658043 Thu Oct 08 11:05:34 -0700 2009 3 35 Beer 0 5088686 I assume this is the correct place to ask this question. My other options were the wine and home cooking forums, but since there are some hard cider threads in the beer section, I'll start here. I plan to make some hard cider at home in the next week or so while the orchards are pressing the unpasteurized stuff. There are a couple of old threads on here, but no real recipes. I was hoping people could post the recipes they use and what they like about the end product. Most of the recipes I have found online or have been given by friends involve slowly heating the cider, avoiding a boil, to kill the wild yeasts. From there, add some amount of sugar (corn, brown, or honey) and stir until it is dissolved. Transfer to a primary fermentation vessel and add yeast. I hear Champagne yeast will give a dry product while Ale yeast maintains some of the sweetness. The woman at my local brew shop recommended Coopers Pure Brewing Yeast. She said that was popular with the cider makers. After allowing this to ferment for 2-3 weeks or when the bubbles in the airlock slow down to 1/min, transfer to a secondary carboy for another week or 2 to clarify the cider. From here, bottle and drink. If you want it to sparkle, add more sugar and bottle condition. Now, the more I read on the subject, the more confused I get. Many people seem to think adding more sugar will ruin the cider and make it too dry. My friend's cider comes out to ~10% alcohol and is more like wine than Magners or Woodchuck, etc. Please feel free to confuse me more and offer your recipes and experience. Thu Oct 08 11:05:34 -0700 2009 12116 Ali G 1 5088913 Good, traditional hard cider is supposed to be dry. If you want it sweeter, you can arrest the fermentation at some point. That's what the commecial makers of the sweeter hard ciders do...they might let it ferment out, add some sulphite to kill the yeast, then back-sweeten the end product to the desired level (most commercial wines are also evidently done this way). Adding sugar needn't ruin the cider at all...it's done to boost alcohol content, not sweeten since as you point out, it will ferment out. The sulphiting and subsequent back-sweetening will bring it to any level of sweetness you desire. The real trick to good hard cider is finding freshly pressed apple juice made with a good percentage of tart apples. Sweet apple juice makes notoriously lousy cider. Because of prevailing tastes in this country, most cider makers unfortunately tend to make a sweeter product. If you can get your local press to blend in some tart apples, you'll get a better end result. Thu Oct 08 12:21:21 -0700 2009 5088686 116047 The Professor 1 5094258 I made some last fall. I bought 5 gallons of fresh pressed cider (make sure they don't add sodium benzoate to it) and added some sulphite (1 campden tablet) to kill the wild yeasts. I had thought about letting it spontaneously ferment, but decided against it. I would not heat the cider if I were you. After letting it sit for 24 hours I added some tannin, yeast nutrients, and the yeast, WLP775 English Cider Yeast. A champagne yeast would work fine, I'm not sure of the characteristics of the coopers yeast. I was aiming for a dry cider, if you want a sweeter cider either suphite it and back-sweeten as The Professor recommended or use a yeast that doesn't attenuate as much (perhaps WLP720 Sweet Mead/Wine Yeast). I let it ferment for 2 weeks, transferred to secondary for another two weeks. I then primed it with corn sugar and bottled it. I then waited a while to drink it as it tastes 'green' if opened to early. At almost a year old, it tastes much better now as the tannins have had the time to mellow a bit. I don't have access to my OG and FG measurements right now, but mine is around 6.6% abv. Sat Oct 10 19:18:31 -0700 2009 5088686 51760 joshekg 1 5094290 i have made a number of different batches of cider. In my experience, Lalvin Champagne yeast (dry packet) works great but I have also used White Labs yeast vials as well as spontaneous. I used the campden tablets the first few times bud didn't like the sulfur notes so I started skipping that (do so at your own peril). Don't add sugar. It won't do much but jack the alcohol content. Tannins are key. They are what you will find lacking in most American ciders and they add an outstanding character. What I always found fun about cider is that there is no recipe; add yeast to pressed juice and let fly. You will end up with something drinkable, I guarantee it. The fun comes in blending. Make a few gallons using different methods and you will have an opportunity to combine the products into one single cider that you like. Sat Oct 10 19:39:49 -0700 2009 5088686 12758 Ernie Diamond