Get Ready for the First Cider
I am thinking of doing my first cider. Is it really as simple as it looks: cider and yeast? My homebrew shop has the sweet mead yeast, would this be appropriate for cider? Thanks for the advice.
It's more or less really that simple. I've only done one batch of cider but can't wait to do more. I used 5 gallons of organic apple juice and threw in some blackberries as it was that time of year. I'm nut sure how much (I don't remember) but it couldn't have been more than 5-6 pounds. It seems like I also added sugar; six cups I think. To that I add yeast. It's been in bottles for about 5 weeks now and is starting to come into it's own as far as flavor goes. (It was a little tart at first.) It's also very alcoholic. I'd suggest you try to dig up a couple recipes but whatever you do; it's amazingly easy and cheap to make a palatable cider. I don't know much about the yeast; my homebrew shop sold me a cider yeast in a smack pack format.
I'm gearing up to do my first cider experiment, also. I have brewed beer years ago, but since I live in a top apple producing state (MI), I thought it would be appropriate to do a good cider with local grown and squeezed produce. I'm seeing more and more where people are just using store bought apple juice and that would be a lot cheaper, but would the quality suffer in the final product? For some reason I think I may be slightly fooling myself that the (re)start-up costs for equipement would be cheaper as well. I'm glad to see the interest out there in bringing cider back from it's early demise around prohibition.
I've fermented a few batches of Cider, nothing makes a good cider like quality Apple cider, not apple juice, but good unpasteurized, no preservative sweet apple cider. Use a good tart blend of apples to get that apple flavor to come though in the end. Apple juice makes a very dry, weak tasting apple wine. It's best to get your cider to start fermenting from it's own natural yeasts, but a good wine yeast does a very good job at making cider. I live in Michigan too, and there are lots of produce markets and fruit stands selling sweet cider. Go taste testing and find a good tasting cider and get yourself a few gallons. Cidermaking is just too damn easy to pass up. Also look up a few cider books out there. They are worth their weight in gold. They allow you to really expand from the simple cider to more elaborate ciders. I know I'll be making my Cherry cider again this year, and thinking about doing a New England cider also....
I would really like to get fresh cider, but unfortunately, I don't live too close to any of the apple regions in California, and my wife isn't too keen on the idea of me taking an afternoon trip to get cider, since we have a 3 month old little girl. I will have to stick with something store bought. I have heard that some people have had good luck with Trader Joes or Whole Foods cider, so that may be what I end up doing.
Hey, I also have a 3 month old daughter!
Whole Foods would probably be a good choice - I'm sure they have some cider without preservatives. I have read many, many times to get cider without the preservatives (or additives in general). Both the stores you mention should be good for that...
I got my apple juice from Trader joes (unfiltered, $5/gallon), but have heard of many people using filtered supermarket juices as well - just make sure the only ingredient is APPLES. You'd be surprised how many juices you actually can buy without additives...
Next year I may hunt down an orchard though :-)
webby, I've been meaning to ask since you posted your reply, but the previously mentioned daughter does take up a bit of time. Has your brew time been impacted by your little one?
It's been several years since I brewed beer (college), but I started again and have 2 little ones. My oldest is 2 and my youngest is 1. I worked out a deal with their mother where we take sanity nights and trade full responsibilities for taking care of the kids. This works out great, but beware that Moms usually take a greater share of the responsibility for the tiny ones so you may end up working harder, but have more totally free time as well.
My wife and I have something similar worked out, but so far I haven't been given enough time to brew. It looks like I will get a chance this weekend, so I am looking forward to it.