Brewing Ciders

[Dustin Frothman]

On 23/03/2022 at 7:14 PM, Wazza_wantsbeer said:

Cider No. 2 on in the new Wazza's Droid II.

This time went with 5x 2l

Nudie nothing but cloudy apple juice

Starting Gravity of the Apple juice was 1.052.

Added 250g Dextrose

For an Original Gravity of 1.060.

Went with a different yeast as well, Fermentis Safcider AB-1, which is supposed to result in a more balanced cider.

Also added half a heaped teaspoon of yeast nutrient. Apparently this is critical to avoid the "rhino farts" common when fermenting ciders.

If this finishes anything like the last Cider with a Final Gravity of 1.000 then I'm expecting around a final ABV of 7.88%.

Going with the obvious name for this Cider...

"Nudie Run Cider" because if you have too many of them at 7.88%, you could end up doing a nudie run...

LOL

Hey Wazza, how did your cider turn out?

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

11 hours ago, Dustin Frothman said:

Hey Wazza, how did your cider turn out?

Back online after almost a week off as my mate was visiting from Melbourne, more on that later.

Kegging Cider No. 2 - "Nudie Run" today. 13 days from start to the Droid moving it to Kegging temp at 0200 hrs this morning.

Just poured out a good 250 ml sample, tasted it and it is definitely tasting great. A fair bit sweeter and definitely a lot less sharp or crisp when compared to the first cider but more soft apple flavour.

In terms of mouthfeel, this has a much softer, rounder mouth feel. The colour was also noticeably different, this one having a very cloudy and softer appearance.

Worth noting, I used the hop function when setting up the custom fermentation program as I was thinking about adding a small amount of hops to this.

In the end... I did. I added 20g of Galaxy hops on the 2nd day of the dry hop cycle so it wasn't in as long as I would have when fermenting out a beer.

When compared to my first cider, the Rebecca's Rocket PinkLady, it is a very different flavour profile.

That would be down to three things, the yeast, definitely the Galaxy hops and the juice used.

The expression of the yeast I used being the Fermentis Safcider AB-1 which is touted on the Fermentis website as "THE RIGHT CHOICE FOR BALANCED CIDER". Definitely has given it a sweeter and less sharp flavour. And there is definitely some fruity flavours from the Galaxy hops, subtle yet there in the background after the initial sweeter apple flavour.

Also, the Nudie juice had a more sweeter flavour to begin with compared to the previous juice used. And checking the gravity of each juice, the Apple Press juice was 1.044 and the Nudie was 1.052, quite a bit of difference.

Also checked on the FG and it hit 1.000 @ room temp so very happy with the result and given my OG was 1.060 and FG 1.000 this gives me a final ABV of 7.88%.

I think this cider will age well as did the other but perhaps this one has more potential, will wait and see.

[Captain 3 Droids]

4 minutes ago, Wazza_wantsbeer said:

Nudie Run

Is this when putting down the cider or when drinking?

 

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

Just now, Captain 3 Droids said:

Is this when putting down the cider or when drinking?

 

Definitely after drinking  

[Dustin Frothman]

32 minutes ago, Wazza_wantsbeer said:

mouthfeel

[Captain 3 Droids]

10 hours ago, Wazza_wantsbeer said:

Definitely after drinking  

Trying to get the last drop Wazza?

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

Been a busy/crappy past couple of weeks even with the public holidays. Father's been hospitalised since the 8th of this Month and I got a bad chest cold (passed 2 RATs so thinking/hoping it wasn't COVID).

Anyway, finally got a decent taste of the Nudie Run Cider.

Very good but not quite as good as the first one that I did now but I think this will improve more with time.

Edited April 21, 2022 by Wazza_wantsbeer

[Dennis Connell]

On 05/11/2019 at 4:22 PM, Rob Courtney said:

Shamelesly stolen but

To answer a common question, Yes you can brew cider in the Beerdroid.  You can use a cider kit (if it’s a 23 litre kit you use half and then add half the usual other ingredients (if any).  Or you can make one from scratch.

 Here is a recipe I  have made this and it was excellent. 

- 7L Preservative Free Apple Juice (supermarket homebrand)
- 3 x 850ml Preservative Free Pear juice (Goulburn Valley)
- 1 tea bag of english breakfast, steeped in 1 cup (ish) of water
- 500g Lactose (stirred into mix)
- 1 x Sachet of Cider yeast (used Mangrove Jacks M02 Cider)

Brewed on custom mode: 22 degrees propagate, 12 degrees ferment

You could use all apple juice, all pear juice or add some raspberry juice – whatever you want.  Leave out the tea bag if you want.  It’s up to you.  The idea of the lactose is that it is a sugar that does not ferment so it adds sweetness to the cider (adjust this to taste)

 

Question: how big a M02 cider yeast sachet

 

 

[Rob Courtney]

5 hours ago, Dennis Connell said:

 

I would have thought if you were using the droid and it being 10 litres then a 10 gram pack of yeast would work fine

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

On 27/09/2022 at 10:08 PM, Rob Courtney said:

I would have thought if you were using the droid and it being 10 litres then a 10 gram pack of yeast would work fine

Yes absolutely, a 10 or 11 gram packet is more than sufficient.

@Dennis Connell having done several ciders in my Droid, there's a couple of things I might add based on my own learnings.

Definitely look at adding some yeast nutrient. I use both types of yeast nutruient available at mose home brew shops:
DAP, Diammonium phosphate and;
The other which is made up of dead yeasts and some other additives to give amino acids and Inorganic Nitrogen. A good example of this is FERMAID O.

This helps to avoid the sulfur smell and taste often referred to as "rhino farts" during fermentation but that taste can remain in your cider.

Personal preference but I'd be careful with using that much lactose. Personally, not a big fan of what it brings to the cider and I prefer to "back sweeten" if added sweetness is needed. Back sweetening is adding either sugar or some additional juice after fermentation is complete. You use a campden tablet or similar to kill the yeast first so that you don't get further or secondary fermentation and end up with bottle bombs.

Also highly recommend the Fermentis cider specific yeasts (Safcider) over the Mangrove Jack but that again is personal preference.

Good luck and happy brewing!

[Rob Courtney]

On 29/09/2022 at 10:19 AM, Wazza_wantsbeer said:

Yes absolutely, a 10 or 11 gram packet is more than sufficient.

@Dennis Connell having done several ciders in my Droid, there's a couple of things I might add based on my own learnings.

Definitely look at adding some yeast nutrient. I use both types of yeast nutruient available at mose home brew shops:
DAP, Diammonium phosphate and;
The other which is made up of dead yeasts and some other additives to give amino acids and Inorganic Nitrogen. A good example of this is FERMAID O.

This helps to avoid the sulfur smell and taste often referred to as "rhino farts" during fermentation but that taste can remain in your cider.

Personal preference but I'd be careful with using that much lactose. Personally, not a big fan of what it brings to the cider and I prefer to "back sweeten" if added sweetness is needed. Back sweetening is adding either sugar or some additional juice after fermentation is complete. You use a campden tablet or similar to kill the yeast first so that you don't get further or secondary fermentation and end up with bottle bombs.

Also highly recommend the Fermentis cider specific yeasts (Safcider) over the Mangrove Jack but that again is personal preference.

Good luck and happy brewing!

cheers for that, was considering making a cider for my Sister in law (really a sister after all these years), so I might pick your brain on this

[Rob Courtney]

Or of course, I could have read the last page to get the info

[Rob Courtney]

On 21/01/2022 at 8:59 PM, Dustin Frothman said:

 

@Wazza_wantsbeer

Check out the advent calendar the MIL bought me.

Marrying into a Scottish family has some benefits …

Now that is a present worth getting

[Chad Oliver]

Hey there, New here so please excuse me if this is common knowledge. 

I see a lot of these turn out with high ABV, to change this is it as simple as adding say 8.5L juice to 1.5L water? 

My missus will die if she drink 9% cider lol 

[Rob Courtney]

39 minutes ago, Chad Oliver said:

Hey there, New here so please excuse me if this is common knowledge. 

I see a lot of these turn out with high ABV, to change this is it as simple as adding say 8.5L juice to 1.5L water? 

My missus will die if she drink 9% cider lol 

1) There isn't a silly question, we are a community that shares information and drinks beer...and cider

2) If you really want to know your shortcomings in your relationship, maybe giving your missus 9% cider would help

3) Welcome to the forum

@Wazza_wantsbeer any info you can share on this question?

[Thagomizer]

On 13/08/2023 at 5:45 AM, Chad Oliver said:

Hey there, New here so please excuse me if this is common knowledge. 

I see a lot of these turn out with high ABV, to change this is it as simple as adding say 8.5L juice to 1.5L water? 

My missus will die if she drink 9% cider lol 

@Chad Oliver

Hello Chad, and welcome to the forum.

I have been thinking about your problem of reducing the amount of fermentable sugar in your cider.  The problem about diluting the batch with water is that you also dilute the flavors and essence of the brew.  You may as well brew at full strength and then add water to the finished product.  If this is acceptable, it would be the simplest solution.  Otherwise, I would forego the cider kit and use fresh apple juice.  When I did that, I barely got 6% ABV.

😀 Happy brewing.

[Wazza_wantsbeer]

On 13/08/2023 at 8:45 PM, Chad Oliver said:

Hey there, New here so please excuse me if this is common knowledge. 

I see a lot of these turn out with high ABV, to change this is it as simple as adding say 8.5L juice to 1.5L water? 

My missus will die if she drink 9% cider lol 

Hi @Chad Oliver and welcome to the forum.

As stated by @Thagomizer you need to reduce the amount of fermentable sugar that goes into your Droid.

That is a good question and there are a few things I would suggest:

First, I often use additional sugar, be it table sugar or dextrose, to the apple juice as it's going into the Droid. So I would definitely skip that!

Looking at my older posts plus my brew log, I went from using 500g of Dextrose in one cider to 250g in the next and the drop in overall ABV was significant.

Another suggestion would be to check the amount of sugar in the various apple juice's that you have access to and choice the one with the lowest amount of carbohydrate/sugar. As I mention in a post above, different juices have varying amounts of sugar so choosing a juice with less sugar will give less alcohol.

You can add water to the Droid, just make sure it is decent water, try a spring water, non carbonated, from your supermarket that doesn't have chlorine. I think you could safely add up to a litre without getting a diluted cider at the end.

I hope this helps and please fire away with any other questions you might have.

Cheers

 

[Chad Oliver]

On 16/8/2023 at 8:10 AM, Wazza_wantsbeer said:

Hi @Chad Oliver and welcome to the forum.

As stated by @Thagomizer you need to reduce the amount of fermentable sugar that goes into your Droid.

That is a good question and there are a few things I would suggest:

First, I often use additional sugar, be it table sugar or dextrose, to the apple juice as it's going into the Droid. So I would definitely skip that!

Looking at my older posts plus my brew log, I went from using 500g of Dextrose in one cider to 250g in the next and the drop in overall ABV was significant.

Another suggestion would be to check the amount of sugar in the various apple juice's that you have access to and choice the one with the lowest amount of carbohydrate/sugar. As I mention in a post above, different juices have varying amounts of sugar so choosing a juice with less sugar will give less alcohol.

You can add water to the Droid, just make sure it is decent water, try a spring water, non carbonated, from your supermarket that doesn't have chlorine. I think you could safely add up to a litre without getting a diluted cider at the end.

I hope this helps and please fire away with any other questions you might have.

Cheers

 

Thanks so much to the both of you. I’ll run my first batch and let you know how it goes. It’s a fairly low cost brew so I’m happy to play around a bit!