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I want to make a cider...

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buckhuntr

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Registered Member
Jul 6, 2013
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Oklahoma
But I don't have fresh apples. I have 5 1-gallon jugs of unfiltered, pasteurized, no preservatives grocery store cider from a producer in Kansas. I have a packet of D-47 yeast. I have a hand of ginger to peel, grate and add to the juice. Anything else? I see in some of the threads here a mention of pectinase - is that like Fruit Fresh pectin that I use on fresh fruit prior to making jelly? Sure-Jell?
What about adding a couple bags of cranberries for tannins? I'll be using a 5-gallon carboy for the primary fermenter, with airlock.
 
If your question is "can I ferment apple juice that doesn't have preservatives?" then the answer is yes. You can add corn sugar and get an apfelwine or honey and get a cyser. In both cases, you'll want to go a little further than just tossing in a pack of D-47 and some pectinase (try using the search option to find a recipe -- it works great).
 
It really depends on the style of cider you want to produce. I like to bring the gravity up to about 1.050 with concentrated apple juice. Helps with both apple flavour and mouth feel. Bottle carb with dextrose(corn sugar). Here's my usual recipe for a sparkling cider. The White Lab's yeast will ferment dry but still leave a nice apple flavour. It's better if you bulk age it for a month or two.

​23l(6gal)
16l of apple juice
8x283ml frozen concentrate
1 tsp nutrient
0.5 tsp energizer
White labs English cider yeast(2l starter)

At bottling add 160g of dextrose and backsweeten to taste with xylitol
 
I don't recommend the D47,based on personal experience with it. Go with a Lalvin 71B-1122 or Red Star Côte des Blancs yeast. And start your yeast with rehydration protocol using goferm or just pure water at 104F before pitching. Search the forum for more info. Also be sure you have some Fermaid-O or Fermax on hand in case your cider/cyser demands some nutrients. You'll know because it'll begin to throw off a rotten egg smell affectionately referred to in these parts as "rhino farts." Lol. I always start my ciders off with some nutrient additions up front and keep careful watch on them until they're done.

BTW, all my ciders are from unfiltered, pasteurized apple juice I get from my local groceries. They come out splendidly.
 
All you need is apple juice and an English ale yeast. I used S-04. Most seem to use Nottingham. (Based on compulsive browsing at Homebrewtalk) Pitch your yeast per packet instructions and wait till it ferments out. Store bought is about 1.050 ish. It may or may not ferment to dry, probably about 1.004-1.000. Then back sweeten with more apple juice. Adding some honey or turbinado sugar to primary will give it more flavor and abv. Racking it onto berries is very good. Their are many options. How you bottle it is where the major concern is.
 
Checked my notes, Tree Top apple cider from concentrate @ 1.044. I did not check others as they were blended into juiced apples using a Jack La lain power juicer.
 
This is a mead forum, we have to encourage you to add a bunch of honey to your cider to make a cyser:) You want the opposite of jelly so dont add sure gel as mentioned above, it wont actually gell up on you but you will never get it to go clear. WVMJ
 
WVMJack said:
When you say not to use a certain yeasts its nice if you say why you didnt like it? WVMJ
Click to expand...

This is a good point. I don't like EC-1118 for cider because it really mutes the apple flavour. It will come back around somewhat with age, but not nearly as well as with other yeasts. Nottingham Ale yeast is pretty good, but the White Labs English cider yeast is better. It's worth the extra cost at time to make a starter from the liquid yeast. I haven't tried either 71B or D47 for cider.
 
zhiv9 said:
I see this number posted a lot on the various forums. The store bought juice I buy is always closer to 1.040. Regional differences maybe.
Click to expand...
I have not tried any juices from concentrate, but I suspect the water to concentrate ratio is a little skewed from the natural ratio for obvious reasons. Every natural unfiltered NOT from concentrate apple juice I've bought has been 1.048-1.050 right out of the jug.
 
I've used prob over 20 different yeasts in my cider experiments. Beer yeasts make your cider taste like beer and you get those recommendations from beer based home brewing sites. White wine yeasts (try AWRI350) generally work best and might leave you more choices for dryness level based on protocol (fermentation temps/time, crashing, racking and/or keeving). Champagne yeasts like EC-1118 work well but strip out all life on their way past 1.000 until they reach dust. I'm beginning to like 71B more - though it does like to munch on malic acid a bit. I just started a new 3g test batch with 1388 just to see what it does to a very tart mash of Macintosh, Arkansas black, granny smith and braeburn run through a juicer. Of course, since this is a mead list first, i need to mention the cider is sitting next to a 7g batch of date/raisin cyser happily bubbling in its bucket.

I recommend this book for a great read on making cider. There are more if you are interested - just PM me for my library list.
 
buckhuntr said:
But I don't have fresh apples. I have 5 1-gallon jugs of unfiltered, pasteurized, no preservatives grocery store cider from a producer in Kansas. I have a packet of D-47 yeast. I have a hand of ginger to peel, grate and add to the juice. Anything else? I see in some of the threads here a mention of pectinase - is that like Fruit Fresh pectin that I use on fresh fruit prior to making jelly? Sure-Jell?
What about adding a couple bags of cranberries for tannins? I'll be using a 5-gallon carboy for the primary fermenter, with airlock.
Click to expand...

Did you manage to turn-out a good brew in the end? If so, what did you end-up using in the final recipe? I'm getting into brewing and wanted to kick things off with Cider ready for the summer but definitely want to try making some mead and mulled cider/wine later in the year as it edges closer to Christmas. Looking for as many recipe ideas as possible and want to see how peoples experiments are paying off. I was personally thinking of getting a cider press to press my own fruit.
 
If you dont have your own trees the next best thing is to find a real cidery, many of them will sell their pressed juice to home cider makers, this is so much better than getting juice in a bottle at the store because it will be a good blend of apples designed for making hard cider. The next thing would be cider pressed fresh from a local orchard that is for sweet cider, if you can find some crabapples, the orchard probably has some growing in the orchard, they might let you pick some that you can add to their sweet cider to add some tannins. Yes the generic store bought apple juice will make a pleasant cyser if there are no other sources but it wont have the extra special character real cider apples would add. WVMJ
 
+1 to what JDRanchman said. The New Cidermaker's Handbook is an amazing publication. There's a ton of info that's directly relevant to making cysers, and a ton of other stuff that's applicable to meadmaking.
 
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