YeastyBoy Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 Given the excess of apples on the apple trees this year, I have branched out into Apple Cider, Hard. Mother of invention in these times of staying home!! Rough guide I understand is that you use 1.5kg of sugar for 23 litres some yeast and let it rip. Given my brew is a 1.5l batch meant scaled brown sugar to 100g, trub US05 (2 tsp) at 18C. Think my OG was 1075. Started fermenting in 2 hours!! Assume have a usual 10 - 14 day until SG is constant before bottling. Prime with sugar same as beer for 2nd ferm? Anyone have any insights into brewing apple cider from apples (not brought apple juice) in here and willing to impart experience? Cheers YB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozlizard Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 (edited) Pretty sure if you use sugar it is apple wine not cider? Plus of course cider is usually carbonated. Just made some apple wine with pink lady apples off our tree. I used 4kg of apples and 1kg of sugar to make 5lts. Now in secondary to clear for about a month or so. This is the third or fourth apple wine I have made, 3 of the others were just store bought juice with some other fruit juice thrown in for good measure and one other from fresh apples (not ours). They all turned out pretty good so looking forward to this one. Next year I will try apple cider, maybe just bottle it in PET bottles and carbonate. Actually might do that with a couple of bottles of this lot and see what happens. Edited April 24, 2020 by ozlizard 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben 10 Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 Rough guide is don't use sugar. Apple juice should be 1050 or so which is plenty. It will ferment to 1000 (or maybe slightly lower), get champagne yeast next time. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeastyBoy Posted April 24, 2020 Author Share Posted April 24, 2020 Thanks Guys, OK first lesson, no sugar for apple cider. Fail on my part on that score. Guess it will be a sparkling wine at the end of day. Do you prime bottles on filling for 2nd fermentation? Noted Champers Yeast, recommendation which one is better than the rest @Ben 10 or they much of a muchness? Have a few more apples so will try the no sugar recipe next. Learning by doing or stuffing up really!! Thanks again guys Cheers YB 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozlizard Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 For yeast I use EC 1118 which is basically a champagne/wine yeast. In the past I just used some carbonation drops but the bottles I used didn't seal well (swingtops) so no carbonation. This time as mentioned I will use the Coopers beer bottles with the 2 drops per bottle. If your "cider" ends up being sparkling wine you probably won't taste the difference anyway! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeastyBoy Posted April 24, 2020 Author Share Posted April 24, 2020 Beaut, thanks @ozlizard Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ben 10 Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 2 hours ago, YeastyBoy said: Noted Champers Yeast, recommendation which one is better than the rest @Ben 10 or they much of a muchness? SN9 is pretty fuggin good 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thirsty Jim Posted April 24, 2020 Share Posted April 24, 2020 Good thread. My question though is the glove over the bottle. Do you prick holes on the fingers for the gas to escape ? I have always just put the cap back on the bottle and backed it off a quarter of a turn from tight... but I like the idea of the brew waving at me 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeastyBoy Posted April 26, 2020 Author Share Posted April 26, 2020 On 4/24/2020 at 9:30 PM, James of Bayswater said: Good thread. My question though is the glove over the bottle. Do you prick holes on the fingers for the gas to escape ? I have always just put the cap back on the bottle and backed it off a quarter of a turn from tight... but I like the idea of the brew waving at me Hi James, The glove was certainly an entertaining addition. Started out as a one finger salute and ended up with the whole hand wave. No pin pricks as the pressurised gas seems to escape somewhere so no issue with flying latex gloves in the bathroom. Figure when it returns to a sagging glove I will be good to bottle? Yet to be proven!! Cheers YB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thirsty Jim Posted April 27, 2020 Share Posted April 27, 2020 Fantastic. Not only will the brew wave it me it will fly around the room like a flatulent chicken when its ready. I am doing this. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeastyBoy Posted May 1, 2020 Author Share Posted May 1, 2020 On 4/24/2020 at 4:48 PM, ozlizard said: For yeast I use EC 1118 which is basically a champagne/wine yeast. In the past I just used some carbonation drops but the bottles I used didn't seal well (swingtops) so no carbonation. This time as mentioned I will use the Coopers beer bottles with the 2 drops per bottle. If your "cider" ends up being sparkling wine you probably won't taste the difference anyway! My LHBS fortunately had the EC 1118 in stock, so that is the yeast of choice for my next round of Apple Cider making. The hand waving 2 litre FV vessels are multiplying somewhat!! Maybe I should have gone with a larger FV...…. Cheers YB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozlizard Posted May 2, 2020 Share Posted May 2, 2020 Hope it works out! Still waiting for mine to clear, but not sure it will within a reasonable time. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeastyBoy Posted May 3, 2020 Author Share Posted May 3, 2020 @ozlizard ditto mind is still cloudy too. Hoping it will clear in the bottle (2nd Ferm). Not sure how I am going to decant from the make do 2 litre plastic fantastic into glass bottles without to much oxidation or stirring the mix up either!! Thought about siphoning but sure that will be easy, do you have a plan on that front yet? Cheers YB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonySchmidt Posted May 3, 2020 Share Posted May 3, 2020 On 5/2/2020 at 9:50 AM, YeastyBoy said: My LHBS fortunately had the EC 1118 in stock, so that is the yeast of choice for my next round of Apple Cider making. The hand waving 2 litre FV vessels are multiplying somewhat!! Maybe I should have gone with a larger FV...…. Cheers YB I also use the EC-1118 Champagne yeast for my ciders, I don’t use juice available at supermarkets though, I get mine from Sutton’s Juice Factory & Cidery in Stanthorpe. Absolute pure juice - 1 litre = 1kg pure Apple My father in law owns & runs the farm, he uses a Danish Champagne yeast for his and has won many gold medals for his ciders. I’m nowhere near his standard, he makes thousands of litres at a time though 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozlizard Posted May 5, 2020 Share Posted May 5, 2020 On 5/3/2020 at 5:44 PM, YeastyBoy said: Thought about siphoning but sure that will be easy, do you have a plan on that front yet? I use a syphon tube stuck into the bottle wand. Bit hard to suck it through and not the best solution but is seems to work ok! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeastyBoy Posted May 5, 2020 Author Share Posted May 5, 2020 On 5/3/2020 at 8:41 PM, TonySchmidt said: I also use the EC-1118 Champagne yeast for my ciders, I don’t use juice available at supermarkets though, I get mine from Sutton’s Juice Factory & Cidery in Stanthorpe. Absolute pure juice - 1 litre = 1kg pure Apple My father in law owns & runs the farm, he uses a Danish Champagne yeast for his and has won many gold medals for his ciders. I’m nowhere near his standard, he makes thousands of litres at a time though Thanks Tony, Appears I am now on the right track now. Maybe we need to get hold of that award winning cider yeast for our home brewing from your father in law?? Cheers YB Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozlizard Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 I bottled some of my apple wine into Coopers PET bottles and added 2carbonation drops per bottle, but nothing has happened. I thought there would be some yeast left to carbonate the wine but it appears not. I was wondering about putting a little bit of yeast into the bottles to get it happening but not sure how much to add. There is a distinct risk of making bottle bombs of course. I have some Coopers can yeast I was thinking of using or I could get some champagne yeast I guess? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonySchmidt Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 24 minutes ago, ozlizard said: I bottled some of my apple wine into Coopers PET bottles and added 2carbonation drops per bottle, but nothing has happened. I thought there would be some yeast left to carbonate the wine but it appears not. I was wondering about putting a little bit of yeast into the bottles to get it happening but not sure how much to add. There is a distinct risk of making bottle bombs of course. I have some Coopers can yeast I was thinking of using or I could get some champagne yeast I guess? How many bottles did you get out of your cider? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozlizard Posted June 1, 2020 Share Posted June 1, 2020 I got 2 750ml bottles and 4 740ml PET bottles. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozlizard Posted June 22, 2020 Share Posted June 22, 2020 Checked my bottles today and still not hard so added some more yeast. Will keep you posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Smashed Crabs Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 On 6/22/2020 at 6:14 PM, ozlizard said: Checked my bottles today and still not hard so added some more yeast. Will keep you posted. Odd, i usually do 5 x 2L store bought juice and throw in some extra sugar to pretty much make a little fat lamb strength apple "wine" and find i usually get too much carbonation from two carb drops. Did the extra yeast help ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozlizard Posted June 28, 2020 Share Posted June 28, 2020 They seem to be firming up a bit more so only time will tell! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ozlizard Posted July 17, 2020 Share Posted July 17, 2020 First taste test of the carbonated apple wine. The bottles firmed up quite well so chucked one in the fridge yesterday and opened it tonight. It was nicely carbonated and tasted and drank like an apple flavoured champagne, so I call that a win. Oh did I mention that it tastes delicious? (and deadly at 13%!) 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YeastyBoy Posted July 23, 2020 Author Share Posted July 23, 2020 Bottled 8 long Necks with the last of my fermented Hard Apple Cider yesterday. Real apples from the tree that went berserk this year. First experimental stuff which is effectively wine is a most pleasant drop in moderation!! Much has been learnt so looking forward to tasting this last batch in due course as think I have nailed it?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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