Hello everyone, here's my cider plans.

[Skink]

Greetings! I'm new to this forum, but have been brewing mainly wine for many years. This year, I've made my first foray into cider making, and here's what's happened so far.
So far, I've 4 gallons on the go, 2 fermented out and 2 bubbling. My method was to quarter about 20lbs. of apples, and then freeze, defrost, and press in my home-made, car jack press. Then a spoon of yeast (just GP, because it was all I had) and nutrient was added. Each of the gallons was made from a different variety of apples - I hope to make 6 gallons, and then blend them all together. I then hope to condition 3 of the gallons, probably in 1 L PET bottles, and sweeten if it's too dry with a sweetener. The other 3 I plan to bottle still, sweetening with sugar if needed, but I would also like to try spicing one of the gallons, to see what would result.
Any advice or observations would be appreciated, particularly with regard to what sweetener to use, and how to spice the single gallon. Slainte!

 

[Wendy1971]

Hi and welcome to the forum :thumb:

 

[fbsf]

Hi there!

Sweetening wise, the general consensus is that splenda does the trick well. Don't forget that ageing is important with ciders - at least 3 months and preferably 6-9 will get the cider at it's best - preferably in bulk, so using the demijohns if possible rather than the 1L bottles.

 

[Skink]

Thanks. If I mature in bulk in a DJ for that length of time (and, being a winemaker, I'm well used to that), will it still condition when bottled?

 

[graysalchemy]

Should do ,y last one was about 10 months when bottled an o got perfect fizz.

 

[Skink]

Grand. I've also spotted you talking about malo-lactic fermentation. Should I add some malic acid to my 6 gallons when it's in bulk to try to encourage this, and if so, how much?