So, we made a hard cider last fall. You can read more about the making of the hard cider if you are keeping score at home.
We used my grandfather’s old press. When I say old, it’s older than your age plus my age. It’s oooooooooold.
Although I cleaned it as best I could, the old press left its taste in the cider…but I am getting ahead of myself.
It poured clear and sparkling into the glass. In the photo, there is some condensation on the glass but looking at the bottom of the glass it looks crystal clear.
In the aroma, you could detect apple tartness and a bit of the sweetness of apple blossoms.
As for the taste, the champagne yeast dried the cider out. It starts out clean with the CO2 bubbles all around. Then there is a sharp tartness. All the sweetness of the apples is long gone. Then it ends with slightly moldy wood taste.
Yeah. That old press left it’s mark.
What have we learned?
- Sweetened with a simple syrup, this cider is 10x better. It’s a cheat but it makes it much more drinkable.
- Without the syrup, it’s not undrinkable…but it is nothing to write home about either.
- I am probably going to buy a book on cider making to learn more for the next attempt.
- Champagne yeast leaves cider dry. 🙂 Not that I didn’t know that from the start, but the end result really helped me understand.
- The old press might be good from a historical perspective but if it can’t make great cider anymore, then we may need to retire the whole thing.
I am going to hide a bottle or two to see if more aging will mellow it out further.
Ever onward and Brew On.
Aaron
I brewed a cider with champagne yeast once. It’ll be two years old this May, and I think it’s finally approximating something worth drinking. The problem is, any yeast is going to dry the crap out of any normal strength cider.
I’m not into cider enough to really develop much effort into it, but if I was and I kegged, I’d stop fermentation early and force carbonate. Since I don’t keg, I’ve considered adding malt extract to increase body.
JW
I have been told to try using Sweet Mead Yeast instead of a Champagne Yeast when doing cider. The mead yeast is supposed to leave more residual sugar behind.
Its on my ‘To Try’ list for next year.
-JW
Aaron
I’ve heard that, too, but I don’t buy it. Apple juice is just too fermentable for any yeast to leave anything behind.
Ali
The best book is Real Cidermaking on a Small Scale. Not sure if it’s available in the US, but you should be able to get it through Amazon.
Champagne yeast has its uses in cidermaking, but generally its used as a second addition to create a champagne style cider. Cider yeasts are available in the UK that will give a good ferment, and I’ve heard good things about using the Lavlvin K-1118 which will out compete nasties in your juice.
Adam
These batches turned out pretty good…
http://beerbits2.blogspot.com/2009/11/cider-have-you-made-it-before.html
The unpasteurized is a bit funky, which I like. The pasteurized is clean and dry. I think the s.04 yeast was a good choice. Took a few months to get really good and wasn’t “hot” at all.
graham
Best thing I’ve found is to sweeten the cider back with lactose. Even ale yeast will rip a straight cider down to 1.000 without problem, which makes a beverage that’s too dry for a lot of people. People expect “cider” to be sweet.
Also, you can make “Graff” which is a cider sweetened with malt extract and a very small amount of hops. I used 4 gal of juice, plus 2lbs of dry extract and some specialty grains, .5oz hops (boiled only 30 min) and US-05 Yeast. This ended up at 1.010, so I added 1lb of lactose and it raised the gravity back up to 1.018.