Fresh Pressed Apples... Now what?

[Lizerdking]

So i swung by the orchard yesterday and they had cider apples on sale for 5$ a bushel.... 10$ later (plus the rest of the apples laying around the house) I have a little over 5 gallons of cider.


I soaked the apples in some k-meta before juicing, ran them through the juicer, filled the primary, and added some more k-meta.

It's sitting in my chilly garage with an airlock on it awaiting what i decide to do with it.

SG is around 1.065..... Leave it alone ? Add sugar?

I think like the idea of leaving it and when it's finished filling a corny keg and carbonating it, but maybe I'll up the gravity and bottle it.

I have two flavors of yeast, montrachet and pasteur red (ok, and fleishmann's if you want to be picky).


Ideas? Thoughts? Anyone done the same?

 

[Julie]

I would bump up the sg to 1.080, add some pectic enzyme and use the montrachet yeast.

 

[jamesngalveston]

i would add sugar to get to 1.095, add some pectin enzyme let it sit for a day, add acid blend, and some oak tannin, and pitch the pasteur red yeast.
then proceed to secondary.

 

[jamesngalveston]

lol...a million and one ways to make wine...
morning julie....
I like the higher abv
I guit using montrachet because its so tempermental and easily stressed.

 

[Julie]

Morning James, lol, I noticed you liked the higher abv.

 

[WVMountaineerJack]

If you are planning on fermenting this cool D47 might be a better guess. Dont just add acid, you need to test to see how much acid blend you need to add. When you say cider apples are these apples real cider apples or just the lower quality fruit they cant sell up front and use for making cider, if this is it then they are low on tannins and could probably use some tannins as well. Are you going to add any nutrients? Pectinase or not depending on if you want it to be clear or cloudy when its done. WVMJ

 

[jamesngalveston]

what the heck is the differnce in apples anyway.
there are more different apples then any other fruit, over 150 varieties.

 

[Pumpkinman]

Lizerdking,
If you are planning on making a cider that will taste like apples after it is fermented, I would use an ale yeast such as Nottingham, it will ferment to 1.010 leaving some of the residual sugar that most people like in a cider, plus, I've found that most of the wine yeasts strip the apple flavor out of cider.
As far as the ABV, that is your personal preference, but I can tell you that with the higher ABV you will need to age it at least a year, and even then it can still be hot, trust me on this one. Apple is a very delicate flavor that can easily be over powered.

 

[grapeman]

what the heck is the differnce in apples anyway.
there are more different apples then any other fruit, over 150 varieties.

Apples are just like grapes in that both have eating types and wine (or cider) types. Each type is best suited for it's intended use but they may all be used. Eating types generally taste a bit sweeter and a bit less acidic.

I don't believe you really want to make a high alcohol apple wine if you want to appreciate the flavor and aromas. The higher alcohol masks those.

There are many, many more varieties of grapes (thousands) than common apples (hundreds).

 

[Rampage4all]

I would bump up to 1.100 ferment dry rack off throw in couple vanilla beans and cinnamon sticks and back sweeten with apple Fpac tree top cider works good used a gallon bring final to between 1.005-1.010

I did this last year wish had made 20 gallons of it.

 

[Pumpkinman]

I made a high alcohol cider with a few cinnamon sticks last year, you can hardly recognize that it is supposed to be a cider, very hot after a year and nothing but the cinnamon came through.
I highly recommend lower ABV%, try an ale yeast, but ultimately, it is up to you and your preferences.

 

[Lizerdking]

It's the lower quality apples, but it's a mix of many varieties they throw together for cider, about half tart/half sweet.

I had a glass of the juice while i was crushing last night... Best cider i've had since i was a kid and we pressed our own.. The pasteurized stuff you can buy just don't compare.



I forgot about a tube of yeast that's been hanging out in the garage fridge for the past 6 months... It's been chilled, so it should be good?

Can't remember if it's the london ale or the california ale

http://www.whitelabs.com/yeast/wlp013-london-ale-yeast?s=homebrew

http://www.whitelabs.com/yeast/wlp001-california-ale-yeast?s=homebrew

I've made apple-juice wine in the 10% abv range, it was hot for a good 6 months, not a lot of the apple flavor came through.

I think i like the idea of low ABV and force carb'ing it.

Still use pectic e? Use sparkoloid to clear?

Yes?


I might have to pick up a couple more bushel's this week, the orchards are just trying to get rid of them at this point... excellent apple year in this area

 

[Pumpkinman]

Yes, the yeast should still be good, but the viability will be reduced. I would use pectic enzyme, add yeast nutrients, do you have goferm? That would help the yeast multiply before pitching it.
The batch of cider that I am making was started by checking the SG, since it was only 1.050, I brought it up to 1.070 by adding sugar to the cider in the fermenting bucket until it reached 1.070, not much was needed, I then hydrated 2 packets (I always use 2 packets for beer when the SG is over 1.060) of Nottingham yeast with GoFerm, and pitched it into the cider. After 8 days the gravity reached 1.010 and it stopped fermenting, I transferred to a carboy where I pitched MLB and Opti-Malo.
The flavor was real nice, the ale yeast did not strip the apple flavor.
I plan on back sweetening with cider and/or orange blossom honey if necessary.

 

[Lizerdking]

Added enzyme on Monday, added yeast on tuesday.

As of Thurs morn, no ferm :-(

I threw some pasteur red on top to get it going before i left for work today.

 

[ShawnDTurner]

Add sugar go with d47

 

[Lizerdking]

I've never had problems getting a ferm started... this is perpelexing me.

California ale yeast added tuesday, red star pasteur red added yesterday morning.

Still no ferm. I moved it to a little warmer spot in the house last night, ugh.....

I'm gonna whip in some air tonight if it's still not bubbling.

 

[Lizerdking]

Welp, so much for not ferming.

It's down to 1.015ish... I cold crashed it in the garage to stop the ferm, Degas, clear a little and in the keggerator she goes!