Hard Apple Cider

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crazyx2

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Just juiced and pressed 300 kgs of apples yesterday, what a day. They're a mix of fuji, red lady (I think thats what he called them) and another one I can't remember now.

Now I have around 120 litres of apple juice and I have yet to start pressing the pulp so hoping for a bit more. The pulp was put in the deep freezer immediatedly after juicing and the juice is in carboys with airlocks ready for the next step. I added some crushed campden tab once the carboys were full, so as to kill any wild yeasts as I only gave them a brief wash with a splash of ecostore dishwashing liquid.

However I am undecided as to how I am to approach Edworts apfelwein cider,

Is it ok to have used juiced and pressed juice as opposed to buying one that has had the cores and seeds removed from it and probably a bit clearer? (I've read it can change the taste having the seeds).

I've done a couple of 4 litre testers a few weeks back using Keri apple juice (Coca Cola owned, so I doubt the quality) and Greenways (a locally owned company that does quite nice juice). But they still have a week on the Greenways and two weeks on the Keri juice to go, which is no use as I was hoping to crack into it this weekend.

IF I was aiming to get something around 7% abv, what SG would I be trying to start off with? and what SG would you finish on? (Keeping in mind I'd like to try and keep it sweet..with as much apple flavour as I could). I'm probably asking too much but was hoping someone would be able to help. I figure instead of using his amounts for the sugar, I would just keep adding until it got to the right SG just to be sure.

I have a few photos I'm going to upload in the next few days. Took the day off, and did the whole lot in one go. Took me from 9am till 8.30pm by the time I cleaned up the mess I had made!! By 9pm I was asleep on the couch haha. I was amazed at how much foam I got off the juicer, at one stage I tried pressing it for some reason and ended up with apple squirting everywhere! hehehe

Aswell as the cider I am also going to do some apple wines, but first thing is first!
 
I've never tried but I hear that it's hard to STOP a fermentation to achieve a desired abv. When making hard cider or anything I always ferment to dry and backsweeten it with either simple syrup or something else that you choose.

If your starting SG is 1.060 and you ferment to dry you should be right around 8% abv.

Hope this helps.
 
Oh ok, I took an SG today and it was around 1050 or 1500 I couldn't quite make sense of it. I figure it's 1050, so I'll slightly sweeten to suit.

Are there any hints or tips when doing cider compared to wine?
 
Oh ok, I took an SG today and it was around 1050 or 1500 I couldn't quite make sense of it. I figure it's 1050, so I'll slightly sweeten to suit.

Are there any hints or tips when doing cider compared to wine?



I'm confused. Are you still fermenting or are you attempting to halt the fermentation? At 1.050 it must still be very sweet. Also, what was your starting SG? That will help you determine your final alcohol %. I highly recommend fermenting this through to 1.000 or below.
 
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Sorry I wasnt more clear, I havent started the fermentation yet. Atmo its just juice sitting in the carboy with an airlock in the garage, temperature is around 16 degrees so I thought it would be ok for now.

So if the SG with natural juice is already at 1.050 then its almost fine to start by itself, or with a tiny bit of sugar to make 1.060. Yep I'll ferment until dry like you said, then backsweeten later.

This is all starting to make a little bit more sense now! All my other wines I have just added sugar for what the recipe says, this should be more accurate.

Can i ask, how do you work out abv using an SG reading??
 
If I recall the formula correctly (I'm at work at the moment) it is

Starting Gravity minus Final Gravity / 7.36

Example 1.060 - 1.000 / 7.36 equals 8.15 abv
 
Awesome, thanks Green Mountains.

Going to feed the pigs all the pulp, so far they just can't get enough of it.
 

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