So I've made cider many times. I have a local orchard who does 1-2 pressings a year for my homebrew club. The juice is great and he even does different blends. No one has ever had an issue with the base cider and my friends have all already fermented, cleared, and carbed their batches from this year.

We got our pulls on Nov 2nd, so it's been a while.

When I say "recommended amount", I mean the ratios on the package.

I put the recommended amount of K-meta in two 3 gallon fermenters and got a different blend in each. I waited 2 days to let the k-meta clear out. I put a the recommended amount of yeast nutrient in each and pitched a whole pack of 71-B wine yeast. Left it in my 66 degree basement.

After a week, nothing. Shook it and added another pack of 71-B. Checked daily and shook. Nothing.

After another week I added a pack of US-04 to each. I know 71-B would wipe it out but I was throwing shit at the wall by this point.

Now we are at Dec 1, and there is no activity. I drop a tilt in and it reads 1.050. I added a cup of sugar to each and shook it up.

Checked this morning, Dec 4 and the tilt is at 1.058. Temp is stabile at 67. No activity.

What did I fuck up here?

Just got an apple crusher and fruit press. I tried crushing 6lbs of Kingston Black as a test. The crusher works well but the press seems ineffective. I only got about 18 oz of juice. When I turn the lever the base wants to rotate. Does anyone have a suggestion for a better press/ videos for a homage one?

Today I moved 5 gallons of cider from the carboy to a 5 gallon bucket with an airlock. I back-sweetened with 5 cans of concentrate, 5.7g sorbate and 1 campden tablet. The cider was clear after sitting 2 weeks past fermenting so at least the majority of the yeast had settled.

I'll wait to see if any remnant yeast start feeding. If the yeast does take off, does the sorbate and metabisulfite I added today affect the amount I add after fermentation stops again? Thanks!

Na tentativa de chegar à uma receita de Sidra Rosé, alcancei uma coloração rosé âmbar. Usei cascas de jabuticaba na refermentação, processo de coldcrash e carbonatação natural pós envasse.

Percebi que houve uma pequena oxidação e mudança de tonalidade após o envasse.

A minha análise organoléptica é que essa Sidra ficou com baixa acidez e borbulhas finas, equilibrando a doçura da maçã com uma textura aveludada da jabuticaba, enquanto o carvalho e as leveduras francesas acrescentaram profundidade e a elegância de um final seco no paladar.

Tive certa dificuldade de medir a graduação alcoólica, mas com um mini densímetro cheguei à uma aproximação de 4,6% abv, o que achei pouco para uma sidra de fermentação moderada de 60 dias.

Parâmetros:
Ingredientes: Suco de Maçã Gala e Fuji & Cascas de jabuticaba
Levedura: SafeCider AB-1
OG: 1052 / 20 °C
Fermentação: 20 dias
Refermentação: 20 dias
Coldcrash: 20 dias a 8°C
FG com 40 dias = 1017 / 20 °C
Ajuste Prime = 4g/L
Envasse com 60 dias
Carbonatação: 15 dias
ABV = 4593.75

O que acharam? Quanto pagariam numa garrafa de 750mL?

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All use Indian summer apple juice, lalvin 71B, 0.5tsp pectic enzyme, 0.5tsp north mountain yeast nutrient and 1.5 cups table sugar.

B1 uses Trader Joe's Power of 7 green juice blend. B2 uses Trader Joe's power of 7 pink juice blend. B3 uses 2 allspice and 4 cloves.

This yeast is very active and seems to love my 67F house. Can't wait to taste in 4 weeks.

Hey, I see this forming up on my cider. I read in this sub-Reddit that it might not be mold but other bacteria. But I am not sure. Can you please help identify this? Many thanks already.

Hi, started making my first batch today from apples.

Doesn’t look like I am going to finish pressing them all today. And am going away for a couple of days.

Should I

A) add yeast to existing juice then add the rest of juice in a couple of days once I have pressed it

Or

B) don’t add any yeast yet, wait till I have added the rest of the pressed juice

Or

C) something else…?

I'm cleaning out my bar and found this deep in the cabinet. What should I do with it?

https://preview.redd.it/9zn67xs2834e1.jpg?width=2268&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=e31bc0afda0193c22f220329b8cd181e2b62d8b0

Making my first batch (~1 gallon) of cider and, within the first day, it foamed up through the airlock.

I took the airlock and bung off and cleaned/sanitized them with dish soap and star san. While I was doing that, I put a new sheet of aluminum foil over the carboy.

When ready, I wiped the rim of the carboy and patted the bung dry with clean paper towels, so the bung wouldn’t slip off.

Should note that I also sanitized my hands beforehand and wore fresh gloves. Would be pretty on point to assume I’m worries about contamination lol.

This process took about 10-15 minutes. What are the odds that my batch could be compromised? What could I do better next time?

Serious question- my initial hydrometer reading was 1.04... the reading I have at bottling is .994... the temperatures were basically identical ~72-74°F

So I'm planning my first ever cider brew, and I'm trying to figure out what a good process is for infusing flavors after fermentation. I'm going to leave it in primary for 5 weeks to ferment dry, before racking to secondary where I want to infuse flavorings (I'm planning hops, and pasteurized apple slices).

Since I'll be introducing more sugar in the form of the fruit and apple juice top up (to prevent oxidation), how can I stop further fermentation while I am infusing my flavorings?

Should I:

1. Add my sorbate+campden right after racking, knowing I won't be bottling until a week or more later (I worry this will make the preservatives less effective).
2. Cold crash the cider during this infusion to make the yeast dormant, and add the sorbate+campden right before bottling as usual.

Or am I perhaps approaching this wrong altogether? Should I want a small secondary fermentation?

Thanks in advance!

At Albemarle CiderWorks...simply magnificent.

After returning from close to two-weeks in the UK, I’m looking for Thatchers Cider (specifically Rascal) in the USA. We live in Maryland but happy to have some shipped from another state.

Thatchers US has a twitter account, but no activity for a few years. I see it was once sold in 18 states but nobody carries it. I fear, that it was edged out with the surging seltzer market.

Has anybody found Thatchers in the USA recently?

I put my ingredients in my fermentation bucket about 3 days ago and it currently looks like this and I made cider once before and don't remember it ever looking like this so I sort of panicked.

If this is normal, how would I go about using a hydrometer?

Some of the funkier flavors I was getting earlier on are mellowing out, and it is not too tart which I was worried about.

The last time I made pear cider, I used a Brewers Best kit and tweaked it for more ABV. It was a little shallow on the back side (less pear flavor) than I wanted, but I macerated the must with blackberries to make up for the lightness of pear flavor. It turned out extremely good.

This time, I'm looking to raise the pear flavor. I ran across a gallon of pear wine base and it made me think that it might be the same stuff that came in the kit. My plan is to make the IG 1.070 (9.3%) but that much sugar will dilute the final flavor, so instead, I'm going to attempt to add more 'base'. I like my warez (minus wine) to be around 7% and by the time I backsweeten the cider, it should be around the target.

Has anyone done this? If so, how did it turn out? Would you recommend doing this or was it a complete PITA? Are there any gotcha that I should be aware of? I've tweaked plenty of recipes on the fly and anything like that isn't an issue for me. Just looking to see if anyone has used this and how it turned out.

Hi all, just wondering if anyone knows where abouts in the world the brand Old Mout Cider is available?

After primary fermentation everything was clear. I racked two days ago and this is how it looks now

I don't know anything about cider, but recently I've been drinking half my apple juice cartons, leaving them on my desk for 4 - 5 days, then drinking them once they've developed a nice fizz. There's a pungent alcohol smell but no alcohol taste and the carbonation is much lower.

I've only done this with store bought 100% apple juice but I want to branch out to other juices. Last time I forgot my mixed berry carton in the fridge for 3 months which resulted in a strong and thick washing drink that had a very weak alcohol taste.

Is it safe to be drinking 4 - 5 day old fermented juice? And at that time point around what percentage if any would the alcohol content be? Soda hurts my throat so I've been really digging this fizzy apple juice.

I cultured some wild yeast off of some apples from the grocery store with the intention of making some slightly alcoholic probiotic apple cider. But after looking in to the process I realized that I was not ready to put that much effort in. So my plan b is to use some store bought apple cider and also blend in a few of apples for some extra polyphenols and whatnot. Does this sound like a solid plan?

I'm going to have close to 3/4 of a gallon of cider left after racking that wont fit in my 3 gallon secondary. I want to mix a fruit juice with it to fill a 1 gallon demijohn. I noticed my grocery store has bottles of organic juice. I'm trying to decide between Mulberry, tart cherry, black cherry, or blueberry. I plan on letting it referment after adding it. What do you all think I should go with? Or is there something else that tastes awesome I should try? Edit: just saw blueberry pomegranate juice. How does pomegranate taste fermented?

Edit: decided to go with mulberry to be different. I bought a 32oz bottle. Should end up with a 3:1 ratio. I'll be racking tomorrow.

I did something dumb today. I pitched yeast into a mix of unfiltered pasteurized apple juice but I also added blueberry which was frozen, then I defrosted it, crushed in the bender with some apple juice for easier process and then pasteurized just in case.

The temperature of mix (apple juice plus blended blueberry) was not even warm so I am not concerned that temperature was too hot, but now all the blueberry pulp gets micro bubbles attached to it and floats up to form a layer on top of the fermenting liquid.

I think this creates an environment for some mold or other nasty stuff development. My current plan is open it tomorrow and just scoop as much as I can out of the fermenting vessel. Does anybody know any better way/time to get rid of the pulp?

Or am I freaking out too much about the pulp?

Edit: it looks like this

Hello I was trying to see if anyone posted this but I was wondering I’m going to carbonate a cider soon and wondered if anyone ever adds a apple slice or raspberry or anything on the bottle for fun and if they keep a nice look to them. It’s not for any reason other than looking at it but will it dissolve? Will it look colour? Does alcohol percentage affect it? If anyone has done this or something like it I would love to hear your thoughts. Thank you!