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So I've never made a cider before and I was approached by a co-worker to make a batch. They have an orchard and sell organic cider which has been frozen since last year. The goal is to have it ferment a little more concistant and be more beer like rather than wine. The SG was 1.05 so I thought I'd boost that with some brown sugar and got it to 1.06. Next I put in a packet of Nottingham yeast with the hopes of it overpowering any wild yeast. My plan is let it ferment at 20 degrees for the next week or so then rack it to a secondary for 2-3 weeks, or taste.
Would like to hear any thoughts?

I like to keep my cider in the 1.050-1.055 range. I added brown sugar to boost it up...but really prefer it in the lower range. Less of wine, more of a cooler almost. It's for Stanfest, to drink with breakfast, we need our vitamins.

Notty, s04 or any other of your fav ale yeast should leave some sugars behind for you.

Was the cider pasteurized? I know it's frozen, but not sure that kills all the wilds. you may need to treat it before you pitch your yeast.

I have a cider in now. I'll let it ride for a week, then add some cherries (not sure if I'll do whole fruit, puree, or just 100% juice). I will crash it when it's done, add gelatin, then keg/carb. the recipe is called Unicorn Blood (from another site).

Not pasteurized, they didn't want to go that way yet so I'm obliging them. This is kind of a test thing, good to know about the gravity, maybe leave it at 1.05 next time, we'll see how it tastes.

Honestly there's a pretty good chance unpasteurized juice will still be brett-free, so it might turn out pretty good. Probably malolactic though, which would have a little bit of "funk" to it (but not brett levels). Malolactic is pretty much mandatory for old fashioned English style cider, but is mostly absent from north american examples.

The BJCP guidelines for cider are oddly informative considering how uninformative most of their beer entries are.

Or just use some Campden tablets to kill every thing before u pitch ur yeast

jacinthebox wrote:Or just use some Campden tablets to kill every thing before u pitch ur yeast

That would be my preference too, but OP already suggested they want to just go as is.

wild ciders can turn out great. they can also turn out too "wild" for my liking. really depends on what takes hold

It also depends on how fast you want to turn it around. apple juice from the grocery store I've had good cider in 2 weeks, unpasteurized "wild" can take over a year or more to be drinkable. notty is a good option, esters are good, clean fermenting yeasts just starts tasting like wine. unfermentable sugars add more flavor/help the apple flavor shine through as long as they dont over power. There's a fine line between apple juice that tastes like vodka has been added, sucking the juice from a green crab apple, or apple juice mixed with cow manure. time and backsweetening will fix almost anything. Thats my 2 cents

So I am also in the middle of some cider experiments, I have 3 on the go at the moment. One with Nottingham, one s-04 and one s-05. I got the cider from Foote farm in the valley. All three are unpasteurized, very funky and need lots more time I think, it's been 6 weeks now. The s-04 tastes like the apples were very old if that makes any sense. Right now I have half the s-04 resting on some strawberries from last year, hopefully with time they clear up and start tasting a little better. From what I understandI with these things patience is key. That being said does anyone know of somewhere that is still pressing? Or a good source for local cider at this time of year? I think I'm going to do a pasteurized batch with the Nottingham as well.

Thinking about doing some cider (new to brewing in general. Prior to bottling do you add bottling sugar like beer?

creamofwheat wrote:Thinking about doing some cider (new to brewing in general. Prior to bottling do you add bottling sugar like beer?

as long as your not backsweetening with something that is fermentable.I've used stevia in the past to back sweeten then bottle conditioned

cool thanks!