Sure, start with 100% apple juice (a lot of "apple juice" is part corn syrup - read the label if your source is the supermarket) and no water, try a champagne yeast.
I like to add a large ginger root to the boil (cut and ground with a food grinder). Bottle with 1-1/2 Cup of priming sugar and the result will have a lot of flavor and a slight bite to it. No head at all, dry, lots of very small bubbles.
If you can get unprocessed cider/juice,it has a lot of particulate in it, tastes great as hard cider, but remains cloudy. I imagine adding apples to the boil would have a similar result.
Thanks for the advice. Can I just clarify a couple of things you said below?
So I should make the entire liquid portion of the fermentation brew (Is this what people refer to as "The Wort"?) out of 100% pure apple juice? (About 20 litres?)
Is that 1 1/2 cups of sugar to the final mix, or 1 1/2 cups of sugar to each bottle that I fill?
When my dad used to make hard cider, I remember him adding a lot of honey and sugar and stuff, and I hear tell of a man who used orange juice somewhere in his recipe. Sorry I don't remember proportions, I was just a wee lad at the time. I suspect the old man used sugar and honey and molasses and syrup in whatever proportions he had available when raiding Mom's cabinets, but I'll ask him if he ever wrote any recipes down.
Yep, the best cider is made with the best 100% apple cider that you can find. It's best if you can get it directly from an apple orchard, or close to it. Or if you really want to, you could try crushing your own apples. Regular apple juice from concentrate that you might buy at the grocery store is certain to disappoint.
I don't know where they came up with 1 1/2 cups of sugar.... personally I'd use 3/4 cup of corn sugar for 5 gallons or thereabouts. Or if you don't need the carbonation, skip this step. Some people like their cider flat.
It is not a surprise for me. I brewed a lot of Apple Ciders from the cans. I used one can to make 18 litres of cider. When you bottle it will be drinkable only after 6 months !
Sure all apple juice and no or little added sugar. That will give you a dry cider with little sweet taste.
Assuming you want an effervescent product add the sugar to the wort as you would beer just before bottling. 1-1/2 cups total to five gallons or about 20 liters of cider; a little on the strong side, so your bottles have to be able to take the pressure. Sugar won't sweeten the finished product, just carbonate it.
And if you worry about the bottles exploding - plastic soda bottles work well and seem relatively indestructible - I tried my best to blow one up and couldn't do it, it just assumed a teardrop shape.
You dissolve the sugar in boiling water and add to the wort (cider) just before bottling - be sure to stir it in well (top to bottom so it won't stratify or the carbonation will vary from bottle to bottle). Only do this if you want sparkling cider - it won't make it any sweeter. You want sweet, you need some sugar that isn't easily metabolized by yeast.
As someone suggested, if you have frozen concentrated apple juice available you might try an extra rich mixture of apples to water to achieve a better taste.
Cider seems to benefit by aging it, store in a cool dark place if you want to age a portion of it. Do age it if you use a lot of honey.
Since I have apple trees and a cider press, I make a LOT of cider. My best ciders ahve come down to just apple juice and Wyeast 3766 cider yeast. No sugar...that just makes it drier, not sweeter. I don't like champagne yeast either...it ferments way too dry. Last, it takes a lot of waiting...my best ciders are 2 months in primary, 3-6 months in secondary, and 2 years or more in the bottle.
Thanks to everyone for your replies. You are giving me lots of idea's.
I am only new to all of this so I may ask what appear to be some pretty dumb questions... like this one:- I take it the primary is the fermentation barrel I use to mix it all up and ferment it in the first place. What is the secondary?
So I should not use any Cider "kits" with these recipes? Just pure apple juice and yeast? I like my Cider sweet, and I understand that adding sugar will just make it dry. How do I make it sweet? In the recent batch that I made I added 250g of lactose to the mix.
Yes sir. The closer you can get to orchard-style cider (with all the little bits of skin, seeds, stems, etc. floating around inside it), the better. I always say that a good cider tastes just like Grandma's homemade applesauce.
Lactose should work out nicely if you used the right amount. The only other thing you can try is to experiment with different strains of yeast. I believe Wyeast makes a sweet cider yeast, though I've never tried it myself, but I would try that first. Either that or Wyeast 3184 sweet mead yeast. Then you wouldn't have to use lactose.
That's the drill. Primary fermentation, then after 3-5 days (after vigorous fermentation slows down) rack (transfer to another fermentation vessel) and let it age, condition, settle for a period then bottle.
If you are using real unprocessed apple juice (cloudy brown stuff), the two stage fermentation may allow you a clearer drink. A lot of the particles fall out of suspension during primary fermentation. When you rack to another fermenter, the particles stay behind.
If you are just using store bought apple juice that has been filtered and pasteurized, you can make a pretty clear cider with just single stage fermentation.
Thanks David. Because I really don't know a great deal about this and am on a very steep learning curve can you please tell me if I get a heap of fresh apples and churn them all up into puree, using a blender, is that the same as what you are talking about or is there a special process for making the orchid style cider?
Do I need to add any water to it?
Thanks again. I will ask my local brew shop if they have that particular yeast. My son is a baker. Is any of the yeast he uses similar to what is required for brewing or is it a totally different thing?
No water needed - that will weaken the cider. If you want to go from whole apples, you will need to chop them up and "press" them. There are special purpose "apple/cider presses" for that job. You can buy or make one (or even rent one, in some areas).
The brew shop should have it or be able to get it. (Some brew shops rent presses - ask them about it).
It's not totally different, but different enough that you want to stick with some sort of brewing yeast. The strains for cider would be first choice, but a neutral ale yeast works well too, like Nottingham.
I made a cider from 4 gallons of fresh pressed juice from an orchard, one gallon of water/honey, and a packet of Nottingham ale yeast - that's it! It is about 15 months old now and it VERY dry and tastes (to me) like a Chardonnay (to my non-expert tastes). I tried to carbonate it with honey, but didn't use enough - there are just a few tiny bubbles that arise! ((I'd agree with others, tho', just go with 5 Gallons of juice - no extra sugar/honey/etc. Those just thin the taste and up the alcohol)).
Really, a chopper and press would do a better job, and probably would be less laborious. But I have a juicer, and no time / money to worry about a press just now, so the juicer does the job for me.
I find that about 2kg of apples gives me 1L of juice, then I clear the buildup of pulp from the juicer and start again. See, lots of work! But it works, and it works well for pears and carrots too (started a carrot wine yesterday ;)
Just the juice.
The pulp that my juicer throws is fairly dry, so I've been tossing it into the compost. This year, though, I'll keep it aside and add water to it, to see if I can make a simple cider vinegar from it. No real plan yet, will check out the facts when the time is closer.
Well, you can add stuff, but you don't have to. I would add a commercial yeast of some sort. I generally use a wine yeast (Lalvin D-47), but it makes for a very dry cider, so you might prefer an ale yeast, or a cider yeast (Wyeast and White Labs make liquid yeasts for cider). Or you can let it ferment with the wild yeasts present in the apples.
Depending on your apples, you might want to dick around with grape tannin and acid blend. I don't, but then I get my apples from an orchard that has cider varieties (in the Blue Mountains at Bilpin, any use to you?) so there is already plenty of acid and tannin there.
Asking questions is how you find out stuff. Also, you might want to check out these web sites:
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