First Brew, First Cider

[Mitch311]

Yes another first thread!

I am going to go with Pappers heat pasteurization technique for a sparkling, sweet cider.

I cheated a little bit and used a Blackrock Cider kit (This is my very first brew, so a little leeway!), but I have ditched its' supplied yeast and instead used Safale S-04 (couldn't get Notty easily, and a lot of people like S-04 just as much it seems).

To this I have added 7.2 Liters of Apple Juice, no preservatives etc, 10grams Sugar per 100ml of juice. So 720gms sugar. Then I added 640grams of Demerara Sugar (I like a bit of molasses flavor). Then I added 500grams of dextrose. All made up to 23Liters. Why did I keep adding sugar???

After all this I still ended up with a SG of 1.05 or there abouts. With my intention to stop at bout 1.015 or so (I like sweetish cider) I am only going to get 4.5-5% ABV. I was hoping for a bit higher ABV but I have already added a lot of none apple sugar. Would an extra 500grams of dextrose throw the flavor out at all? Would give me maybe 1% more ABV I think.

My next batch (I bought the kit before I started reading here!) will be pure apple juice with a bit of sugar. Should be better.

Also I have my brew sitting in the laundry tub with half its' height in water and a shirt wrapped around it. Currently during the day we are hitting an easy 30 Celsius (86 Fahrenheit). Should this be enough to bring the brew down to acceptable tempreatures for S-04?

Thanks! I looked forward to showing the fruits of my labors and detailing my experiments of which I will have many! Already the advice and logs on here have provided a wealth of information.

 

[Daze]

if you want to increase the sugar content but not dilute the apple, use apple juice concentrate. it will add more sugars and more apple flavor. it is a win win.

 

[Mitch311]

I cant seem to find any here in australia. i dont know if this is really odd? Maybe I am looking in all the wrong places but our supermarkets dont seem to stock it.

Any aussies have any hints?

Thanks for the reply.

 

[Daze]

they don't have froze juice concentrate in australia?? interesting Here in the states there is all kinds of frozen juice concentrate, apple, grape orange and so on. Another option is to make your own. simmer apple juice on low eat and evaporate out most of the water. One gallon can be reduced to a syrup of about 2 cups.

 

[Mitch311]

This is the only thing I can find. Juice concentrTe

 

[Mitch311]

I am thinking getting 2x 425gram cans of blueberries in sugar syrup and running them through a blender and then giving em a squirt of pectinaze. Let it sit for a few hrs and mixing with 1 gal of my brew. If I bottle at about 1.015 or so will I still have a good blueberry flavor left behind? If I cold crashed that 1 gal for 24hrs would I still have enough yeast left to bottle carb? I would cold crash just to clear the brew a bit. Though I could live with a cloudy drink if it would taste better lol.

Thanks for your time.

 

[Pickled_Pepper]

I personally wouldn't worry about any cloudiness on my first batch. Work with your numbers (gravity readings) and just go by those. You might end up with some sediment in your bottles, but it shouldn't effect the flavor.

I think the blueberry idea sounds like a nice experiment. I'd probably add it into a secondary (after racking) instead of the primary. Either way would probably be fine.

You might consider picking up a floating thermometer or some way to measure the temp of the laundry tub water. You might need to drop some frozen plastic water bottles in there to bring the temps down slightly. I have a batch of S-04 going right now around 64ºF (17-18ºC?) I think you can take it up to around 70ºF (20ºC or so) lower is better in my opinion.

I'd also suggest trying a batch with plain old juice. That way you could have a baseline of where and when to add additional fermentable sugars or flavors to get what you like.

 

[Mitch311]

Thanks for the comments. I was thinking about the ice cubes and I will give it a go. I have been running a fan continously on the fermenter, with a shirt over the fermenter dipped in the water for some evaporative cooling.

I am planning on grabbing a heap of juice and doing a bunch of 1gal experiements with different sugars, abv, juices etc. I just used this kit thing this first time cause in my uneducated state I bought it before I found this site.

I does smell great though !! Which is at least one positive.

I will go freeze some water bottles I think.

 

[kingfarvito]

Be careful with the pasturization, I recently made a cider that was only in the bottles for 16 hours and was to carbed to pasturize.

 

[Mitch311]

Updates:

Cider is bottled 48 bottles of lovely golden drop. Nice combination of tart and sweet. Very light in the mouth. I'm afraid I am going to drink far too much of it, too quickly. Stopped at 1.010 today. Added 125grams of raw sugar to prime. Will start checking for carbonation tonight.

And my blueberry baby. Sitting at 1.030 will try again at 1.020. Still just a touch too sweet. The wife is a big fan of this, though she agrees it needs to be a little less sweet. Blueberry flavor is subtle but immediate with an apple finish. Lovely. This will be replicated very very soon in large quantities.