First time cider maker

[Gwand]

I tried my hand at making hard apple cider. On January 2 I pitched Nottingham ale yeast into 1 gallon of whole foods pasteurize cider after bringing SG to 1.060 with brown sugar and frozen apple juice concentrate. I fermented until SG 1.000 and then racked into fresh gallon jug. When the specific gravity reached 0.992 I racked again and added sorbate and back sweetened with brown sugar and frozen apple concentrate. I aged and then bottled last week. This first attempt isn't bad but there is a bitterness on the finish. Other then using a better quality apple cider do you think I could've done anything differently to prevent the bitterness?

Question two. I do not have a press. Can one make good quality cider for hard apple cider by juicing apples?

Thanks

 

[Pumpkinman]

Your recipe and mine sound very similar, the only differences are that I got the apple cider fresh pressed from the farm, and I used a little honey to back sweeten along with the brown sugar and concentrate. I didn't add it all at once, I added as needed over the course of 4 days, and I didn't add sorbate, I wanted a carbonated cider.
The cider took a little bit to reach the desired carbonation level, I pasteurized it to stop the fermentation.

 

[BernardSmith]

I agree with Pumpkinman. I would back sweeten if you think your cider is too bitter. I would bench test rather than aim for a specific gravity - About 50 gms of sugar in one gallon will raise the gravity by .005 . You can then pro-rate the quantity of sugar and taste at different levels to determine how sweet you want this batch.

 

[Gwand]

Your recipe and mine sound very similar, the only differences are that I got the apple cider fresh pressed from the farm, and I used a little honey to back sweeten along with the brown sugar and concentrate. I didn't add it all at once, I added as needed over the course of 4 days, and I didn't add sorbate, I wanted a carbonated cider.
The cider took a little bit to reach the desired carbonation level, I pasteurized it to stop the fermentation.

Tom, what temperature and for how long for your pasteurization? Thanks.

 

[Pumpkinman]

Gary,
I had it in my cellar at 50° for a month and it didn't carbonate at all, I brought it up to my office at 65° - 67° and within 2 weeks, give or take a few days, it was perfectly carbonated. At this point I pasteurized it by heating up a pot of water to 190°, take it off the heat and immerse the bottles (I have my cider in beer bottles) for 10 mins, take them out and let them cool.
As a matter of fact, due to this thread, I'm enjoying a few bottles as we speak, my only regret is not making more!

 

[Gwand]

Gary,
I had it in my cellar at 50° for a month and it didn't carbonate at all, I brought it up to my office at 65° - 67° and within 2 weeks, give or take a few days, it was perfectly carbonated. At this point I pasteurized it by heating up a pot of water to 190°, take it off the heat and immerse the bottles (I have my cider in beer bottles) for 10 mins, take them out and let them cool.
As a matter of fact, due to this thread, I'm enjoying a few bottles as we speak, my only regret is not making more!

Thanks Tom. Did you re-pitch yeast to carbonate (I read that in some recipes) or were the original yeast still active after you back sweetened? Thanks

 

[Pumpkinman]

I didn't repitch the yeast, they were dormant, once the cider reached room temp, it carbonated pretty fast.

 

[BernardSmith]

I sometimes add sugar to batches of hard cider to carbonate them and it can take about a month in my basement (quite cold in the winter) to fully carbonate. Like Pumpkinman I have never added fresh batches of yeast. There is typically enough yeast in the cider even if the creatures are dormant (but I also don't stabilize the cider if I intend to carbonate it).

 

[Gwand]

I sometimes add sugar to batches of hard cider to carbonate them and it can take about a month in my basement (quite cold in the winter) to fully carbonate. Like Pumpkinman I have never added fresh batches of yeast. There is typically enough yeast in the cider even if the creatures are dormant (but I also don't stabilize the cider if I intend to carbonate it).

2 Last question - for today at least
1) I do not want to wait until fall to get fresh apple cider. Are there any particular bottled brands of cider that are worth fermenting. I used Whole Foods 365 organic pasteurized cider. Final product is descent but not great.

2) Next time I was thinking off adding a vanilla bean and a cinnamon stick. Would you add to primary, secondary or during bulk aging? Thanks.

 

[BernardSmith]

I don't know that you need to wait until the fall. My guess is that local orchards that press apples are still pressing because they can still sell their apple juice and IMO better cider is made with such juice.
I have never added cinnamon or vanilla to cider and so have no "good" advice about this but fermentation is a fairly volatile activity and I would think that you might want to wait to add either (or both) until you are racking to a secondary. That said, I think you want to be cautious as I would think a little cinnamon can go a very long way. You might want to check the flavor daily to see when you need to remove the cinnamon from the cider.

 

[Droc]

I just made a cider and was thinking about using some vanilla. I talked to a guy at my LHBS and he suggested using hard maple as it is supposed to impart some vanilla flavor among other things. I went with that as my experiments with adding things like spices have not been to good. Might try that next year with a gallon after I get my cellar built up though. Does sound delicious.


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[BernardSmith]

I recently made a hopped mead and I really like it and that has got me into experimenting with hopped hard cider. Not yet figured out a way to boil the hops for cider as I don't dilute the juice with water and I don't want to boil the apple juice so I've only been playing with dry hopping.. That cider has not aged long enough for me to offer a verdict

 

[Droc]

A lot of people I talked to around where I live were saying that a dry hopped cider is really good. I've never worked with anything beer related so I'm not real comfortable with that stuff, but I may try that next year. Let us know how it turns out for you.


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[BernardSmith]

Will do. Dry hopping is simply taking a packet of hops and adding them to your carboy (I add them to my secondary as I want to keep the aroma and I think adding the hop pellets to the primary , while far easier to extract (I can add them in a little bag) means that much of their benefit is lost to the air. In the secondary I steep them for perhaps a week and then rack the cider off the hops into a clean sanitized carboy.

Word of mouth suggests that longer than a week does not bring out any more of the positive elements of the hops and in fact is likely to result in an increase in undesirable flavors. The one thing that is very important when you use hops is to avoid UV light. In other words you want to cover the carboy in some kind of opaque material, continue the fermentation away from natural light and bottle the cider in beer bottles. Hops will make beer taste "skunky" when the beer is exposed to light. I assume they behave in the same way in cider but I have no desire to test this to see if I am wrong.