First Cider Attempt (log)

[Valcarion]

Started my first cider attempt today! Found Mrs Gooch’s Apple Juice in the local Whole Foods today, was on sale for $6/gallon in a glass carboy so I couldn’t resist.

Below is the recipe:

1 gallon Apple juice, minus a bit for headroom
71b yeast, rehydrated in a small amount of 100F reverse osmosis water, then slowly acclimated to must over about 20 minutes(still need to get GoFerm)
1/2 tsp pectic enzyme
Using fermax as a nutrient (I know I know, need to order Fermaid O as well. Soon!)

OG: 1.050
Target ABV: 7%

I aerated by swirling capping and shaking a bunch quite a bit before pitch. At about 5:30p today I pitched, then shook real well. Temps were within 10F. For the next 5 hours I periodically aerated. Within an hour or so I could see tiny bubbles forming, and after about 4 hours Krausen appeared. At 11p, it was foaming strongly, so I degassed and aerated again, and then added 1/4tsp Fermax.

This one is cooking right off the bat! I’ll monitor at this point, may not use any more nutrient. I’ve read apple juice is pretty full of yan as it is, but that might be more regurgitated BS. I plan on stabilization and backsweetening/adding acid blend after it’s fermented dry and been cold crashed and racked. Any thoughts? It’s my first one so I’m open to learning as always.

I’m figuring every time I need another 1 gallon carboy I’ll just buy and ferment one of these, provided it turns out well!

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[Toxxyc]

My tip: Keep it cool, ferment it slow. Place it in a tub with ice cubes to get the temps down to around 68°F, to keep the yeast from forming byproducts you may not want (specially sulphur). Give it plenty of time to do it's thing, and leave it in the carboy for an extra week or two before racking even for the first time. Should smooth out things a lot better.

Man, I wish we got juices in 1 Gallon glass carboys in South Africa Even our cheap-ass wines only come in at around 2l (just over half a gallon)...

 

[Valcarion]

My tip: Keep it cool, ferment it slow. Place it in a tub with ice cubes to get the temps down to around 68°F, to keep the yeast from forming byproducts you may not want (specially sulphur). Give it plenty of time to do it's thing, and leave it in the carboy for an extra week or two before racking even for the first time. Should smooth out things a lot better.

Man, I wish we got juices in 1 Gallon glass carboys in South Africa Even our cheap-ass wines only come in at around 2l (just over half a gallon)...

My house is 68 year round so I’ll drop it a degree or two and keep an eye nose and tongue on it thanks!

My plan was to get it to bone dry, and then force myself to keep the lees in suspension for at least 3 weeks, unless it tastes fantastic at dry, which I doubt. I eventually want to carbonate, figuring I’ll use carbonation drops after stabilizing backsweetening and clearing.

Yeah it was a great find! I hope it ends up tasting great, will be really easy for fermenting.


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[Toxxyc]

It will most probably taste good after a week or so of fermenting, but it will get better with age even waiting just one week longer. I would highly recommend you give it the time it needs - you won't be sorry.

 

[Valcarion]

It will most probably taste good after a week or so of fermenting, but it will get better with age even waiting just one week longer. I would highly recommend you give it the time it needs - you won't be sorry.

Will do, thank you for the insight!


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[EvolvingCaveman]

I started out with Fermax along with Yeast energizer.
No worries.

 

[Devin Petry-Johnson]

So, you can’t afford honey but you’re shopping at Whole Foods? Something doesn’t add up here...

Seriously though, that’s some good info. There’s a Whole Foods within driving distance for me so I will have to check it out for this cider & jug combo. I’m sure they also have fresh organic fruit for my meads, if I can afford it.

I just started my own 1st cyser so I’ll be following along to your updates to compare notes. I forgot to use pectic enzyme in mine.

 

[Valcarion]

So, you can’t afford honey but you’re shopping at Whole Foods? Something doesn’t add up here...

Seriously though, that’s some good info. There’s a Whole Foods within driving distance for me so I will have to check it out for this cider & jug combo. I’m sure they also have fresh organic fruit for my meads, if I can afford it.

I just started my own 1st cyser so I’ll be following along to your updates to compare notes. I forgot to use pectic enzyme in mine.

Nah I don’t shop there. I shop at regular grocery stores with food stamps right now they just happened to have a sale on this juice so I ran up there real quick. I pull in a little money every week for some music gigs so $6 isn’t so bad for me. But whatever.

They also press fresh apple juice throughout the week in store and they don’t pasteurize. Much more expensive though, so there’s that.


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[Valcarion]

Update:

It’s fermenting vigorously, with no overt bad smells thus far. Degassing and aerating periodically, added another 1/4 tsp fermax at around 11a, as I thought I detected a hint of rotten egg.

Gravity: 1.022

That’s 28 points in 24 hours. Seems way fast to me, but I tasted the hydrometer sample and it tastes FANTASTIC! Really nice apple flavor, much more palatable sweetness than the juice preferment. I’m insanely impressed. So long as no off flavors develop on this second half, I’m thinking this recipe will be a constant thing for me. I don’t want to keep gushing but man this stuff is great right now!

I’m thinking I should not add any more nutrient or aerate anymore, but what do you guys think?


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[Devin Petry-Johnson]

Wow. How did you handle degassing? Based on the speed of the ferment, I’m guessing it had a ton of gas. How did you prevent overflow?

 

[Valcarion]

Wow. How did you handle degassing? Based on the speed of the ferment, I’m guessing it had a ton of gas. How did you prevent overflow?

Just an airlock and lots of stirring every few hours. It foamed up a lot but never had an issue overflowing. I degas by swirling and sloshing, and i use a regular airlock. I have it sitting on top of a towel just in case, but no issues to report! I’m surprised by how fast and clean it seems to be going. At this rate it’ll be dry tomorrow afternoon lol.


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[Valcarion]

Just gave it a whiff, hints of sulfur again, added 1/4tsp fermax and degassed


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[Toxxyc]

If you're aiming for a carbonated cider, you don't need to degas that often. Don't add too much Fermax, 71B is a low-nitrogen requiring yeast strain. Don't add more Fermax after the 1/3 sugar break, which, IMO, you already reached. For now I'll cool down the fermentation a bit to see if you can slow down the fermentation. Keep in mind you didn't use a cider specific yeast (like SafCider), but I have no idea how that'll impact the fermentation. Cooling it down (71B should still ferment as low as 60°F) should slow down the fermentation and might reduce the production of sulphur.

EDIT: Don't worry too much about the sulphur, it'll sort itself out, as long as it's not overwhelming.

 

[Valcarion]

If you're aiming for a carbonated cider, you don't need to degas that often. Don't add too much Fermax, 71B is a low-nitrogen requiring yeast strain. Don't add more Fermax after the 1/3 sugar break, which, IMO, you already reached. For now I'll cool down the fermentation a bit to see if you can slow down the fermentation. Keep in mind you didn't use a cider specific yeast (like SafCider), but I have no idea how that'll impact the fermentation. Cooling it down (71B should still ferment as low as 60°F) should slow down the fermentation and might reduce the production of sulphur.

EDIT: Don't worry too much about the sulphur, it'll sort itself out, as long as it's not overwhelming.

For sure. The most recent addition of fermax was the last one for this batch. I’ve only added 3/4tsp of nutrient to the whole batch, so hopefully that’s not too much, doesn’t seem so by my calculation, but this isn’t mead

The smell has lessened quite a bit since the last addition and degassing. As an experiment, I’m just going to keep the temps as is and see how it turns out. I don’t have a reliable way to temp control yet anyways, so I’m hoping that this works out well so that I don’t have to change things up I’ve read that 71b does really well with apples, so we’ll see! I’ll update again tomorrow.


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[Valcarion]

Gravity as of 1pm today: 1.003

It’s basically done, just a few points left. Almost full fermentation of 50 points in less than 48 hours. It tastes fantastic. Super dry right now, will definitely backsweeten, but the flavor itself is great, I really really like it. It’s got a nice tartness to it, but not overly present, just enough to remind me that it’s apple. Mouth feel is a little lacking, but usually ciders (in my experience) are like that. I figure carbonation will make it really pop (pun intended)

About an inch of lees forms if it sits undisturbed for longer than 20 minutes.

I’m going to continue to rouse them every few hours and let them do their thing. It’s going to be really hard to be patient with this, since it tastes so damn good.

I can’t believe how fast this went, and without any off flavors!


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[Devin Petry-Johnson]

I figure carbonation will make it really pop (pun intended)

How are you planning to carbonate? I prefer sparkling to still so it’s something I really want to do but bottle conditioning sounds difficult and only possible with a dry mead, and I don’t want to buy equipment for force carbonating.

 

[Valcarion]

How are you planning to carbonate? I prefer sparkling to still so it’s something I really want to do but bottle conditioning sounds difficult and only possible with a dry mead, and I don’t want to buy equipment for force carbonating.

I was going to drop carbonation drops in each bottle after clarification and stabilizing. I’ll admit I’ve never done it before so I’m just going by the advice of my LHBS owner. But hopefully a vet will see us discussing it and pop in (there’s another pun) with some advice!


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[Toxxyc]

Carbonation drops is the easiest way to get it sparkling. Unfortunately, that means that the mead will have to be BONE DRY, since any excess sugar will also ferment and may cause the bottles to pop. There is a way around it, though, and that's to use non-fermentable sugars. Natural options are Xylitol, Stevia and Lactose. Of the lot, Stevia is most bitter, Xylitol can cause...stomach problems with excessive use (not to mention it's DEADLY to dogs), and Lactose will give wonderful mouthfeel (smooth and creamy, like a stout). Xylitol and Stevia both are sweeter than sugar so you will use less, and Lactose is WAY less sweet than sugar, so you will use a bit more.

Experiment before bottling to hit your sweet spot, dissolve and boil the amount for your batch in a little bit of water and mix, leave to stand for a day and bottle with carbonation drops as normal.

 

[Toxxyc]

I was going to drop carbonation drops in each bottle after clarification and stabilizing.

Just saw this. If you stabilize, the yeast won't be able to ferment the carbonation drops and your cider will be flat. DO NOT stabilize for bottle carbonation.

 

[Valcarion]

Just saw this. If you stabilize, the yeast won't be able to ferment the carbonation drops and your cider will be flat. DO NOT stabilize for bottle carbonation.

Copy that. Any suggestions for backsweetening and then carbonating?


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