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Time to rack my cider?

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mannye

mannye

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Oct 10, 2012
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Miami Beach, FL
I started this about a month ago with some 1388 that was about to go "bad" (more than 6 months from the made date) so I dumped it into a gallon of apple juice which I had removed one cup from and added one cinnamon stick and 1 cup of OB honey. it's slowed down a lot now. I don't have a measurement but it sure does taste good. Nice and dry and crisp but has that "new booze" flavor. Should I rack and age? How long does one generally age a cider (well I guess it's a cyser now)? At 8 ounces it's still more of a cider than I full on cyser.
 
I've got 6 carboys of cider going on 1.5 years. Just starting to taste good. I used EC-1118 so aging is mandatory. I'm interested in learning what you come up with using the 1388 yeast. I'd give it a few more months and taste again. I'll try the same this fall - if I can find any cider(esq) apples and/or juice as most of Colorado has suffered a great winter kill last November.
 
i used Murray's apple juice as I live in Miami Beach and there aren't too many (no) apple orchards here.
AppleJuice2004.jpg


It's pasteurized, but that's the best I can do. I made a BOMM cider last year and I really liked it. It was a bit thin though so I freeze distilled it and that was quite the result. Tart and strong and delicious. Loveofrose also did a BOMM cider and I think he also had delicious results and also freeze distilled. As soon as can get my ands on 5 gallons of apple juice I'm going to make a nice big batch of cider BOMM with no honey added and stick the bucket in my chest freezer. I can probably get a quart or more of great apple jack from that!

If I had access to apples in the fall I wouldn't hesitate to get a 1388 batch going from fresh pressed juice. I bet it would be great!
 
I just polished off the last of it. It was great! Next time no cinnamon. It started getting in the way of the tart apple flavor.


Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
 
Mannye - Hey, Since I'm in SW Florida my access to cider has been limited like you! I've got 1 gallon of straight Zeiglers cider (from Publix) nearing the 1.000 mark after about 3 weeks of fermenting with Wyeast 4184, used for sweet meads and ciders, with an OG at about 1.056. Because of the pot sorb, it took a few days to really get rolling but has steadily fermented down since then. I tasted it a week ago and it wasn't completely awful but felt really really thin in the mouth. I threw a single cinnamon stick in last weekend too. Last night I tried it, and the cinnamon stick helped it a bit but it was still really really watery.

Couple of questions from your experience - Did you find that freeze distilling helped with the body? and did Murray's provide a decent base? Zeiglers fermented but I'm not sure that the quality of the apples isn't limiting in itself.


Also, just because I'm impatient - I started two other gallone batches with the Zeiglers this past Sunday, but also used a palmetto honey to bring the OG up to 1.065. I was hoping that the cyser might have a bit more "body."
 
The watery or weak mouth feel of hard cider made with desert apples is to be expected. The store juice is generally only made from eating apples that are not "pretty" for sale in a store. Real cider apples are those that, generally, you can't or won't really eat (a.k.a "spitters"). They are either too acidic/sharp/bitter/astringent/blah but sweet/etc. If you've ever bit into a crab apple you would know what I mean. There is a resurgence to rebuild the cider apple stocks in the US but it will take a while, obviously. My last two years of cider are very bland and I think I'll blend most of it into a cyser if I don't find any crabs to juice (not a good year, again).
 
I've made a couple of ciders & cysers, the best cyser that came about was using some cranberries for tannins to add body. I just froze, thawed & juiced them to get some pure pucker juice (still not as astringent as quince though!) to add, worked quite well, but it was still a bit "watery". Ciders are not usually a "full body" affair, they are generally lower alcohol as well. Also they are aged for a few months usually as that brings back the apple flavor & aroma as they tend to disappear during the fermentation.. IME YMMV...
 
I also found it watery. And yes. Freeze distilling improved the mouthfeel a lot. So does carbonation.

The only problem with freeze distilling is the drastic reduction in volume and the probable need to age the distillate.


Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
 
A while back I took 1/2 Gallon of JAO and Froze Distilled it until the Distillate was right at 30% ABV.

I then did a taste test at my beer club. I forget the exact percentages, but the majority preferred the high ABV, closely followed by the lowest. Only 2 preferred the original JAO.


Cheers
Jay
 
Really? Very interesting. I hadn't thought of doing that with JAO. Now I have to make more JAO. How old was it when you did it? And was it a by the book JAO?


Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
 
It was by the book JAO. I don't remember exactly, but knowing me I'd say between 8 months and a year.

It took a couple of times, freezing, pouring off the unfrozen part, refreezing etc. Finally I had some that could sit in the freezer for a couple of days with no ice. I stuck my instant read thermometer in it and it was right at 0% Fahrenheit, so that means it should have been just around 30% ABV if my calculations were correct.

I've been considering redoing it but with another couple of passes with dry ice. Just to see how high I can get it.


Cheers
Jay
 
Awesome. I'm going to start a 5 gallon ASAP. My freezer can go way lower than 32F (or so it says) so it should be interesting. I have yet to put a thermometer I there to just how cold it can get but we will see soon enough.

Maybe a little liquid nitrogen bath would be an interesting and fun experiment but I will have to see if the cost is insane first.

EDIT. Seems a one gallon Dewer flask of nitrogen is $2. But a Dewer flask costs about an average of 400 bucks. So unless I can put a deposit down on one. There will be no liquid nitrogen experiments happening!

Sent from my TARDIS at the restaurant at the end of the universe while eating Phil.
 
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