First Cider Ever

[AllieMae89]

So we pressed our first ever batch of apples and ended up with about 15 gallons of cider. I put 6 gallons in a carboy with a dry wine yeast, I then took one gallon out to try my hand at apple wine... I took two growlers and poured it in. I then split 6.4oz of corn sugar and 2.85oz of brown sugar between the two growlers. Original gravity was at 1.065. Ideas or thoughts, did I completely screw this up?

 

[user 4004]

The batch you put in the carboy should ferment out on probs, from experience it will need at least 3 months to mature longer is better.
Depending on what the apples were (cookers, eaters or proper cider) will effect the end result, most of what I make seems to be cookers (that is what I can scrounge around here) and that is quite a sharp cider that takes about a year to loose the sharpness and make a nice drink. The batch I made with eating apples tasted very acidic after about 4 months, but after 10 - 12 months it was almost like an apple wine, it had lots the acidity but it tasted kind of watery witch I put down to lack of tannins in the apples, so this year the apples from that tree had a load of elder berries put in with them as they went through the press to see if that would add the required effect (and it gives a nice color).
The rest that you added sugar to will have a higher abv and probably a different flavor, the only trouble with adding sugar is you normally loose a lot of the apple flavor it seems to just develop a taste of alcohol.

I would never say any one has screwed up, it is all one big experiment that hopefully tastes good. :drink:

 

[AllieMae89]

I'm moving the one in the carboy into secondary after about ten days (when fermentation slows) then I'll let it sit for another week or two. Test taste after that and possibly back sweeten. The cider was a combination of many different kinds of apples, so I'm not sure how sweet it will be. After that I'm going to bottle it in smaller beer bottles and let it age.

 

[user 4004]

Don't forget if you use sugar to back sweeten, it will start to ferment again, you will either have to kill it or use a non-fermentible sweetener.

 

[Pete Oakley]

When I make cyder from the apple juice that I press I just check the gravity from time to time and when it's below 1.000 I just add a little sugar. If that ferments out I add a little more sugar. After all the trouble that I've gone through scrounging the apples , chopping the apples, pulping the apples and then pressing the apples I really can't see the point of skimping with the alcohol content. I usually bottle mine at the end of April and I've had no complaints up 'till now.
Pete

 

[Manitude]

So long as everything was sterilised it should produce something decent. Although the character of the cider will be totally dependent on the apples used, and even then a crop can vary from year to year and tree to tree as conditions are never exactly the same two years in a row!

I don't know how familiar you are with brewing processes in general, but when the gravity has dropped to whatever you'd like, make sure to rack your cider to another vessel to mature. If you leave it sitting on the yeast it'll taste awful after a few months of maturing.

Enjoy!

 

[AllieMae89]

Everything was sterilized and it was a mixed batch of apples. We ended up with three trailers full of red and green variety. I have no clue what I'm doing d far as cider, beer I have a little knowledge. Normally I transfer to secondary after fermentation has slowed, is cider the same? My thought was to move to secondary when it slows, then let it clear for a week. I want to add a little cinnamon and clove and let it sit another day or two then bottle and age for a few months. OG was 1.062.

 

[Manitude]

Everything was sterilized and it was a mixed batch of apples. We ended up with three trailers full of red and green variety. I have no clue what I'm doing d far as cider, beer I have a little knowledge. Normally I transfer to secondary after fermentation has slowed, is cider the same? My thought was to move to secondary when it slows, then let it clear for a week. I want to add a little cinnamon and clove and let it sit another day or two then bottle and age for a few months. OG was 1.062.

That method ought to work. If you don't intend to carbonate it then you may want to add campden tablets and stabiliser when you've racked to the secondary. I'd normally have a little taste when racking and see how it is, it won't be as good as the final product but it will give you some idea of how it will turn out. This is also an opportunity backsweeten the cider with more apple juice or sugar if you need to.
1.062 is pretty high, if you ferment down to 1.000 then you're looking at over 8% ABV by my calculation. Ciders that strong can be very drinkable, but sometimes may need back sweetening with juice to dilute the alcohol.

Personally I wouldn't put the spices in the whole batch for fear of ruining it, and I'd like to know how good my cider is before I make any special additions.

Good luck! :