First attempt at cider

captainwang

Hi all, I have searched and searched for a thread on this but i cant seem to find the answer I'm looking for. So I have just pressed 3 buckets of apples and now have about 10l of apple juice. I am trying to make cider so what should i do next? I have 2 1gallon demijohns and two white 5 gallon brewing buckets. I also have a sachet of yeast and 4kg of brewing sugar. What is the next step or where do i go from here. I had originally planned on making 5 gallons but i think i will have to settle for less.
Thanks in advance!

Martyn1989

I think the best thing to do would use a hydrometer to take a gravity reading, if its 1.040 or above it means your cider will have a respectable abv, if its below you can add some of your brewing sugar, which is probably just dextrose.

I dont make cider so Im probably not the best for giving advice.

You could always just chuck in your yeast and see what happens?

captainwang

Thanks for the reply! Ok so I have checked with the hydrometer and the reading is 1.030. I was thinking of adding 1kg of sugar and the yeast is this a good idea? Where would be the best place to leave the cider? Should i take readings with the hydrometer often or just leave it be? Thanks!

evolving_doors

check out the-gift-of-wine.com/cider
skip to the fermenting section....

use bucket for primary fermentation then rack into 2 demi johns I reckon,,they're about 4.5l if I remember correctly (keep about 500 - 1litre ml back for the freezer to prime the cider when bottling)

Do write down what you're doing though as it's so easy to forget for the next time,,, and it;s a pain looking up stuff on the net second time round ,especially if your first brew was good but you cant remember every step...

Martyn1989

If it where me I would

Boil down 1 kg of sugar in a litre or two of water let it cool to room temp and add it to the brew, although I havnt used 'brewers sugar' in a homebrew since my 1st, I've heard a general rule of thumb is a kg of dextrose will give you a 1% boost in abv in a 5 Gallon Batch, American beer recipes often seem to have the kg of sugar added for this purpose.

I wouldn't get tempted to add a 2nd kg of sugar as that will thin out the cider and make it more likely to turn out poor, and after going to the effort of juicing fresh apples, may aswell keep it as good as it can be.

Armelodie talking about doing primary in one of your buckets and then racking into your demijohns is great, and prob the best way to go. But holding some of the unfermented juice back for priming wouldn't be the best, as that juice will be susceptable to infection and some of your brewers sugar will do the same job. You can even play around with honey and boiled down strawberry/raspberry/blackcurrant/gooseberry jam for priming, which could be interesting especially in a cider. (I've used both honey and raspberry jam for priming for beers and have been very impressed with the results, its great to compare the results to the same beer primed with just sugar)

Again as I have not made cider I don't know much about the yeast, (a quick google seems to indicate about 16C, don't quote me on that though) generally fermenting a little cooler then the temp on the packet seems to do a good job, and make sure you give it time, 4-5 days in primary, rack off the sediment and dead yeast and give it a few weeks in secoundary, dont go mad with hydrometer readings, I always let my beer sit it out and take a reading or two before I bottle as security even though I know the beer was long finished, but the time does it good.

Then prime and bottle it and give it plenty more time, the longer the better!
And make sure you take note of everyting you do! (Another good point from Armelodie)

Good Luck

evolving_doors

As regards infection and wild yeasts...
Twice I've made the cider in two separate demi johns. 1 with campden tablet to kill off any wild yeast and the other without sulphiting,, both times the results have been the same with no problems of infection, also with freezing some juice for priming (backsweetening they call it) it had no problems with infection... Out if interest I used a few different 'sugars' i.e. splenda, table sugar, brew sugar, pressed apple juice from superquinn and my own pressed juice (from frozen)....for me the frozen juice was the best flavour but it was much of a muchness really..

I think the infection can occur if you leave the juice ferment for the full stretch in one container with all the gunk at the bottom (lees) this can have a major impact on the process although ivenever tested this out...so initial first week to let thing settle, then rack off when it clears into the d.j.s you ul still see a bit of sedement , but fermentation will still go on

A kg of brew sugar defo for a bit of a kick

Although in saying all that my grandfather used to just throw a tonne of apple mash into a container cover with blanket and drink in a month or two later and he never complained !!!

captainwang

Thanks for the replys lads, it was a great help. I added the kilo of sugar and yeast today so now Ill wait untill next week for the next step. Ill keep ye posted on the pregress.