry Cider Recipe - a smash hit!
Ever have to put a blowoff tube on a cider? I have used one before, but this is the first time I have ever needed one. This stuff is fermenting like crazy!
Just put a blow off on my Pinot Noir/Foch Wine. First time I've ever had to do that. Checked on it yesterday and I had a nice purple splatter pattern on the wall behind it. There's only about 3 1/2 gallons in a 5 gallon carboy, too. I thought it would've had plenty of room.
I didn't have a splatter pattern, more or less a foam volcano. Between the cider, a batch of Chardonnay, the malted cider and an Oktoberfest all fermenting I have to say it is smelling pretty good in the back of the basement right about now.
Wow, usually I've had the cranberries help control the foam on top. How much head space did you leave on the top of the carboy? I usually fill it right to the point it starts to tapper in for the primarry. The secondary I'll fill it right up to the neck. I've never needed a blow off tube but if you use one you can just run it down into a bowl of water (I use vodka in the s-valves), that is some seriously happy yeast. Try to keep it under 70* F if possible. Most of my ciders are happy right arround 62-66. I have seen some ciders have a huge foam on them with wild yeasts, did you get pasturized or UV treated cider, or was it fresh pressed?
My old boss used to use a dog food bowl for his blow off tubes. good size and flat on the bottom which is good to coil some extra tube in.
Hope it didn't splatter all over on you. If smelling pretty good means smelling like a beer fart than I'll bet it does!
Not much head space. I had it filled all the way to the neck. I was expecting a little more subdued fermentation, guess I was wrong! I grabbed a quart mason jar and filled it halfway with water. It's about 3/4 full now. I better switch jars before I head for work tonight or it may be overflowing by morning. Once it slows down a bit I will top off with some of the leftover cider.
Doesn't smell like beer farts, just appley, cranberry goodness.
Oh well...live and learn...It's true, cider doesn't foam like a beer will, but when the yeast gets going in the primarry you want at least a few inches of head space to breathe, not so much because of height, but because of surface area...it probably wouldn't be an issue with a bucket (of course, buckets are usually 6 1/2 gal fermenters) but with a carboy right up to the neck means only an inch of head space the size of a half dollar to allow for five gallons of fermenting...truly defines the "bottleneck". Kinda like traffic coming out of Portland ME every day at 4:30.
At least you didn't end up with a stain on the wall like Andrew did. Sorry to hear about that Andrew...and with only 3 1/2 gal in a 5 gal carboy?!?! That was unbaleavably happy yeast, albeit a less happy brewer. I hope no one came in and found you licking the walls... be sure to lock the door before you start that procedure, beleave me...
no stains...PBW to the rescue
The active fermentation stopped on my crancider, so I pulled off the blowoff tube and topped it off with cider and reinstalled the airlock. I took a gravity reading and in a week it dropped to .992. I didn't take an OG, but the cider had a reading of 1.046 and with four pounds and a cup of sugar and the cranberries it must have been up there. The sample tasted a bit yeasty, but beyond that it was like a really dry white wine.Very little cranberry flavor, which kind of surprised me because the cranberry sauce I added tasted really good. I'm going to leave it sit for a while before I transfer it to the secondary. If for no other reason than the PET bottle I am going to use for the secondary is still full of water that I plan on using for my next brew.
While I was at it I also checked my malted cider. The gravity dropped another eight points since I transferred it to the secondary. It is at 1.012 now. The alcohol flavor has mellowed and it did pick up some apple flavor from all the apples that are floating in there, and there was a hint of malt. Guess I'll let it sit another month and see how it progresses.
That's how it goes. It's why I reccomended 6-8 months of bottle conditioning, the flavors talke a long time to mellow out. Definately leave it in the primarry for at least two, three if possible, weeks after fermentation has slowed to null. .992 sounds right with Red Star Champaigne, if there was anything to eat, it'll keep going. Cider has so many fermentable sugars it actually gets lighter than water! The Cranberry flavor will come back, first, proabably by the time you're done with the secondary. I'll have to check page one but I'm pretty sure I racked into a "thirdiary" because the yeast cake at the bottom kept getting bigger and bigger. Bulk aging is pretty necessary with this one. I probably won't bottle mine this year until about mid-February. Also the sorbate and a little backsweetening will help bring the fruit flavors back. My Dad likes adding a spoonful of sugar to his glasses of this stuff and says that really brings out the cran and apple, so you could backsweeten even a little more than I orriginally did and would come out good. The apple flavor won't really come back until it's bottle conditioned for a good 6 months...so...next August or September is when it will really start to mellow and the flavors will mesh together and become a really delicious drink. If you crack one open in May, it will taste like a cranberry cocktail, more like cran juice and vodka with little apple flavor...time, time, time. You will be rewarded!
Keep me posted on how it's going, I'm psyched someone is trying out one of my recipe's. I like that this one isn't just cider and cranberry juice. In my regular ciders I'll throw about thirty raisens in because they release their sugars slower and will prolong fermentation.,,plus they look cool bobbing from the top to the bottom of the fermenter once it clears, really brings into perspective that even though it looks like nothing is going on the drink is a living thing, always evolving!
Cheers
After topping off with cider, I'm sure fermentation will pick up for a bit. I'll probably leave it another three weeks before I transfer it to the secondary. I'm in no hurry, I was planning on it for Thanksgiving next year, so it has plenty of time.
That sounds like a good plan, remember it's going to stay foggy until you add the pectic enzyme, because it involves boiling both cranberries and raspberries, which will set some pectins. I add the pectic enzyme about a week before I bottle, the sorbate too, just to be sure I can backsweeten a bit and it won't blow my corks out. You may end up with just a few dregs in the bottom of your bottle, but that's old school wine making anyway, I like that. Filters will remove any tiny sediment...but what else to they remove?..color?..flavor?..I'm happy with that little bit of sediment.
Also, if you want to try some sparkling, I'd add the pectic enzyme, wait for it to clear, then bottle half with out sorbate and with priming sugar (it'll be dry), and then add the sorbate to the rest, wait 3 days for the sorbate to take full effect, then backsweeten to taste and bottle. Remember with sparkling to use beer or champagne bottles. This time of year I'll buy Martinelli's sparkling cider in the wine section (it's NA) instead of ginger ale. Right about now they push the sales at $3 a bottle, that's cheaper than buying the bottles empty (750 mL) and you can use beer caps on them and drink sparkling cider!
Just racked cranberry into secondary. Had a gravity reading of .992! Almost undrinkable, but that's ok at this stage...used about 9 oz of raspberries boiled in 1 Cup of water and 1 Cup of sugar for 5 min (turned rasps into mush so no solid berrys left), also warmed about a 1/2 gal of cider and added 3 more cups of sugar, didn't really warm up the cider, just poured the raspberry mix into it and that warmed it enough to disolve the sugar and cooled the raspberry enough to pour right into the carboy. Had a little issue at first with cranberry skins cloging up the racking cane, but got it going well enough after the third try, (got it going in the middle of the carboy and slowly lowered it down to the bottom). Maybe had a little bit of oxygen get in there but what are you going to do? The OG had to be 1.09something so with that alcohol content I'm not too woried about spoiling. You can only take yourself too seriously...filled secondary right up to the neck. Post back on this one later. Will probably leave in secondary until February, I don't think I'll rack a second time this year.
It's still in the secondary and STILL bubbling away happilly, one bubble ever 10-15 secconds. It's been holding at arround 60-62*F. This is what, a month and a half after I racked and she's still going strong! A lot of the Raspberry and sugar stayed at the bottom of the carboy for a while (I could tell because it was darker pink down there) and so I think the yeast has been getting to it slowly. In any case, the color has all blended now, I turned the heat up in the basement so it's now arround 62* in the carboy and fermentation picked up just a bit...I have a feeling this stuff is going to be decievingly strong come next T-giving.
I curious how ruralbrew's is coming along. Give me an update man, just had it sitting on the back burner and simmering like mine has been?
I now think when it settles down I'm going to rack one more time, add pectic enzyme and let it clear for a month, then I'll bottle.
Mine is still in the primary. I hope leaving it there this long will not hurt anything. I did buy some raspberries and was going to transfer to secondary. I took the raspberries out of the freezer and put them in the fridge to thaw, and then a week went by and when I opened the package there was mold growing on the top of them. And I keep forgetting to pick up more raspberries. Hopefully I will remember this weekend.
My grocery store carries "product of Mexico" or Chilie fresh raspberries and I used those this year. There were a couple on the bottom of the package that had spots of mold but I just threw those out and used the rest. It shouldn't be too much of a problem because the boiling process kills any bacteria or mold spores that may have been left and the alcohol will do the rest. If they were covered in mold that's another story.
They don't add too too much raspberry flavor but add nice depth to the flavor of the final product. I wouldn't worry too much about the yeast because it's in the primarry still, but I wouldn't wait too much longer either. You may find at this point you have to re-pitch another packet of yeast. Fortunately Red Star Champagne is something like 1 dollar a packet. I just had a carboy of cider champagne that I racked and after four weeks it still didn't pick up fermentation (I added fresh cider and another pound of sugar), re-pitched and tossed in a couple teaspoons of yeast nutrient and it's starting to go again. May have to wait till mid March to bottle that one to be sure it's fermented out. RS Champagne shouldn't kick out unless you're up arround 15-16% ABV and that's not likely unless you keep sweetening and sweetening and sweetening. Hopefully when I bottle it will carbonate, I'll have to keep it in a warmer part of the house to make sure it does.
Cheers
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