What to do with Cider?

Information about fruit/vegetable type washes.

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Kifi
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by Kifi »

Went out and bought a juicer on Kijiji a few weeks back, and for the inagural Calvados run, I bought 20 kgs of apples to run through it, which produced about 1.3 gallons of juice. Added 2.5 kgs of sugar and topped up to 25l with water, some vitamin B and DAP. After a few days it fermented to dry and yielded about 10%.

In the past I've used EC1118 and it's produced a decent, if brackish, Calvados. This time I ordered some cider yeast from a seller on ebay - https://id409.van.ca.siteprotect.com/cg ... y_Code=YEA" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;" rel="nofollow something called 'Young's Cider Yeast' from the UK.

Stripped it today down to 10% and WOW does it smell good - like fresh apple juice. I was surprised at just how much better the strip smells using cider yeast compared with champagne yeast. Has anyone had a similar experience?

Going to do the spirit run later this week and age on medium toasted oak flakes...
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by Odin »

JethroBodine wrote:Odin, What's your favorite yeast for apple cider? We get cider year round here and I've been meaning to try differant yeasts and am looking for a place to start.
Jethro,

Sorry for the very late respons. Just now looking back some of my old posts ... I guess pretty much any yeast is good in this case as long as it is cider yeast. I find this confirmed in Kifi's experience in the post just under your last one: he tells us the cider yeast produced a far better smelling mash. Go for cider and I guess any ol' branche will do!

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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by Wavfact »

Bringing back an old thread! lol found it while doign a search..

I wanted to try something like this, so this evening while at the store bought 6 gallons of Apple Cider.. Heated 2 gallons up to a boil and added 8 lbs of sugar. Once inverted, I added it to the 4 gallons in my fermenter. the temp was at 92F after that.. I added a couple tsp of Supet stablier to get my PH to 5. I then added some distiller yeast and in an hour it took off..

After searching, I seen some folks like ec1118 better.. I had this yeast and also Red Star Curvee.. Oh well.. Next time I guess.. Don't think you can mix yeast can you?

Can't wait to run this..
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by rad14701 »

Wavfact, do you have any idea what the SG of that wash is at this point...??? Any yeast should get the job done as long as the SG isn't so high that it induces osmotic stress on the yeast colony...
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by Wavfact »

Just went in and took a measurement.. Its 1.098
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by rad14701 »

You're a wee bit on the high side with the SG... Somewhere in the range of 15.2% potential ABV...
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by Wavfact »

Hmm.. something is up with my wash.. Yesterday when I added the distiller yeast, an hour later I had a few bubbles, but this morning.. nothing.. Maybe the few bubbles when't from fermentation starting.. So I threw in a pack of EC1118 at 7:30AM this morning.. its now 9:30PM and still nothing... Does the cider/sugar have enough nutrients for the yeast? I have a package of turbo classic, should I toss this in? or should I wait?
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by Ian Jay »

Wavfact wrote:Hmm.. something is up with my wash.. Yesterday when I added the distiller yeast, an hour later I had a few bubbles, but this morning.. nothing.. Maybe the few bubbles when't from fermentation starting.. So I threw in a pack of EC1118 at 7:30AM this morning.. its now 9:30PM and still nothing... Does the cider/sugar have enough nutrients for the yeast? I have a package of turbo classic, should I toss this in? or should I wait?
Are you sure that your shop bought juice contains no preservatives? If it does, they can be a disaster for yeast.
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by Wavfact »

Contains: Apple Cideer, Potassium Sorbate and Sodium Benzoate (preservative).. That mean there is no way to ferment this? Not even with yeast nutrients?
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by Dnderhead »

have some sweet apple juice.
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by Wavfact »

I dumped the cider.. :(

While at Costco the other day, I went looking for cider but none to be found.. I did however find Apple Juice, 2 gallons for $6 so I bought 6 gallons and boiled 2, added 10 lb sugar and then added it to my fermentor which had the other 4 in it.. Pitched som Turbo Classic and off it went! Been going very strong for 24 hours now.. Guess the yeats LOVE that mix as my air lock is having a hard time keeping up with it. Smells like bananas actualy.. I had just toasted some oak chips so that mixure of smells was quite nice.. Drank some apple pie I made with a SF mash and put up the x-mas tree.

Has anyone made and apple wash like this? if so, did you oak it?
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by rad14701 »

Wavfact wrote:Smells like bananas actualy..
That smell is most likely due to the turbo yeast... It is caused by excessive nutrients when you combine the nutrients in the yeast with other nutrients, like those in the apple juice... Might be excessive potassium...
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by Dnderhead »

""Smells like bananas actualy..""
esters, caused by yeast (some yeast produce more than others) and produces more at higher fermenting temperatures
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by Wavfact »

Rad, if it had exsessive potassium, wouldn't the yeast die? This batch should still turn out nice won't it? Got up this morning and its still maddly bubbling away..
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by rad14701 »

Wavfact wrote:Rad, if it had exsessive potassium, wouldn't the yeast die? This batch should still turn out nice won't it? Got up this morning and its still maddly bubbling away..
Too much of any mineral or vitamin can potentially kill the yeast colony... But up until that limit is hit they may only end up stressed or possibly only the strong will survive... Just keep an eye on the progress of the fermentation... If the wash appears to be fermenting excessively fast you could try cooling it down a bit to see if that helps reduce the problem because you could potentially end up with off taste along with the off smell...
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by Wavfact »

It finished in 3 days (more like 2.5).. So I took it down to my basement to sit till this weekend..
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by Wavfact »

I ran this batch yesterday and it came out great! You could taste the apple in it.. I cut it down to 60% and put it on some medium toasted/lightly charred oak in a glass gallon jug.. :)
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by steinsato »

This is an interesting thread. I have been making "applewine" or apfelwein for years now. Obviously the only time to get decent apple cider is in the fall so I will regularly buy apple juice in the store when I see it for sale by the case. Tonight I just bought a 4 gallon case for $18. You have to get certain brands that don't have a lot of extra crap added to them, like artificial sweeteners or ascorbic acid I stick with Langer's and Tree Top Brand. I will usually add 1-2 lbs of brown or white sugar to 5 gallons and add some champagne or wine yeast to it. If your drinking it as is, it's best to wait 6 months or more. I have never distilled this but will damn sure start now. I'll probably make the next batch with 1116 yeast, getting it to ferment down to about 11-12% abv. Then run it through my pot still and see what happens. I will definitely not be waiting 6 months to distill it though. I think it'll get run as soon as the gravity hits 0.098. Should end up being a cheap, flavorful spirit.
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by Plumberjohn »

Yep its an old thread and im not sorry lol. I like to keep relevant info in one place if possible.
So i acquired about 30 gallons of apple cider from Walmart and of course it has Potassium Sorbate.
OG of the cider was 1.045. I added light brown sugar to 1.070 and added some yeast nutrient.
I started 10 packs of Lavalin ec 1118 in 2 gallons of 85°f water with a little white sugar for about 2 hours and added that to the 28 gallons of cider. I couldn't find a detailed amount of yeast to overcome the PS so I started with 10 packs and hoped for the best. The next morning it I thought i might have to repitch as it looked like the yeast was struggling a bit but thanks to some info found here (ec1118 may take 15+ hours to start) i waited another day. I checked it this morning and it's working away very nicely. So it took 20 or so hours to get going but its fermenting away and believe i beat the preservative.
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by rubberduck71 »

Plumberjohn wrote: Sat Dec 31, 2022 10:05 am and of course it has Potassium Sorbate.
My worst batch of cider (despite it finishing @ 1.000) was store-bought gallons that had the PS in it. I missed it prior to purchasing & decided to "just go with it."

Lesson learned -- never again will I make that mistake!

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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by welly »

Interesting to read what other people refer to cider as. In the UK, cider is fermented apples/apple juice. No such thing as hard cider here. Cider is an alcoholic beverage. Can have additional fruits in it but if apples provide the base fermentable then it's cider. Apple juice is apple juice. Can be processed or pure apple juice.

I've made a bit of cider in the past but have struggled with stopping it from fermenting and as a result it just ferments out to completely dry.
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Re: What to do with Cider?

Post by WiAppleOak »

My yeast 2 cents (pence?) I just completed some yeast trials this year and while I have more to complete for next year, the champagne yeasts (EC-1118 and red star premure blanc) were the clear winners in aroma by a landslide (compared to Wyeast 4766 (cider & mead), Safcider AB-1, and Lalvin 71 B). While the other yeasts fared better in flavor, the champagne yeasts had a SLIGHT advantage there as well. I will be doing more trials this year using a red wine yeast for my more tannic ciders.
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