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Making hard cider

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Tannin Boy said:
Triarchy,

Just a followup to your gravity question.
I just received my Golden Russet Juice...Wonderfully smooth flavor too!
I took a sample and used the refractometer which shows a Brix reading of 15 :o
Which puts me at a starting gravity of 1.078 I believe.
The Ph meter came in at 3.8 which from all I have read is perfect....
Can't wait to see how it all comes together this spring...

TB
Click to expand...

Wow (for both the high SG and how late I am in seeing this!). I think you are looking at between 9-10% ABV. Those are some seriously sweet apples. I would love to know how this comes out (are you doing a brewlog here?) and if you decide to add things like acid blend (since its on the high end of pH) or tannin or oak. I never seem to have enough apple juice to experiment with myself.
 
triarchy said:
Wow (for both the high SG and how late I am in seeing this!). I think you are looking at between 9-10% ABV. Those are some seriously sweet apples. I would love to know how this comes out (are you doing a brewlog here?) and if you decide to add things like acid blend (since its on the high end of pH) or tannin or oak. I never seem to have enough apple juice to experiment with myself.
Click to expand...

Triarchy,

I am not great at logs but have keep info as best I can?
I am using an Ale yeast ( Wyeast 1968 ) max ABV 9%
I talked to the folks at Wyeast about the disappointment of the
flavor / aroma profile's that seem to exist with cider:mad:
The Ale yeast if fermented out at the upper temp range of 72 deg.s
amplifies the apple flavors / aromas! Took a week to ferment out strongly.
I am using a stainless steel conical fermenter for the first time and was amazed at the temp's. increase( 64 - 72 ) at the 22 gallon's plus volume! I went this route as the racking issue is my biggest pet peeve with this brewing hobby. The conical has a dump valve so that I may remove the lee's at givin intervals of time without the racking issue. As to your query to the acid blend I checked with Andrew Lea's book and am within the tolerance of the acid range but as you say on the high side of it? I am most excited as to the max range of the yeast ability's, as this should leave me with some residual sweetness ( 1% )... I personally like a little sweetness and not completely dry, just my opinion / taste buds however. I am leaving the cider alone and not intending to add oak as I do not wish to influence this large batch as it is my first attempt this way. I will leave it in the vessel to spring under a blanket of Co2 for the duration to solve the head space problem with the reduced volume from the dumping of the lee's.. I did manage to freeze a couple of gallons for some experimenting with an apple mead with maybe a 14+ ABV attempt? Let me know how your end goes and will keep you posted as to how things on my end are doing. Dam hard to stay focused with such a long time frame for this cider stuff...Well worth the effort as I enjoy cider so much more than beer.

Regards,

Carl
 
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