Making Cider

greg nr

Well-Known Member
The best cider I've ever had (Original Sin out of NY State) was made using Champagne yeast. It made for a crisp dry elegant champagne-y cider.
I've used it, but you have to know what you are doing and how to stop a ferment at just the right point to leave just the right amount of sweetness. A lot of people use chemicals to stop fermentation and then add back some sugars. Blech. Or worse, they add ethanol to cider and use a little weak yeast to carbonate it (or just pressurize it). Double blech. But they taste good.

It's just a personal preference, but I tried to stick to the german purity standard of only a few natural ingredients. I made my own code for ciders/cysers/meads. I even had my own bees.

But as long as you don't let bacteria grow, it will be good. Some good is better than others though. Experiment and see what works for you. But 55 gallons at a time is a lot to drink if you don't get it quite right the first time. ;)
 

Finshaggy

Well-Known Member
Also,
If anyone is looking for other flavors, Trappist Yeasts make flavors too. And supposedly some Yeasts make Bubblegum flavors at the right temps.

There are also Yeasts that make Red Fruit flavors like Cherry.
 

greg nr

Well-Known Member
Trappist yeasts make flavors all right. Ever taste a wet horse blanket? ;)

Lambic's are famous for flavor. It's an acquired taste though I love it.

Bring any of that shit into a brewery though and you will never get rid of it. It will end up in every batch you run.

Look, you can try whatever you want. The internet is full of great ideas. But I lived a production environment and almost opened a micro. There are real headaches with wild yeast contamination and unsanitary equipment. It's kind of like going from a single plant to a 200 light op.

Go for it. Just remember you can easily end up with floating fibres and a brew that tastes like a diaper.
 

tangerinegreen555

Well-Known Member
Why do these fast brains think they can make something for the very first time and expect perfection and grace?

There's a hands on learning curve involved in anything. Nobody steps up to the plate and hits a grand slam.

You learn from trial and error, mistakes and corrections. You don't even know what questions to ask until you've done it yourself and had trouble.

Took these guys years to perfect their cider:
 

Indagrow

Well-Known Member
I brewed mead for years its a difficult process to perfect especially when trying to tweak your base mead and back flavor as it was too much of a headache to have different flavored bases. My dark lord have I made some horrible tasting stuff just completely wasted 2 lbs of honey at a time. Fin is stay away from those drums they are damn near impossible to clean and in mead making when you innoculate you shake the carboy I'd love to see you try with a 55 if that's the same with cider. Start small..perfect your batch.. Scale it up

Good luck feller we're routing for ya
 

dankylarry

Active Member
I thought cider was for pussies too until I went to england and drank cider at a pub. People in england aren't pussies, they get into many actual street fights.
I'm interested in making some cider in my grow room since it will put off CO2 & is probably easier than making beer.
 

vostok

Well-Known Member
I thought cider was for pussies too until I went to england and drank cider at a pub. People in england aren't pussies, they get into many actual street fights.
I'm interested in making some cider in my grow room since it will put off CO2 & is probably easier than making beer.
Me too I got into UK Cider, with bits of apple floating in it

but they called it Scrumpy

commercial us cider is I suspect apple wine

always best is DIY

good luck
 
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