3 Months for Cider?

[Rabbitz]

Last night on SBS there was a show called the Gourmet Farmer or something similar.

Part of the show was this guy picking apples, crushing and juicing them in a neat wooden apple press. From here they went into a fermenter with a chemical to kill the wild yeast. After a time he re-hydrated some champagne yeast and added it to the fermenter.

So far so good.

He then sealed the fermenter fitted the S-Trap Airlock and stuck the fermenter next to his big open fire place and said "This will keep it warm and it will be ready in three months"

Three MONTHS? Does cide really take THREE MONTHS? (Especially when it is next to a big open fireplace!)

Rabz

[Longwood-65]

I ferment my ciders for 2 weeks the same as beer. Throw them in a keg for a couple of weeks at shed temp then into the fridge for another week while they cool down and carb up, then drink
they come out pretty darn good.

I saw the show also and thought that strange, But then I don't know anything about champayne yeasts, I don't use real apples, just 100% pure apple juice x 4 litres & 1 Litre pear juice ( not the rehydrated concentrate types read the label very carefully) and an ale yeast.

My recipe.
Apply juice x 4 Litres
Pear juice x 1 litre
Honey x 500 grams
white sugar x 2 kilos
dark brown Sugar x 500 grms
Hops ( whats in the fridge ) x 10grms
1 x ale yeast

Add sugars, honey, hops to 2 litres boiling water till fully desolved,
Add juices to 8 litres water in fermenter pour in sugar/hop solution mix thoroughly top up with water to 20 litres add yeast, ferment at 18-20 c
This produces a nice dry cider @ about 6% abv
If you want it sweeter fill glass 1/4 with apple juice then pour.

( this time the hops available was tettnang, haven't tried this one in a cider)

cheers
Ron

[Finnagann]

How many litres are you making?

[Longwood-65]

How many litres are you making?

If it's me you're asking the question of, 20 litres as said in the post
top up with water to 20 litres

[Finnagann]

oops missed that >.<

THat's a wild recipe. I'd thought that you would need a lot more apple juice to make it fly, is it good an appley?

And ale yeast with white sugar? Doesn't give it funny flavours? I thought you'd need wine yeast for that type of thing, I'm very intrigued and might just have to try it

[adz2332]

well i can tell u i used the blackrock kit and added juice etc etc.
fermented for two weeks.
Bottled and oipened one on the weekend after only 3 weeks. And it was pretty good!
And i think itll be better in bottle for a month or so etc

was happy with it!

[Longwood-65]

oops missed that >.<

THat's a wild recipe. I'd thought that you would need a lot more apple juice to make it fly, is it good an appley?

And ale yeast with white sugar? Doesn't give it funny flavours? I thought you'd need wine yeast for that type of thing, I'm very intrigued and might just have to try it

enough of an apple taste for me. I wouldn't want more.
Cheers
Ron

[drsmurto]

Traditional cider is fermented very slowly at low temperatures - Link

By slowly i mean it will only drop 1 gravity point per week max.

Putting it next to a fireplace is only useful if its snowing. And you live in a tent. Think beer fermented at 30C (saisons and some belgians excepted)

Cider improves with age much like beer and wine.

I tend to ferment for 2-4 weeks then rack and cold condition for as long as 3 months.

But then i have never made a cider from a kit. Bare minimum is store bought apple juice and yeast. This gives you a dry cider of ~5.5-6.0% abv. Juicing your own apples (cider if you can get them) produces a nicer cider but as with beer, cider or wine making you get out of it what you put in.

If you can source fresh pressed apple juice from an apple grower go for it.

As for yeast, i love the result i get with Wyeast 4766 (cider) - available from all GOOD HBS.

My 2 c
DrSmurto