First shot at at a hard apple cider

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First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by jacinthebox » Thu Mar 20, 2014 10:25 am

Put this together last night....got bored...not brewing until tomorrow...needed to ferment something.
I was going to make another batch of Hard Lemonade, but wanted to try something different.
I will ferment dry, then kill the yeast, and back sweeten with frozen apple juice concentrate (3-5 cans i'm guessing), then keg

5 us gal of apple juice
5lbs of light brown sugar
1/8 cup of lemon juice
yeast nutrient
US-05
OG 1.080


I heated 2L of apple juice to disolve the sugar, added the lemon juice here
now we wait...
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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by jeffsmith » Thu Mar 20, 2014 11:28 am

I did a batch similar to that a couple of years ago, turned out great and the non-beer drinkers around here really enjoyed it.

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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by jacinthebox » Thu Mar 20, 2014 11:49 am

awesome...cider seems pretty straight forward to me...juice, sugar, yeast...
the thought of a totally dry/flat cider didn't appeal to me...so the back sweetening and carb'ing is a must...
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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by jeffsmith » Thu Mar 20, 2014 1:30 pm

I didn't back sweeten or carb mine. It drank more like wine than cider for sure. For folks that wanted carbonation, I just splashed some club soda into the glass.

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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by jacinthebox » Thu Mar 20, 2014 2:02 pm

Kegging it will also allow me to carb and then park it til the nicer weather gets here (july?), then tap it for the hot summer-ie masses
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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by jacinthebox » Sat Mar 22, 2014 4:20 pm

Chugging away like mad in the carboy...
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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by Keith » Thu Mar 27, 2014 11:02 am

Let me know how it turns out Justin. :cheers2: I may try this if my apple and pear tree produce anything this year. :cheers2:
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:cheers2:

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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by jacinthebox » Thu Mar 27, 2014 5:51 pm

Will do
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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by jacinthebox » Wed Apr 02, 2014 11:58 am

2 weeks in the primary now...still lots of airlock action...I may rack this over to a 2nd carboy tomorrow night, to help with conditioning.
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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by jacinthebox » Thu Apr 03, 2014 9:40 pm

Cider is tasting good. ..og was 1.080 and its at 1.014 now...so the yeast has almost capped out at 82% attenuation, thats about all you can expect from us-05. ..that makes it 8.66%...so im guessing it will finish soon at 9%. Its very nice rite now, still some nice sweetness left...not boozy tasting...it just needs to clear...then I will kill the yeast and back sweeten just a touch with frozen apple concentrate...about 2 more weeks im guessing then keg it
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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by Juniper Hill » Thu Apr 03, 2014 10:08 pm

jacinthebox wrote:Cider is tasting good. ..og was 1.080 and its at 1.014 now...so the yeast has almost capped out at 82% attenuation, thats about all you can expect from us-05. ..that makes it 8.66%...so im guessing it will finish soon at 9%. Its very nice rite now, still some nice sweetness left...not boozy tasting...it just needs to clear...then I will kill the yeast and back sweeten just a touch with frozen apple concentrate...about 2 more weeks im guessing then keg it
Sound good :thumbup:

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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by jacinthebox » Fri Apr 04, 2014 7:57 am

i wont have to add much (if any) to back sweeten it...it tastes pretty damn good now...i will pick something up to help clear it tho...well after i give it 2 more weeks on its own
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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by jacinthebox » Mon Jun 02, 2014 8:13 am

I kegged this last week...tastes pretty good with some carb in it...

It's an ass kicker tho lol
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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by CiderBeerWine » Tue Jun 10, 2014 8:05 pm

Sounds really good!

Instead of lemon you could try 1 can or so of cranberry concentrate next time. Might clarify a slight bit better than with lemon?

Cant wait until apple season!
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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by CiderBeerWine » Tue Jun 10, 2014 8:07 pm

Also is good to bottle carbonate, but it would be dry then of course. I am jelous of the kegged cider.

.....Also strong still dry cider i.e. apple wine is pretty good as long as it is tart enough imo
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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by TimG » Wed Nov 05, 2014 4:55 pm

Cider and Jac,

Would you change anything else in this recipe? I'm going to shoot for a 6.5% non-sweetened cider that is keg carbed. I'll try CBW's suggestion on the cranberry concentrate instead of the lemon. I'll also reduce the sugar addition to bring the OG to a 6.5% level (going to assume 1.010 FG as US-05 always does well for me).

Cheers,

Tim

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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by jacinthebox » Wed Nov 05, 2014 6:40 pm

We did a straight cider last month with apples from my buddys yard...crushed a shit ton of apple to get 5 gal of juice...heated it to kill the wild yeast...added pectin. ..pitched ale yeast...let it ride for a month. ..added yeast killer. ..back sweetened with 2 cans of frozen concentrate and kegged...this turned out better than the last batch....og was 1.050
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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by RossBee » Wed Nov 05, 2014 6:59 pm

Just a suggestion, to clear use Bentonite, about 0.25 to 0.5 g/l after your primary. The duration of the secondary will clean it right up into a clear amber colour. The Bentonite forms kind of a crusty mud at the bottom of the secondary and it takes most of the protein and yeast with it.
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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by gm- » Mon Nov 17, 2014 10:25 pm

Making my first cider on Wednesday. So far my plan is:

9 liters of PC pure cider
S-04 yeast
1/2 teaspoon tannins
pectic enzyme

Ferment, kill yeast, back sweetened with 1 can of frozen concentrate and keg.

Any idea how quickly the process is? Beer like fermentation times?

Fermenting: Oud bruin/Vienna Pekko SMaSH
On tap: Nelson dry hopped Berliner/ Scottish Heavy 70-/ NE IPA

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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by Juniper Hill » Tue Nov 18, 2014 1:28 pm

gm- wrote:Making my first cider on Wednesday. So far my plan is:

9 liters of PC pure cider
S-04 yeast
1/2 teaspoon tannins
pectic enzyme

Ferment, kill yeast, back sweetened with 1 can of frozen concentrate and keg.

Any idea how quickly the process is? Beer like fermentation times?
I'd guess 4-7 days. Never done it with S-04, so YMMV

Might want to consider some yeast nutrient at start of fermentation.

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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by LiverDance » Tue Nov 18, 2014 1:43 pm

gm- wrote:Making my first cider on Wednesday. So far my plan is:

9 liters of PC pure cider
S-04 yeast
1/2 teaspoon tannins
pectic enzyme

Ferment, kill yeast, back sweetened with 1 can of frozen concentrate and keg.

Any idea how quickly the process is? Beer like fermentation times?
I used S04 in my cider I got from Noble Grape one year and it was the best I made so far. The ferment time will be about the same as beer, i gave mine some extra time to clear after initial ferment.
"Twenty years ago — a time, by the way, that hops such as Simcoe and Citra were already being developed, but weren’t about to find immediate popularity — there wasn’t a brewer on earth who would have gone to the annual Hop Growers of American convention and said, “I’m going to have a beer that we make 4,000 barrels of, one time a year. It flies off the shelf at damn near $20 a six-pack, and you know what it smells like? It smells like your cat ate your weed and then pissed in the Christmas tree.” - Bell’s Brewery Director of Operations John Mallet on the scent of their popular Hopslam.

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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by gm- » Tue Nov 18, 2014 10:12 pm

Thanks guys, will add some yeast nutrient at the start. Just bought 3 big gallon jugs of cider. That crap is expensive!

Fermenting: Oud bruin/Vienna Pekko SMaSH
On tap: Nelson dry hopped Berliner/ Scottish Heavy 70-/ NE IPA

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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by gm- » Thu Nov 20, 2014 12:44 am

Image

And so we begin, O.G. 1.050.

Fermenting: Oud bruin/Vienna Pekko SMaSH
On tap: Nelson dry hopped Berliner/ Scottish Heavy 70-/ NE IPA

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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by GAM » Sun Nov 23, 2014 3:46 pm

http://www.kijiji.ca/v-buy-sell-other/d ... 1034075399" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No price on this.

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Re: First shot at at a hard apple cider

Post by gm- » Mon Nov 24, 2014 3:55 pm

Looks similar to what I bought. I paid $7/4 litre jug. Looks like fermentation has mostly died down. Will give it couple of days to clear, and then keg before a party on Saturday.

Fermenting: Oud bruin/Vienna Pekko SMaSH
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