coastalgriff
Educated Redneck
Does anyone else make homemade hard cider or Perry?
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Hard cider and Perry
- Thread starter coastalgriff
- Start date
BeerAdvocate
BeerHunter
I have a batch of hard cider going right now, but it wont be ready until right before Christmas. I will test it then and see if it is drinkable or if it should rest a few more months.
BeerAdvocate
BeerHunter
Hard Apple cider is very easy to make.Here is a simple recipe. The longer you let it ferment the better. 1 year is ideal. You can carb it or drink it flat.
Ingredients
5 Gallons 100% Apple Juice (No preservatives or additives) I use Tree Top Apple Juice
2 pounds of dextrose (corn sugar) in one pound bags
1 five gram packet of Montrachet Wine Yeast
Equipment
5 Gallon Carboy (I use a Better Bottle)
Carboy Cap or Stopper with Airlock
Funnel
First sanitize the carboy, airlock, funnel, stopper or carboy cap.
Open one gallon bottle of apple juice and pour half of it into the carboy using the funnel.
Open one bag of Dextrose and carefully add it to the now half full bottle of apple juice. Shake well.
Repeat Steps 2 and 3, then go to step 5.
Pour in the mixture of Apple Juice and Dextrose from both bottles into the carboy.
Add all but 1 quart of remaining 3 gallons of apple juice to the carboy.
Open the packet of Montrachet Yeast and pour it into the neck of the funnel.
Use the remaining quart of juice to wash down any yeast that sticks. I am able to fit all but 3 ounces of apple juice into a 5 gallon Better Bottle. You may need to be patient to let the foam die down from all shaking and pouring.
Put your stopper or carboy cap on with an airlock and fill the airlock with cheap vodka. No bacteria will live in vodka and if you get suckback, you just boosted the abv.
Ingredients
5 Gallons 100% Apple Juice (No preservatives or additives) I use Tree Top Apple Juice
2 pounds of dextrose (corn sugar) in one pound bags
1 five gram packet of Montrachet Wine Yeast
Equipment
5 Gallon Carboy (I use a Better Bottle)
Carboy Cap or Stopper with Airlock
Funnel
First sanitize the carboy, airlock, funnel, stopper or carboy cap.
Open one gallon bottle of apple juice and pour half of it into the carboy using the funnel.
Open one bag of Dextrose and carefully add it to the now half full bottle of apple juice. Shake well.
Repeat Steps 2 and 3, then go to step 5.
Pour in the mixture of Apple Juice and Dextrose from both bottles into the carboy.
Add all but 1 quart of remaining 3 gallons of apple juice to the carboy.
Open the packet of Montrachet Yeast and pour it into the neck of the funnel.
Use the remaining quart of juice to wash down any yeast that sticks. I am able to fit all but 3 ounces of apple juice into a 5 gallon Better Bottle. You may need to be patient to let the foam die down from all shaking and pouring.
Put your stopper or carboy cap on with an airlock and fill the airlock with cheap vodka. No bacteria will live in vodka and if you get suckback, you just boosted the abv.
I do a malted cider that's rather tasty. I use four gallons of Costco brand 100% juice not from concentrate. Then I use some 1lb each amber DME and light DME with some crystal (60-120), and have used some honey malt in the past. I might do a mini mash this next time and completely go with out DME and see how it turns out. All those additional fermentables will go into a 1gal boil to bring the batch up to 5gal.
coastalgriff
Educated Redneck
BA posted a great basic cider recipe. Make sure you use juice that does not have sorbate added. Here's another basic recipe I like:
5 gallons Apple Juice
4 lbs. Frozen Blueberries
1.5 cups Craisins
2 lbs Light Brown Sugar
2 Cans Apple Juice Concentrate
1 package champagne yeast
The champagne yeast ferments the cider on the dry side which is more to my taste. I carb with corn sugar at bottling and in 6 months to a year I have cider that tastes very similar to champagne. This month I'm going to try a batch of perry with wild yeast. We'll see how that goes. It will be my first attempt with the wild stuff.
5 gallons Apple Juice
4 lbs. Frozen Blueberries
1.5 cups Craisins
2 lbs Light Brown Sugar
2 Cans Apple Juice Concentrate
1 package champagne yeast
The champagne yeast ferments the cider on the dry side which is more to my taste. I carb with corn sugar at bottling and in 6 months to a year I have cider that tastes very similar to champagne. This month I'm going to try a batch of perry with wild yeast. We'll see how that goes. It will be my first attempt with the wild stuff.
Yes, my buddy and I make a couple of batches each fall. We start from scratch. We pick the helps from a tree in my yard and that of my bro-in-law. We chop them, pulverize in a food processor, then press them in an old wine press. It's quite labor intensive, but we make a weekend of it, drinking and smoking all day. I think this year we're going to rig up something with a garbage disposal to bypass some of that.
Using champagne yeast gives an excellent body and fine bubbles, but it's overly dry and winey. Ale yeast gives a funky finish more similar to the cidre we've enjoyed in France. BTW, cider is enjoying a renaissance in New England. Woodchuck in Vermont is one of the pioneers in microbrew cider.
Last year we filled two carboys, one with a standard cider and the other with apple/pear using honey as the sugar. The latter came out a bit sweet for my taste but my wife loves it. We were just discussing this year's batch last night. Should be getting started soon...
Using champagne yeast gives an excellent body and fine bubbles, but it's overly dry and winey. Ale yeast gives a funky finish more similar to the cidre we've enjoyed in France. BTW, cider is enjoying a renaissance in New England. Woodchuck in Vermont is one of the pioneers in microbrew cider.
Last year we filled two carboys, one with a standard cider and the other with apple/pear using honey as the sugar. The latter came out a bit sweet for my taste but my wife loves it. We were just discussing this year's batch last night. Should be getting started soon...
I did a search on the net and there's lots of good info on making cider. I am going to give it a shot and I think I will do it from scratch. Anyone have suggestions as far as apple variety? I'll probably choose a more tart apple like granny smith.
http://www.allaboutapples.com/index.htm
There's an orchard listing. Some apples are grown specifically for cider.
There's an orchard listing. Some apples are grown specifically for cider.
Just crush them and squeeze out the juice. I think the only thing that cider presses do for processing is they shred the apples and squeeze the shit out of them skins and all. I saw the process on TV once the place had layers of fiber that the pulp laid on and then a giant hydraulic ram squeezed the the juice out.
Yep now if you don't want to utilize the natural yeasts you can either throw your own yeast in there and it should overwhelm the natural yeast OR you can use some campden tablets (sodium or potassum metabisulfate) which kills the yeast. Then after like three days you put your own yeast in it. When I get fresh cider I just put my own yeast in with out killing off the original yeast.
So, I have an OG of 1052 for my cider. I'm hesitating to add any sugar at all as that is already fairly sweet (from what I'm reading on the net). I'm waiting another 24 hours before adding the yeast.
With the wine yeast you told me about you could end up with your 7%abv you were aiming for. I'd say let it go there and you'll be good. If you added two pounds of sugar like we discussed you could break into the 8% range. It all depends on how far down your yeast take the gravity.
That's sort of what I figured. I am going to add one pound of sugar. That should give me an 8% ABV dry cider if all goes as planned and the yeast do there thing. Thanks for your help!
If it smells bad grab a NATO gas mask filter and run the yeast exhaust through the filter.