Cider

[K5MOW]

Just wanted to see what you all think. I decided to throw together a gallon of apple cider.

12 ounces clover honey
Top off to 1 gallon apple juice
Lalvin Bourgovin RC212 Yeast

How do you all think it will turn out.

 

[K5MOW]

Should I put some cinnamon sticks and cloves in this recipe.

 

[Chevette Girl]

I like cinnamon and allspice, but if you like cloves, go for it!

 

[bernardsmith]

Just wanted to see what you all think. I decided to throw together a gallon of apple cider.

12 ounces clover honey
Top off to 1 gallon apple juice
Lalvin Bourgovin RC212 Yeast

How do you all think it will turn out.

How it will turn out will depend, I think, on the quality of the apple juice. It may need some addition of tannins or even acid blend if the juice was made from desert (eating apples)... but the only way to know is to taste the cider after it has done fermenting... (I am a kind of purist and I prefer my cider without any spices... but that , as they say, is another story).

 

[K5MOW]

Thanks for all the information.

 

[Medsen Fey]

I'd guess it will smell like a sulfur bomb if you don't feed those yeast. RC212 is a nutrient hog.

 

[K5MOW]

I'd guess it will smell like a sulfur bomb if you don't feed those yeast. RC212 is a nutrient hog.

Yes I did add some nutrients.

 

[Loadnabox]

The cider recipe I use is as follows (makes about 4 gallons) It's been a HUGE hit every time

30 pounds granny smith
30 pounds red delicious
30 pounds honey crisp
WLP775 yeast

run apples through juicer
freeze, thaw then press remnants in juice press

Fortify with honey to SG 1.085

pitch yeast at room temp, once first signs of fermentation show add nutrients, Put a 6" piece of 3/4" copper pipe (sanitized) into the batch and put into fridge to ferment at 60-65F

degass until first 1/3 sugar break then put into lock

Once fermentation is completely done remove copper pipe and rack off into carboy. Age at least 2 months. More aging helps with this just like wine.

when ready, use campden tabs to stabilize mix, then back-sweeten to 1.015

Use keg to force-carbonate at low temps (32F) bottle if desired.

 

[WVMJack]

2 bushels of these apples should give you at least 6 gallons of juice if you were using a press vs juicer. You might get a higher yield if you freeze the apples first? I have never seen anyone actually leave a copper pipe in the fermentor, have you not considered any excessive copper might get into your cider, you probably wouldnt taste it and its totally unnecessary if you are adding the correct amounts of yeast nutrients. WVMJ

 

[Honeyhog]

Considering most of the water pipes in everyone's house is mostly copper, fermenting and distilling vessels are or were copper and many cooking pots are copper or have copper components in them and we aren't dieing of heavy metal poisoning I'd say leaving a copper pipe in the must shouldn't be a problem.

 

[WVMJack]

I was thinking more of an acidic enviornment vs water but you have a very good point. WVMJ

 

[Chevette Girl]

The acidity is a big component of how much copper can dissolve or react into water, typical city water is adjusted to be slightly basic because it tastes better... oh, and don't ever use copper pipes for distilled water, either. That's just a big mistake...

That said, I'm interested in hearing how RC212 handles apples. It makes for some delightful wines if you can get over how needy it is at the beginning of the ferment

I haven't compared the yield on my juicer with the yield from pressing...

 

[WVMJack]

I got a juicer today so we could juice some sample apples, I have a new appreciation for what people go thru who try to make cider with these! Peppers they do a good job on but the sediment in the apple juice was so thick, I think we have to filter it out before we run any tests on it. WVMJ

 

[Chevette Girl]

You might just let it sit overnight with pectinase and then pour off the clear part for your experiments, I get a fair bit of sediment pressing through cheesecloth but I just stirred it in and fermented it that way, it cleared up nicely and the sediment packed pretty densely after fermentation.

 

[EbonHawk]

Sorry, necro-posting. But things around gotmead.com tend to move at a snail's pace, not unlike its real-life namesake counterpart. ;-)

Definitely leave some residual apple "stuff" in the mix, as it will just settle out. Don't go crazy or anything, but leaving some in there will only get more of the good stuff out of it in fermentation and the settling process. "Too clean" apple cider just gets overpowered by everything else. Leaving some of the particulate apple matter in there lets more of the apple taste shine through in the final product. Just my opinion however.