Apple Cider

CrealCritter

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So what do you do when your buddy at the homebrew store takes you to the cooler and says "I pressed a bunch of apples last year, filtered, pasteurized and sealed in sterile gallon jugs and I would like to give you 6 gallons". We'll you take it of course and ferment it - I mean what else would you do? :)

1 dissolved 3 lbs of pure cane sugar in 1/2 gallon of boiling water. The Original Gravity came out to 1.053 about 6.7% alcohol potential. It darn near topped out my 6 1/2 gallon glass carboy. I pitched a packet of Mangrove Jacks Cider yeast, with a alcohol tolerance of 18%. Which will dry this batch of cider right out. So I also added teaspoon of acesulfame potassium. Which is a non fermentable sweetner with hopes it doesn't turn out sour dry. If it does I'll back sweeten it at bottle time. Hopefully the ladies in my life will like it. :fl

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CrealCritter

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He have ignition, honestly I was was expecting a more vigorous ferment at the start. But the apple juice was very clean to begin with, it was filtered and it's not ale yeast.

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Hinotori

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Angry Orchard is ok. The Woodchuck dark and dry was one of my favorites but I haven't seen it in years.

Trader Joes has a very good house brand. There are several local small time ones as well.
 

Hinotori

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My favorite apple juice is unfiltered and unpasteurized, then left for several days in the fridge. Makes it nicely carbonated.
 

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My favorite apple juice is unfiltered and unpasteurized, then left for several days in the fridge. Makes it nicely carbonated.

That's the work of wild bacteria present in the cider. For hard cider you really need to bring it to a boil (pasturize) to kill off all bad and good bacteria and make it sterile. Then add trillions of good bacteria cells (cider yeast) in a sealed unpressurized vessel to ferment out all the sugars in the the cider and make alcohol. Thereby preserving the cider. Pretty simple concept and has been practiced through the millennium. It's proper name is apple wine.
 
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Hinotori

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Yeah. I just like my apple juice uncooked just starting to ferment.

The jury is still out on applejack. I've tried one that I liked and another that I didn't.

I like most ciders though.

I have a steam juicer that I use almost exclusively for grape juice. It comes out pasturized. My great uncle and cousins make wine after using steam juicers. Great uncle has a vineyard with both table and wine grapes.
 

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Cider & strawberry wine have been fermenting strong non-stop since pitching the yeast. The laundry room smells fruity. My wife even commented how good it smells in there. I guess she doesn't mind that I took up a little space in the laundry room then :)

Both have lightened considerably since, I first made them. When will they stop? When they run out of sugar or die off from alcohol poisoning - I guess.
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CrealCritter

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Yeah. I just like my apple juice uncooked just starting to ferment.

The jury is still out on applejack. I've tried one that I liked and another that I didn't.

I like most ciders though.

I have a steam juicer that I use almost exclusively for grape juice. It comes out pasturized. My great uncle and cousins make wine after using steam juicers. Great uncle has a vineyard with both table and wine grapes.

Wow - I could stand to learn a lot from your kinfolk. One of my Uncle's was/still is (kind of) a moon shinner. But you know that's way different than beer and wine making. Although he has been a great person to bounce questions off of from time to time. He loves to talk alcohol.
 
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