Batch 1 - Simple Cider
Batch 1 was about as simple as brewing gets.
Ingredients:
1 Gallon plastic bottle of store-bought pasturized apple juice (the clear kind)
Some ale yeast (small sample taken from Batch 2)
Tools:
Drill
Straw
Small water bottle
Hot glue gun
Boiling water
Small container (used a plastic cottage cheese container)
Tube and bottling cane
Sanitized bottles and caps
Bottle capper
Steps:
1. Remove cap, drill hole.
2. Hot-glue straw to cap.
3. Boil your small container.
4. After glue dries, boil assembly for about a minute.
5. Pour about a cup of juice into container, seal, put in refrigerator.
6. Pitch yeast. I just poured a bit of ale yeast from batch 2, but you could also pour in about a teaspoon of dry ale yeast. Follow directions on package.
7. Screw cap back on juice bottle.
8. Fill small water bottle about 3/4 full of your boiling water (it's ok to cool it down first).
9. Put end of straw in water bottle - this is now an airlock that will let CO2 out of the bottle but will not let air back in.
10. Wait a week.
11. When cider tastes right, boil the bit of juice that you saved and add it back into the juice bottle.
12. Siphon juice into bottles and cap.
13. Wait a few days.
Results:
Very nice cider. A little bit on the sweet side, and quite a bit over-carbonated. If I were to do it again I'd wait a bit longer than a week before bottling or skip the remove/reintroduce a cup of juice step.
Status:
These went quickly. Made about 10 bottles, and none are left.
Cider Brewing Setup
Ciderlicious Label
Ingredients:
1 Gallon plastic bottle of store-bought pasturized apple juice (the clear kind)
Some ale yeast (small sample taken from Batch 2)
Tools:
Drill
Straw
Small water bottle
Hot glue gun
Boiling water
Small container (used a plastic cottage cheese container)
Tube and bottling cane
Sanitized bottles and caps
Bottle capper
Steps:
1. Remove cap, drill hole.
2. Hot-glue straw to cap.
3. Boil your small container.
4. After glue dries, boil assembly for about a minute.
5. Pour about a cup of juice into container, seal, put in refrigerator.
6. Pitch yeast. I just poured a bit of ale yeast from batch 2, but you could also pour in about a teaspoon of dry ale yeast. Follow directions on package.
7. Screw cap back on juice bottle.
8. Fill small water bottle about 3/4 full of your boiling water (it's ok to cool it down first).
9. Put end of straw in water bottle - this is now an airlock that will let CO2 out of the bottle but will not let air back in.
10. Wait a week.
11. When cider tastes right, boil the bit of juice that you saved and add it back into the juice bottle.
12. Siphon juice into bottles and cap.
13. Wait a few days.
Results:
Very nice cider. A little bit on the sweet side, and quite a bit over-carbonated. If I were to do it again I'd wait a bit longer than a week before bottling or skip the remove/reintroduce a cup of juice step.
Status:
These went quickly. Made about 10 bottles, and none are left.
Cider Brewing Setup
Ciderlicious Label
posted by Matt at 8:42 AM
6 Comments:
I really think it's a bacteria problem. Try the airlock thing - that should help a lot.
Forgot to address the crap at the bottom of the bottle. If it went well (which it sounds like it didn't), then this is just yeast castings. It's alive and dead yeast that has settled to the bottom. Just don't pour this and you'll be fine. Even if you drink this stuff it shouldn't taste/smell bad and is actually good for you.
I don't see where you pitched your yeast in batch 1.
Thanks, Anon. I'll add that.
wow love the airlock simple and cheap I have just made my first batch of beer so im site hopping for ideas
Excellant reading
Update 10/31/05: Looking back on this post, I had a lot to learn. I now believe I hadn't waited for very much fermentation, hence the sweet flavor and low alcohol. Also, I now know it's possible that [letsbuildafort]'s batch was perfectly fine. There are usually some very harsh flavors and scents created in cider, and these will decrease or dissapear in time.
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