Cider: How-To
There have been a few questions about making hard cider floating around here, so I thought I'd make a sticky to address the making of hard cider. Keep in mind, this is just my personal experience, it is not gospel, so anyone who has more input or would like to correct me, please feel free...that's what this sticky is for!
- The first step is to get some cider. Now, you can go a bunch of different ways on this, but I'll tell you right now, unless you're getting fresh-pressed cider from a local orchard, you will be getting substandard juice. So look around, see what you can find. If the pasteurized store-bought stuff is your only option, then so be it. But for the purposes of this tutorial, let's assume that you have been able to procure fresh-pressed juice.
- The next question is whether or not it's been pasteurized...there might be laws in your state that prohibit the sale of unpasteurized juice. That's okay, but I prefer unpasteurized. Something about the heat just messes with the juice IMHO.
- Check your gravity. It should be between 1.045 and 1.060. It's okay if it's a little higher or a little lower, but most of the juice I get is around 1.050-1.055. You can add some dextrose or other sugars (honey, demerara, etc.) if it's really low, but you'll have to work out the calcs yourself. At this point, if you have pasteurized juice, proceed to step 5. If your juice is unpasteurized, go to the next step...
- Your juice is unpasteurized, which means it has all the wild yeast and bugs from the orchard just waiting to mess it up. If you pitch a large enough culture of lab yeast, and you don't plan on aging this in the bottle for a terribly long time, then you can get away with no treatment. It's also been said by the cider expert I get my juice from (cvillekevin at tbh) that adding k-meta increases the time the cider needs to condition, but I always condition my ciders for a long time anyway, so I usually add it. Bottom line, though: if you want a very clean cider with no bacteria/wild strains that will age in bottle for a long time without getting vinegary, then you need to get some potassium metabisulfate...also known as k-meta or campden tablets. In the case of the powdered k-meta, which is cheaper typically, you'll need to follow the directions on the pack for how much to add per gallon, because I forget (someone chime in if they know). In the case of campden tablets, it's 1/2 tablet per gallon, crushed. You add this to the juice PRIOR to pitching your yeast and wait 24 hours for it to stun/kill all the bugs and wild yeast. Then, after 24 hours...
- If you don't care about clarity, move on to step 6. If you do, then you need to add some pectic enzyme to eliminate pectin haze. I think it's a couple tablespoons in a 5 gallon batch, but again, check the directions on the pack. You add the pectic enzyme to the juice and wait 12 hours. Then...
- You pitch your yeast. Now, if you really want to know all there is to know about which yeasts work best in conjunction with which sugar additions and what kind of apples, then head on over to tbh and you'll see a sticky there by cvillekevin which outlines his insane yeast experiments. He makes killer cider, I've had a bunch of it, so you can trust him. But you can also experiment. I've made great cider with stuff like saison and wit yeasts, stuff that he hasn't even tried. I prefer beer yeasts rather than all those weird lalvin strains, personally, but you have to experiment to find what you like.
- Next is the big issue of whether you want a dry or a slightly sweeter cider. I prefer the dry ones, so I always let mine ferment all the way out. One time, I was curious about it, so I added half a pound of lactose to 5 gallons of cider...STILL dried it out to 1.002. Unless you get a stalled ferment, yours will, at regular temps, probably finish somewhere between 0.098 and 1.004. However, if you want it sweeter, pretty much the only way to do this is if you keg. You'll need to monitor your gravity very closely, and when it gets to roughly where you want it, you have to cold-crash it to arrest fermentation. I've never done this, but that's what cvillekevin does. As for fermentation temps, I never really pay much attention, so they ferment in the high 60's, but it depends on your yeast. A little ester production in a cider is not necessarily a bad thing!
- The last step is aging. I like to age mine until they're clear and the sulfury taste/smell has blown off (which is another point to make...depending on the yeast strain, your fermentation room may smell like rotten eggs while it's fermenting, but don't be alarmed! This is normal. It will blow off in time. One way to get it to blow off quickly is, when you keg, switch your diptubes around so you're pushing co2 from the bottom. Turn on the gas pretty high and make sure it's absorbing it. Then, start offgassing from the relief valve every now and then. The CO2 traveling up through the solution will help to scrub the sulfury flavors and aromas from the cider). Anyway, properly made cider will age for a long time, but my minimum is usually 6 weeks. You just have to taste it to know. But in any case, unless you didn't use any k-meta, it will probably take awhile. Do not rush it. I suggest getting a few batches going each season, because once the apples are gone, it's very hard to find good juice...and by the time the first batch is done, you'll be jonesing for more.
One other point I'd like to make is that, if you are a funky-sour beer kind of person, then you might try experimenting with spontaneously-fermented single-gallon batches. There's nothing to this...just get a gallon of unpasteurized fresh-pressed cider and put some foil over the opening...then just leave it alone. It will take a long time, but depending on the stuff that was living in there, you might get a really funky or sour batch. I've done it a few times, and it's always different!
Anyway, that's pretty much all I can think of right now. Again, please feel free to add to this at will!
Originally Posted by Jim Lahey
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