Cider thoughts

[vince g]

Made cider from my own apples for the first time a couple of weeks ago, Dabinet and Hereford Red Streak. 15 litres of juice, 1046 OG, nothing added. After 3 days the airlock was going like the clappers, 4 days later it's stopped completely and the gravity is 1002. It is very murky, slight whiff of sulphur which is lessening each day so that's good. So is that it then, it's done its thing? So just store somewhere until it clears? Just seemed a much quicker fermentation than I expected.

One further thing: the flavour is overwhelmingly Dabinet, so I was looking to sharpen it up a bit and wondered whether:

1. it would be a good idea to add a litre of shop bought pure apple juice
2. whether it matters that the shop bought apple juice has an antioxidant in it, and
3. if I do add the juice should I add some cider yeast to burn off the sugar?

 

[fluketamer]

yes put it away until it clears.

1) adding a liter of juice to your dry cider can work wonders to cut the the edge and to bring out the apple flavor.
2) do you mean a preservative? if you are kegging the cider then it doesnt matter. if your are bottle conditioning, it may take the yeast longer to carb it up or they may not carb up at all.
3) if you add juice or any sugar the yeast in the cider will start to ferment it unless you a) pasteurize it, b) add meta, or c) chill it and keep it very cold. adding the juice will sweeten it up. if you want to increase the abv then the yeast wll do that if kept alive by eating through the added sugar.

 

[vince g]

Thank you, that's very helpful.

So on point 2) a lot of so called pure apple juice you buy from the supermarket has an antioxidant in it, usually vitamin C. It's not a preservative as such, but it's used to stop the juice oxidising too much, i.e. turning brown.

On point 3) I was just going to chuck the juice in and give it a stir. Will there still be yeast alive in the existing cider that will eat through the sugar in the juice or should I add some packet yeast to do this?

 

[fluketamer]

yes lots of juice has ascorbic acid (vit c) . yeast like it so dont worry about it. i use motts which has vit c. it doesnt affect the cider or the yeast.

yes there should be plenty of yeast left in the cider to carb it up in the bottle. the one caveat is if its been sitting a real long time sometimes the viable yeast cell count is so low that it wont carb in the bottle or it will take excessively long . in those instances you could add a condition (bottling) yeast . or just so4 etc to help the beer carb . but i dont think you will need it.

after making many gallons of cider mostly from this recipe:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/grahams-english-cider.107152/

i learned that its very easy way to make fruit flavored ciders ( ie black berry , blue berry , cherry , etc) with a few different methods.

you can simply add cordials to the glass when drinking such as grenadine for example.

you can also make a fruit tincture using fresh crushed fruit soaked in high proof spirits. and add that when bottling or kegging.


you can also keg with different flavored juice ( this is my favorite and the easiest.) a quart of cherry juice in a keg of apple cider tastes and looks amazing.

lastly : next time you rack cider off your cider yeast cake (or beer for that matter) just throw 4-5 gallons of store bought juice in there (nothing else needed) and in a few weeks you will have great cider.

finally. next time you make a wine (any wine - lemon, fruit wine, or just plain wine) use the lees to make a cider, the carry over of the base fruit makes the cider a lovely color and flavor that the yeast cant strip through .


just my experiences