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C01: Hard Apple Cider Monday, October 14, 2013, 12:41 PM

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2013-10-14 Main:

I started a "brew" of hard cider. I used Whole Foods 365 Brand cider and Old Orchard Juice Concentrate. The general idea is from HowToMakeHardCider.com.

Here are my notes:

• Cut apple juice concentrate into a quarter or so and melted in the microwave (about 1/2 cup melted)
• Added about 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrient to concentrate
• Poured 1/2 cup out of juice
• Added concentrate (plus nutrient)
• Put back on lid and shook a lot
• Pulled 1 cup for grav reading. OG 1.051
• Added 2.5 grams (half pack) of Montrachet Dry Yeast
• Note, I didn't rehydrate but I added more yeast than needed.
• Shook with lid. Some stuck to jug but I am not worried about it
• Put sanitized bung and airlock on.
• Bung fell off. I need to really press that on I guess. Re sanitized and put on

That was all there was to it. It probably took about 30 minutes! I do not know about this yeast but it is what the shop recommended. I haven't decided about back sweetening and what else I want to do.

2013-11-23 Bottle

I decided for the sake of simplicity, I wouldn't back sweeten and I'd just bottle as is. I put it in the fridge 3 days earlier to cold crash. I had taken off the airlock and put sanitized foil over the bung so it would fit.

Here are my bottle notes:

• 1.001 @ 43 (according to thermometer strip) --> FG 1.000
• 11cm on bucket -->0.98 gal
• 10.4 bottles so plan for 10
• Not sure what temp to use for priming. It fermented around 74 but was bottled at 43. I am aiming for 2.25 volumes. I played around and decided on 0.65 oz corn sugar. If the beer is at 43, that is 2.53 vol. If the beer is at 74, that is 2.0
• ABV: 6.69=6.7%
• Used 1/3 cup (tap) water

Bottling went well. I cleanly bottled 10 bottles with some left to drink. It tasted very good. Very clean and dry. It reminded me of a very lightly carbonated and very unsweetened version of that alcohol apple cider. It also had a kind-of champagne smell to it. I do not think it needed any sweetener! I'm very excited to try it and I think I will buy more jugs of juice and do it again.

Side note:

This is batch C01.

2013-12-07 note: 3 weeks will be 2013-12-14

Original Wordpress ID and Date: 6760, 2013-10-14_124120

Tags: home_brewing