apple cider

[homebrewcrew]

Looking for a good recipe to make hard apple cider and a location in halifax or surrounding areas where I can get pure apple juice or apple cider. Was thinking about getting the cider kit from noble grape but would like to make a more fresh/natural cider.

[hogie]

I've made a couple batches recently using President's Choice Apple Cider and dry champagne yeast. It comes in 3L jugs for a little under $5. The OG of that cider is 1.050 and it's finished at 1.002 both times, so 7% ABV.

Steps:
- Empty the jugs into a large pot, simmer (not boil!) on the stove for 45mins.
- Cool to 23C by immersing pot in ice water bath.
- Transfer to carboy/fermentor and aerate.
- Rehydrate yeast and pitch.
- After 2 weeks, rack to bottling bucket, add priming sugar (4.5g/L dissolved in 1cup boiling water) and bottle.
- 7-14days later, she's ready to drink!

[Dirt Chicken]

Have you tried talking to Boats Farm? They produce apple and pear cider and are local. In the past I have bought 23L buckets full for $18. Contact Brian Boates bb@xcoiuntry.tv or phone:
902.678.7301 or 902.678.0771

[homebrewcrew]

Thanks for the help guys good advice I will give them a call today and if not I will try the farmers market this weekend in halifax and dartmouth.

[Dirt Chicken]

No problem, with Boats farm at the halifax seaport market on Saturday, you bring in your bucket, they press cider on thursdays year round, and you pick it up the next saturday.

[homebrewcrew]

Went to the farmers market today and dropped off 3 buckets to Brian at 75 cents a liter for apple cider I am very happy. Just for future reference next week he will be returning to the brewery market instead of the seaport market.

[homebrewcrew]

This saturday I will be picking up my 69 liter batch of apple cider from boates farms. Just so I don't screw things up I was hoping I could pass this procedure by you to make sure I am doing things right. I am concerned about the amount of sugar in the cider, I would like to get 7-8% alcohol content out of my cider but don't want to put so much sugar in so it kills the yeast. This cider does not have anywhere near the amount of sugar store bought cider has.

I was going to heat the cider over the stove but not boil for 45min to an hour.
Then I was going to put it right into the carboy once cooled and add the champain yeast too the cider.
Then let it sit for 2-3 weeks then syphon it too the primary bucket, add the priming sugar and bottle.

I might try one batch of cider with no added sugar to the carboy.
My next batch I might try 1/3 cup of brown sugar to up the alcohol content.
And the last batch at 2/3 cup of brown sugar.

Does this sound right?

[wortly]

In the past, I had never added sugar to any of my hard ciders - I usually had an OG of 1.060-1.065 and it finished pretty dry. You could never taste the alcohol in it, but it definitely had a kick!

[Jimmy]

I added some brown sugar to the cider I did last year. I forget the amount, but the cider turned out better than I expected.

[papercrane]

You might consider adding yeast nutrients to the cider. I just did my first batch of cider, and the yeast was very slow to start until I added some nutrients.

[steve45ca]

Hi all, new to the forum but I thought I'd share my cider recipe with everyone. I use graves apple juice when it's on sale. I use 21-22L of juice, 1kg of brown sugar and coopers ale yeast.... everyone thats tasted it, loved it. I also have a youtube channel and all the comments I've received on this recipe has been positive.

One of these days I will use real cider and see how it turns out. I also have a holiday cider recipe that turned out fantastic:

3.5L of apple juice
1 cup of brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
1 1/2 tsp of cinnamon
1 packet of coopers ale yeas

Warm (not boil) the apple juice and ingredients for 10 mins stirring well, then Strain the undissolved nutmeg and cinnamon into a growler before adding the yeast. A friend of mine made a 5 gallon batch (he multiplied the ingredients by 5) and it turned out just as good

[homebrewcrew]

I was reading about that and decided not to use the yeast nutrient but so far I have had to change the airlock water twice, from so much activity. So it looks like everything is going very well so far.

[papercrane]

I was looking for some information on cider & yeast nutrients when I found this gem: http://www.cider.org.uk/part3.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Traditional cider-makers used to hang a leg of mutton or a side of beef in the fermenting vat to boost the nutrient levels. The meat broke down slowly in the acid juice, releasing soluble amino nitrogen which the yeast could use for growth. The supposed requirement of a few dead rats in every vat is a more colourful manifestation of the same idea!

I'm sure that added an interesting flavour...

[XmonikerX]

I've made a couple batches recently using President's Choice Apple Cider and dry champagne yeast. It comes in 3L jugs for a little under $5. The OG of that cider is 1.050 and it's finished at 1.002 both times, so 7% ABV.

Steps:
- Empty the jugs into a large pot, simmer (not boil!) on the stove for 45mins.
- Cool to 23C by immersing pot in ice water bath.
- Transfer to carboy/fermentor and aerate.
- Rehydrate yeast and pitch.
- After 2 weeks, rack to bottling bucket, add priming sugar (4.5g/L dissolved in 1cup boiling water) and bottle.
- 7-14days later, she's ready to drink!

Is that really all there is involved in making it?

[akr71]

I was looking for some information on cider & yeast nutrients when I found this gem: http://www.cider.org.uk/part3.htm" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Traditional cider-makers used to hang a leg of mutton or a side of beef in the fermenting vat to boost the nutrient levels. The meat broke down slowly in the acid juice, releasing soluble amino nitrogen which the yeast could use for growth. The supposed requirement of a few dead rats in every vat is a more colourful manifestation of the same idea!

I'm sure that added an interesting flavour...

dead rat cider

I've made a couple batches recently using President's Choice Apple Cider and dry champagne yeast. It comes in 3L jugs for a little under $5. The OG of that cider is 1.050 and it's finished at 1.002 both times, so 7% ABV.

Steps:
- Empty the jugs into a large pot, simmer (not boil!) on the stove for 45mins.
- Cool to 23C by immersing pot in ice water bath.
- Transfer to carboy/fermentor and aerate.
- Rehydrate yeast and pitch.
- After 2 weeks, rack to bottling bucket, add priming sugar (4.5g/L dissolved in 1cup boiling water) and bottle.
- 7-14days later, she's ready to drink!

Is that really all there is involved in making it?

I fail to see why you even need to heat it. I dumped all mine in a bucket (aerating at the same time) and pitched the yeast and walked away. Its still quite tasty 3 years later.

[jeffsmith]

I fail to see why you even need to heat it. I dumped all mine in a bucket (aerating at the same time) and pitched the yeast and walked away. Its still quite tasty 3 years later.

When I made mine, I heated about 3 quarts of the cider/juice to make it easier to dissolve the sugar I added, but definitely no simmering. If you're not adding anything else to the cider, I'd agree with Andy, I don't see any need to heat it.

[jtmwhyte]

If you're interested in something different Google Edwort's Apfelvein. It's a German hard cider which is much drier than commercial North American ciders and carries an 8.5-9% abv and is simple to make. I made a few batches and have one on the go now. The only downside is the 2-3 months on the yeast cake.

[elreplica]

I picked up a 23 litre jug of pear/apple sweet cider (80/20) from Brian down on the Boates farm on the Thanksgiving Friday. The OG was lowish - around 1043 and so I bumped it to just over 1050 with 500 g of dextrose. I pitched a sachet of Nottingham and within 12 hours it was working fervently at 66F. It's 10 days later and just slowing down at a room temperature of 61F. There's still some krausen but not nearly as much as 3-4 days back. I'm wondering about the clearing...has anyone had any issues with clearing in bottles? I want to Grolsch bottle it rather than keg it. I've used kiesosol and gelatin in beer and cold crashed many ales and lagers. I could plate filter but don't wNt to remove residual yeast required fir bottle priming. Any thoughts out here in Brewnoser land?

[RossBee]

Get yourself some Bentonite at your local wine kit store, pre-packaged to carboy size. Rack, add the bentonite, store cool and dark and leave as long as you think you need to.

[James]

Is that really all there is involved in making it?

Dave, mine was that simple, I tarted mine up a bit with a bit of molasses and some chai tea then I put it in the jug to work; 3 weeks ago though...I can't wait for the damned thing to stop working so I can bottle it! There was no lag time, within 20-30 mins those yeast bugs were working like mad. The only yeast I had at the time was Belle Saison; this thing is still vigorously bubbling away. I forget what the OG was...but it was a bit high.

[saosborne]

Is that really all there is involved in making it?

Dave, mine was that simple, I tarted mine up a bit with a bit of molasses and some chai tea then I put it in the jug to work; 3 weeks ago though...I can't wait for the damned thing to stop working so I can bottle it! There was no lag time, within 20-30 mins those yeast bugs were working like mad. The only yeast I had at the time was Belle Saison; this thing is still vigorously bubbling away. I forget what the OG was...but it was a bit high.

Let us know how it turned out. the last batch that I made I used belle saison with my usual recipe ( pc combination of pc apple juice and rosemount macintosh, dextrose to achieve 1.060 grated ginger and yeast nutrient). It took 3 cans of frozen apple juice for back sweetening and 7 months before it started tasting decent. if im in a hurry i can usually be drinkinging it after a month

[James]

Let us know how it turned out. the last batch that I made I used belle saison with my usual recipe ( pc combination of pc apple juice and rosemount macintosh, dextrose to achieve 1.060 grated ginger and yeast nutrient). It took 3 cans of frozen apple juice for back sweetening and 7 months before it started tasting decent. if im in a hurry i can usually be drinkinging it after a month

...ok, I'm a bit worried now...

[jacinthebox]

I've done a 1.055 cider...used ale yeast, and back sweetened with 2 cans of frozen apple juice conc.
I let it clear a bit in the carboy then bottled in 4L spring water jugs (or wine bottles if I really want to hate my life)...
I've never really worries about clearing it...it tastes good the is way it...I've carb'd it and left it flat. both great.

The best cider I've made was one when I added a few pounds of frozen peaches to the secondary and left til packaging....awesome stuff, apples and peach work really well together. We named it Dicken's. Dicken's Cider

[Keith]

I'm stealing the name if I ever make a cider, or Jeff's Slider in Cider lol

[jtmwhyte]

I just picked up a bunch of mulled cider at the local Superstore. It was 1.75 for 3 litres so I figure I've got nothing to lose