First cider

[kaipee]

Hey guys,

Been a while since I posted, haven't been doing much brewing as I haven't had the time lately. Also been trying to gather supplies for AG BIAB.

Anyways, I got myself a little 1gallon DJ to do the odd 'experiment' while I'm waiting for BIAB equipment (and spare time). I usually make myself some fruit drinks a few times a week from blending bags of frozen fruit. So I kept some of the leftover pulp (blueberries & strawberries) and thought I might try my hand at a cider, using this as additions. Which is what I did today 

Having mostly done beers, I'm not too sure about timings and additives like pectolase and tannins, etc. I read through a few posts and used the following (taking tips from here and there):

- 4lt Asda 100% apple juice (no acid, just water + juice) [didn' t go the Asda Smart Price route as it was only 50% juice with added flavourings, etc]
- 1tsp pectolase (to help prevent haze/clouding because I added pulp - correct??)  :wha:
- 1 cup tea made from 2 tea bags (as a tannin replacement - not sure what for, yet lol)
- 200g plain sugar
- about 200g(-sh) of pulped berries
- 1 heaped teaspoon cider yeast (the packet was for 5 gallon, this is just 1 gallon)

1. added sugar
2. added pectolase
3. added 4lt AJ
4. added pulped berries
5. added tea (warmish)
6. gave good stir/swirl
7. added yeast
8. waited 5-10 for yeast to rehydrate
9. gave another wee swirl to get 'em good and mixed

Ended up with 1044 OG @ 20' (I believe this changes anyway as the fruit/pulp releases more sugars??)
Here is what she looked like:



Can't wait to try this as the initial tasting was amazing (I believe it will lose pretty much all sweetness and be quite bitter/dry?)

[Roo]

Kaipee if looks are anything to go by ill have some of that. Im not a cider drinker but this looks and sounds like its a winner. Good luck!

[Paddy]

Looks great Kaipee.  I haven't brewed a cider yet so I would be tempted to give our recipe a try.

I have brewed WOW a few times though which, from your post, looks like a fairly similar process.

Since you have used pure apple juice (almost 100% fermentable) it will come out very dry with little or no sweetness. Some people like it this way, some don't so it's a mater of taste really.

You probably already know all this but  if you want some sweetness you can "kill" the yeast with Potassium Sorbate (plus a CT) when you rack into secondary and back sweeten with some more apple juice.  Or you could add some non fermentable sweetener (such as splenda).  Sometimes adding a juice with a % of pure juice and a % of sweeteners to the recipe (such as the Asda Smart Price one you mentioned) can help in giving you a sweeter final product.

[sub82]

That looks class! A great colour on it!

[kaipee]

Cheers for the feedback guys.

It's been fermenting for about 12 days now, so thinking about moving it off trub today.
Any tips for what I should be doing now to obtain a better end result?

- secondary fermentation ? (if so how long)
- gelatin to clear ? (added to SF or at another time?)
- any other secret additions I don't know of yet?

[kaipee]

Today it was settled nicely and sitting at around 996 SG, tasted pretty good, quite dry but very little carbonation.
Most of the crud and fruit pulp had cleared out nicely.

I went on the hunt for some gelatin but couldn't find any - though I did pick up a few packs of vege-gel on offer at 40p lol (does anyone know if this will work the same as regular gelatin?)

Considering that I couldn't find any good finings (also hunted for isinglass), I have just gone ahead and moved it into secondary (after 12 days in primary), then put straight into beer fridge to cold crash it. Am I right in thinking this will clear it out over ~48hrs, ready for bottling in a few days? (what temps should I be concerned with?) . I realise there is quite a bit of head room left and was actually considering topping it up with another 1lt apple juice before putting straight into beer fridge (though I opted out due to uncertainty about re-fermenting and infection).

My thoughts were this would:
- reduce head room
- add a little more sweetness back
- not effect fermentation too much as it was going to cold crash straight away

Am I right in thinking this will clear it anyway, and the gelatin would only 'enhance' the clearing? Also I presume there will be plenty of suspended yeast to carbonate once bottled at around 0.5tsp per 500ml bottle?

I can't help but think I should be doing something else, either before cold crash or prior to bottling.

Anyway here is a pic of it in secondary 

[sub82]

Sorry man no real experience of this type of thing but someone's bound to have some advice on the Ciders board.

[kaipee]

Thanks sub82 . I posted a thread in the Cider section

So, I went ahead and just cold crashed it anyway for 48hrs then bottled with 0.5tsp sugar per bottle.

Question: what do I do now? Do I follow the normal 2weeks warm + 1week cold routine? Do I just keep it to warm in the bottles since I cold crashed?

It was pretty clear during bottling, almost looked like a nice Rose wine. Tasted pretty good too.
Hopefully it will carbonate fine and develop nicely in bottles.

Here is a pic prior to bottling