Years ago you could just buy fresh apple cider and let it age in the fridge, after a week or two the jug would swell and the cider had a nice tang to it. I was told the wild yeasts present on the apples were responsible for the fermentation.
Now some places add sodium benzoate (sp) to “retard spoilage”. I assume nothing can be done with that kind of apple cider.
I am wondering if the cider sold that is flash pasturized can still support a yeast colony if it were introduced.
I’m going to move this over to Cafe Society for you.
I think it can. See here.
I’ve fermented store bought apple cider a few times. As long as you don’t have sodium benzoate in there, the yeast will convert it to alcohol fine. The resulting cider is, shall we say, a bit thin in flavor, usually. Apples that are good for eating and juice are not necessarily the best candidates for cider. Although if you catch it before it completely ferments out and you’ve still got the juicy sweetness and maybe only a small amount of alcohol (like 2-3%), it can be tasty enough. Some people like to “backsweeten” their cider after fermenting it out by adding frozen apple concentrate to it. (Usually after killing of the yeast, as they will, of course, eat through the apple concentrate.)
What you want is unpasteurized, unfiltered apple cider. Add a nice champagne yeast and leave it alone for a month. Enjoy!
Thanks, great link.
Thanks, hopefully I will get up to speed soon.
That’s the ideal–in that case, you can even take your chances and let it ferment naturally. I’ve found, personally, the best tasting ciders I’ve made have always been ones where I just let nature take its course. It is a bit of a roll of the dice, though.
Thanks!!!
I am SO doing this!
A month? Are you insane?
For award-winning* cider, get a couple of gallons of fresh, unpasteurized store cider. Pour into a sterilized primary fermenter and pitch a healthy colony of ale yeast. Wyeast also makes a yeast specifically for cider. Let ferment. When it clears completely, siphon into a bottling bucket and add one can of apple juice concentrate. Stir lightly to dissolve, then bottle. After a week or so, chill and serve.
10 ribbons in national competition, including a 2nd Place BOS.
Really? I find cider tests best at about 1 year, but I don’t backsweeten or do anything like that. Just straight, naturally fermented cider from crushed apples. Even the stuff made from the store seems to taste best to me at around 1 year. Something happens (I’m not sure if it’s a malolactic fermentation or what) at around 4-6 months that changes its character for the better. That said, the really young stuff tastes great, too. When working with wild yeast, it can take a good two weeks or so to even get started, and a couple of months to ferment out. Tasting it at around 3-4 weeks when it’s still cloudy and got plenty of residual sweetness is nice.
Champagne yeast is overkill. There isn’t nearly enough sugar to warrant that kind of yeast, even if you like your cider dusty.
Ancient cider can be yummy, no doubt about it. But one month is no-man’s-land. Not long enough to age, too long for fruity goodness. Especially with champagne yeast.
I agree. Champagne yeast just chews through everything, including the flavor. Although, who knows, if you start with some tart and bitter apples, it might be okay.
When using cultured yeasts, my best results have been with Nottingham, Safeale S-04, and, my favorite, Wyeast 3068 Weihenstephaner. That last one was clear favorite over the other two (which are also very good). My least favorite yeasts were the wine yeasts I tried, including Lalvin EC-1118 and Red Star Cote de Blanc. I don’t know if it was the apples I was using, but the wine yeasts all tasted kind blah, and the Cote de Blanc had a funny diacetyl taste to it (which further research indicated was not unusual for this yeast in a cider.)
I prefer Champagne yeasts because they tend to leave a lower profile on the cider than ale yeasts. Usually I just stop the fermentation at a month and enjoy my strong, crisp cider. A week barely returns a decent ABV in my experience.
I’ve had good luck with the Indian Summer brand apple cider, available in most grocery stores. It’s pasteurized, but has no preservatives, and works well for hard cider making. I tried some apple cider pressed from a grove near here, but it didn’t work - turns out they added a tiny amount of preservative, and that killed my yeast.
We use cider yeast - it’s labeled at our brew store as English Cider or some such. Works well.
What you do depends on what you want out of your cider.
I’ve used champagne and Montrachet yeasts to make strong, slightly effervescent, very dry cider. It needs aging - it’s much better at 6 months or more. Just don’t drink it on a hot day after you’ve mowed the lawn. It will knock you on your butt.
Ale yeasts produce a fruitier cider that doesn’t need so much aging. Pear juice is a nice addition after fermenting if you like things sweeter.
Silenus, just to make sure I understand. First, ferment it out, . Tn add one can of apple juice concentrate and this provides the sugar needed for carbonation (and adds to the taste). Is this correct?
Second, have you done this as a cyser with honey?
Third, Nottingham yeast as a decent choice (I have Notty in stock)?
Yes, yes and yes.
Around here my brewing partner and I refer to the can of apple juice concentrate as a Wonderbra for your cider. It provides just enough support to bring out the best of what you’ve got. 
As for cysers…I’ve made a few (dozen). Wonderful stuff. In fact, looking back at my records the 2nd place BOS I mentioned in my first post was a cyser.
Nottingham is a fine yeast for cider. They make yeasts specific to cider, but using ale yeast gives it a more “rustic” flavor IMO.
Here’s one using cranberry cocktail juice. And no fancy yeast, he uses regular bread yeast so that the ingredients can all be purchased at the grocery store. He also adds a little slurry of mashed up raisins. Not a cider, of course, more of a wine, he calls this one Inmate Brew.
The point of making hard cider is to freeze distill it into Applejack. Use a plastic jug or leave an airhole in a container and leave it outside on an incredibly cold night and pour off the liquid in the morning. I’ve heard claims of incredibly high concentrations of ethanol but it’s likely that repeated freeze distillations won’t get you above 33% (66 Proof). It’s an interesting drink, the apple flavor is sort of there but changed. You certainly wouldn’t want to do this with any apples exposed to alcohol soluble insecticides and you might be concentrating methanol and other nasty stuff along with the alcohol. I suppose if you’re drinking enough of that for those contaminants to be a problem than you’re not all that concerned with your health anyway.
Fermenting and freeze distillation was an excellent method of preserving crops over winter in colonial America. Once the alcohol level is high enough it has an indefinite shelf life, takes up much less space than the original crops, and may have more value than the original crops.