Apple Cider

[CrealCritter]

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.

 

[CrealCritter]

I left with 18 full bottles of cider, I came home with 18 empty bottles of cider . It's a good thing I bottled 66 .

I got all kinds of compliments from wow your getting good at this home brew stuff to when you going into business, pops?

 

[CrealCritter]

19 days bottle conditioning, i put in freezer for 45 minutes, and poured. It's cleared out, fully carbonated, not to sweet, no to dry, very smooth, with just a hint of tang. I like it, i like it a lot who knew I would like semi dry sparkling apple wine?

I'm taking several to the 4 of July cookout at my sons. My daughter in laws will love me long time for this cider.

 

[wyoDreamer]

What an amazing change from June 1st to July 5th.

 

[CrealCritter]

Boy, 66 bottles of cider doesn't last long, with daughter in laws bringing back empty 6 packs and asking for refills. I'm going to have to make another batch. I think I'll do a cherry/apple or pear one next though. I only have 12 bottles left

 

[CrealCritter]

I racked the cider through a length of copper pipe to get it off the yeast bed and to rid it of any sulfur gas. I'll be bottling Saturday morning. It tastes pretty good like a sharp spiked apple juice. The hydrometer reading is below 1.000 so its pretty much fully fermented. It should finish off fermenting in the secondary between now and Saturday. I'm adding priming sugar to it anyways for carbonation, so I'm not to concerned about it being fully fermented. I just don't want bottle bombs.

 

[Hinotori]

I love cider. I hope it turns out good

 

[CrealCritter]

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.

 

[Hinotori]

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.

 

[CrealCritter]

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.