I’m attempting to make a batch of hard cider. I am as green as it gets when it comes to this.
I put champagne yeast and a yeast nutrient into a 3 gallon carboy and filled it to an inch from the top with 3 gallons of store bought cider (pasterurized, no preservatives). I shook it up for a bit, then put a rubber stopper with an airlock on tightly.
I wrapped a blanket around it and put it in a shower stall in our lesser used bathroom. That bathroom will stay around the neighborhood of 58-62 degrees. I would have used the basement, but it’s considerably cooler down there.
It’s only been a few hours, and there is no action in the airlock yet. I’m really trying to be patient, but I’ll be excited to see it bubble just once.
I can’t afford to spend a lot of money on this project at the moment, but if this turns out at least palatable, I may be willing to invest a little more in the hobby.
What sort of milestones should I be looking for? Is having a batch ready for Christmas a reasonable expectation, or am I looking for a longer fermenting time? What sort of sweetness can I expect? I didn’t add any sugar, and I’d just as soon have it be a little dry than too sweet.
Really, anything you can offer will be appreciated.
It should kick in in a few hours. I’ve made a number of batches of cider. A few suggestions:
Mix apple types. If you can find juice/cider made from different apples, do that. Stay away from any juice made from Delicious apple. Flabby cider will result from such juice.
Add some honey to the batch and make a cyser. Very nice.
Before you bottle, stir in a can of frozen apple juice. this will give the cider a great apple aroma.
What Max should be warning you about though is another nasty little lesson our friends who make cider yearly learned in 2003. Well, our friends and everyone misfortunate enough to attend their cider party that year.
The lesson is this:
WASH YOUR FREAKING APPLES. Seriously. See, getting a buttload of apples off trees and the ground in a deer-filled area, then merely dunking them in a trashcan of dubious origin filled with hose water does not quite have the antibacterial properties one might hope for. And it turns out that the alcohol in the hard cider doesn’t kill off all the buggies either. Then when you feed your resultant glorious cider to your friends, you end giving them all a nasty case of the vomshits as a take-home favor. :eek:
Rack after it clears. Do this twice. You can top up with fresh cider, but this will prolong fermentation. You don’t need to filter. Shelf life is indefinate, you don’t need to refrigerate. Ballpark alcohol will be around 8%, maybe 10%.
It should start bubbling within 12 hours, but it may take a day or so. It just depends.
It will probably bubble vigourously for a few days, then calm down for the rest of the fermentation. Once it’s stopped bubbling, it’s probably done, though the fermentation could be stuck. You don’t have a hydrometer, though, so you can’t really tell if it’s stuck or not. It probably won’t get stuck, though, seeing as you’ve got yeast nutrient. Also, if you want to make your cider sparkling, prime it with some sugar or honey as you bottle it. Make sure you have either beer or champagne bottles if you do that though, (Or if you’re really cheap, used soda bottles) or you might end up with a big mess on your hands.
Also, if you decide to get a hydrometer (they’re only $5-10), you can test the alcohol content by obtaining some of the same brand of apple cider, and using that as your initial test, then using the fermented stuff as your second.
Sparkling sounds good. What does “prime with” mean?
I was planning on using the dozen Grolsh bottled I have, and then going to the hobby store for wine bottles for the rest. They look like they’re screw tops, I didn’t look too closely since I don’t need them yet, but would a cork stopper be better?
Screw tops are fine. You aren’t going to be cellar-aging the stuff, after all.
If you want sparkling cider, you need to prime your cider before bottling. This entails adding 3/4 cup per 5 gallons sugar. For a 3 gallon batch, this works out to just under 1/2 cup. Take some of your fermented cider and place it in a saucepan. Gently heat it. Add priming sugar and stir to dissolve. Then add this to the rest of your cider. Stir gently. Bottle in pressure-proof bottles. It should carbonate over the next few weeks. Open chilled!!! If you agitate a warm bottle, it will get messy.
You be wanting to make some proper scrumpy, my lad. None o’ that there nancy ‘cider’ wat townies drink!
This stuff is traditionally sold by farmers in recycled plastic 4-pint milk containers with the price (usually something like £3.99) written on the side with a marker pen. Side effects of consumption may include memory loss, permanent IQ reduction, migraine-like symptoms and patches of dead grass on the lawn where you have vomited. It’s the Devon/Cornwall/Sommerset equivalent of Meth and NightTrain, all in one handy-dandy package!
If you really filled the carboy to within 1" of the top, good on you for putting it in an unused shower stall, rather than, say, the corner of the living room. I hope you’re keeping the door or curtain closed…
As has been mentioned above, it can take up to a day for fermentation to start. Let it go a couple weeks, then siphon it into another carboy, if you’ve got one. Bottle it once it’s clear.
When I told the hobby store lady what I was planning on doing (2 gallons in a 5 gallon jug) she said leaving that much air was a very bad idea. So I bought the 3 gallon carboy and another gallon of cider on the way home.
I’ve seen quiet fermentations, so I wouldn’t worry about it–just check it every once in a while and re-sterilize the cork & lock if you have to put it back in.
Some fermentations are more vigorous than others, and the foam on the top of the carbouy generated by a strong fermentation may come through your airlock.
So, it’s good that your carbouy is in the shower stall, just in case.
The good news is that a really vigorous fermantation (one that is producing a lot of CO2 bubbles) reduces the chance that any nasty organisms will be able to travel **back ** through your airlock, even though it’s been “compromised” by the foam seething through it.
But still, I hope your shower stall is relatively germ-free. :eek: Now might be the time to squirt the tiles/floor with a 5% bleach solution…
If the foam does come up through your airlock, just wait until things settle down enough and then swap it for a clean one (or quickly clean the foamy one and replace it).
Nothing’s happening yet, bubblewise, so can I sterilize a turkey baster and suck out maybe 2 inches (or more?) of liquid, wrap the top in saran wrap momentarily, re-sterilize the plug and airlock, and reseal it?
Last question, for now… when I redo the stopper and airlock, is it safe to put a drop or two of food coloring in the airlock water to make it easier to see? Does it really even need to be seen, or is the fact that there’s water in it enough?
