First Cider Experiment Brew Begins.

[MangoMead]

So I could not wait for my fancy yeast and other stuff to get muled in from North America, I wanted to get something brewing ASAP, even if it turned out to be an unsuccessful learning experience. Luckily things seem to be moving along at a so far so good pace. Even though everything I have used is completely repurposed from it's intended use. Not a single LHBS item used.

Here is an expanded version of my notes from the brew:

2 x 5L aro brand apple juice from concentrate added to 2x 6L PET 'carboys'. I gave them a good shake for some aeration.

Cooked up some syrup. 2 kilos refined sugar (probably cane) + 500 ml 50% lime juice + 1500ml RO water heated to about 80c for about 1 hour then boiled for 2 hours and let cool covered with a water bath for 1 hour.

Equal volume of syrup was added to each 6L carboy, about 800ml each. Bottles well shaken again to mix syrup and for more aeration. Yeast was pitched dry and bottles well shaken again.

Placed carboys in foam cooler with 2 1500ml ice bottles and blowout tubes installed. 12:25 am oct 11 2013. There was plenty of yeast activity within minutes. With a little babysitting over the first hour I had almost no foamy overflow.

They have been bubbling away happily for a couple days now, though bubbles have slowed a tiny bit. Maybe 1 bubble a second now.

Yeast was a Thai brand of baking yeast. One 34 gram, 30 baht bottle, per carboy.

Probably should have added less water to the syrup, so I cooked it for a long time to try to reduce it a bit. I also should have probably used a lot less Lime juice but my internet was not up yet (just moved) and I was sort of working off of memory. The syrup was delicious! I may make more just to put on toast! The wort/must was pretty tasty too very sweet and appley with a nice citrus thing going on too.

Cooler is a plain foam cooler like the ones found all over around here. They were a little cheaper at Makro so I got mine there. Tubing from home-pro. Carboys are Nestle RO water. Alternating ice bottles to keep it cool in the cooler. No thermo yet but it is 'cool' in there. Cool being sort of relative as it's a 'cool' night now at 27c.

Used Iodophor sanitizer mixed up from a little 7-11 dropper bottle of iodine. Those are perfect really, since you need so little to mix the right solution, counting drops is the way to go. I only needed 1500 ml of solution so that was 25 drops for the right dilution.

I don't have a hydrometer yet, so not readings on SG. It's all guesswork from here.

The 'carboys' are 6 liter water bottles that come filled with the drinking water I buy all the time anyway so they are essentially free.

That's about all to say for now. I plan to rack the cider off the yeast after a couple days of no more bubbling. From there I'll let it settle for a couple weeks and see what it does. Not too worried about getting it crystal clear. Thinking of trying to carbonate some, backsweeten some, keep some as is and freeze a little to then melt out 50% volume for some 'Apple Jack'.

 

[GreginND]

Ya do what you have to do. I'm sure you'll get something drinkable out of this. And it's kind of fun to things 'prison style'. Keep us updated on how it turns out.

 

[MangoMead]

HAHA Prison style. At least it's not a mash of sugar packets and candy bars.

 

[GreginND]

Well, if we're talking Snickers and Reeses, I'm all in!!

 

[MangoMead]

Well, if we're talking Snickers and Reeses, I'm all in!!

Chocolate Peanut Butter Caramel Bucket Hooch. That would look awesome on a label.

 

[MangoMead]

5 days in and the bubbling has almost stopped. Interesting color changes. Debating giving one or both halves a shot of sugar to see what happens.

 

[bluedog]

Definitely a change in opacity, which is indicative of the yeast having increased their numbers by reproduction. From what I've seen in regards to using a baking yeast strain to ferment (beverages), the challenges are typically attenuation and flocculation.

 

[MangoMead]

Last night I noticed one of the 2 jugs had stopped bubbling. The other I had given an extra step feed to see what the difference would be and it is still bubbling away happily. This morning there was still no bubbling and the water in the blowoff tube bottle had moved up into the tube so it seemed there was no real pressure being generated. When I looked at it, the top was already starting to clear a tiny bit.

I went ahead and cleared some room in my fridge and put that jug in to cold crash out the yeast. The pic is after about 6 hours in the fridge. I'm guessing at 24-48 hours it will be ready to rack off into a secondary and hang out there for a little bit before bottling.

I'm having to exert extreme self restraint to not taste some right now. I want to wait to taste it when I rack it. But a little taste won't hurt, will it?

 

[MangoMead]

Could not resist, had to pour myself a cup. It is Saturday night after all. Taste is about the same as last time though much less yeasty. all things considered I'm really happy with it so far. I think next batch I'm gonna use brown sugar, or caramelize the white sugar, as I think the caramel notes would be a really nice addition.