Ohh...is this what I was to taste??

So as I mentioned, I bought 15 litres of Kirkland Apple Juice from Costco and pitched in 1 rehydrated package of Lalvin K1-V1116 yeast. I was trying it everyday and found that on the third day, it was perfect. If I was having a party, I would be tempted to treat it like a keg and people could just pour from the fermenter - there was even some carbonation (enough to make it very annoying to take a hydrometer reading!). I bottled a few litres and put some in a secondary. On the fifth day, I bottled the lot. Here are my findings:



The cider I bottled on the third day was left in a cupboard for two nights to carbonate, and carbonate it did. I did not add any primer to it, and it did not need one. I was actually afraid of a bottle bomb. When we opened it, it was very fizzy, cloudy and dry. If you like dry, fizzy cider, this may be an option. If I could do it over, I would let it carbonate for a few hours and as soon as the bottles were rigid, I would put them in the fridge. I found that, since we have no campden tablets, putting them in the fridge is a good way to stop/stall fermentation and keep the cider sweet and not too alcoholic.



The cider that was put into the secondary was much clearer, as expected, but also much dryer. It lost a lot of it's flavour and I will not secondary the cider again.



From the primary, I bottled some without a primer, with cane sugar and with apple juice. I put all of the bottles in the fridge right away. As expected, there was no carbonation happening after a few days, so I took out the ones with primers and left them overnight. The cane sugar (it was a teaspoon per 1.5L) carbonated slightly and tasted more similar to champagne than any of the other bottles. The one primed with 110ml of apple juice for 1.5L carbonated perfectly. This, along with the bottles that were fermented 5 days with no primer, were the best tasting and looking. Clear, about 8% abv, sparkling carbonation and a hint of apple.



So what did I learn? In lieu of campden tablets, the fridge works well; secondarying is not necessary and, I think, ruins the cider; the best priming option is to use store bought apple juice, which also adds a bit sweetness that will be taken off from the fermentation.



Next time, we plan on making two different ciders. The first will be a more generic cider, similar to Strongbow, etc. The plan is to ferment it for three days, or until it is about 10 gravity points from our goal, and then bottle it with no primer. I will let it sit at room temp. for a few hours, checking the bottle and as soon as they are rigid, I will pop them in the fridge. This, hopefully, should result in sweeter, less alcoholic cider.



We will also do some good ol' Scrumpy cider, fermenting until it is complete or almost there, prime with apple juice and do the same as above.



So if you make cider, I hope this helps a bit!!

8% ABV? Does that mean it dropped somewhere below 0.990 on the hydrometer, or should I use something else to be calculating ABV? I use this...



http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/





I agree though that cider is awesome. I haven't done any with Lavin yeast yet, just WLP004 (which was fantastic) and now with S-04. This one I added 2lbs of honey to as well and I want it a little dryer than the last one, so I'll see how it turns out. I also think I will just pasteurize it then keg it so I don't have to worry about it getting any drier.

So, I have never really known what % alcohol my cider was because it was tough to take a correct hydrometer reading. There was some carbonation during fermentation, so the hydrometer would go up and down and never give the same reading twice. And once it was bottled and carbonated, then no luck either.



However, I put my cider yeast (well, wine yeast, but it is cider yeast now) in a bottle with quite a bit of excess cider and took the cider off today. It read at below 1.000, I imagine about 0.996 or thereabouts. Which gives my cider, which had an OG of 1.051, a total % of 7.2... I was telling people it was 5%!! It still has a bit of sweetness to it, perhaps because of using apple juice as a primer. It's a good summer drink, so I recommend people to give it a try!!