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Once you've got about a gallon of cider, you have to pasteurize it for two reasons:
-to kill any bacteria in your apple juice that might contaminate your brew
-to kill naturally occurring wild yeast
NOTE: If you want to do this old school, you can skip pasteurization and just put it in your carboy and let the wild yeast ferment it, but this will probably take a lot longer and might taste a bit off.
Put your cider in a big stock pot over medium heat and allow it to cook for about 45 minutes, stirring regularly with a metal or sanitary plastic spoon. DO NOT ALLOW IT TO BOIL!!! The temperature should be kept just below boiling at all times. If you allow it to boil your cider will become cloudy and never fully settle.
You can add the 2 cups of brown and white sugar here if you'd like. This will raise your alcohol content and make a slightly sweeter final product, but it is not absolutely necessary.
When the cider has cooked for 45 minutes, allow it to cook. Meanwhile, you should sanitize your carboy by adding half a cap-full of bleach to a gallon of water and allowing it to stand for half an hour. Then rinse thoroughly with cold water.
Once the cider has cooled to room temperature, poor it into your carboy leaving a few inches of room at the top for the yeast (if you have too much, just drink it! mmmm, warm cider!)
NOTE: I mentioned Campden Tablets earlier. If you chose to use this method you should not cook your cider. Basically what these tablets do is create a chemical gas in your cider that will naturally sanitize it and kill all the yeast. I have never used this method, though a lot of people prefer it because cooking does not always kill all of the yeast and you tend to lose some of the aromatics when you pasteurize with heat. If you want to use this method, I recommend you research it further, as I am not overly familiar with it.
-to kill any bacteria in your apple juice that might contaminate your brew
-to kill naturally occurring wild yeast
NOTE: If you want to do this old school, you can skip pasteurization and just put it in your carboy and let the wild yeast ferment it, but this will probably take a lot longer and might taste a bit off.
Put your cider in a big stock pot over medium heat and allow it to cook for about 45 minutes, stirring regularly with a metal or sanitary plastic spoon. DO NOT ALLOW IT TO BOIL!!! The temperature should be kept just below boiling at all times. If you allow it to boil your cider will become cloudy and never fully settle.
You can add the 2 cups of brown and white sugar here if you'd like. This will raise your alcohol content and make a slightly sweeter final product, but it is not absolutely necessary.
When the cider has cooked for 45 minutes, allow it to cook. Meanwhile, you should sanitize your carboy by adding half a cap-full of bleach to a gallon of water and allowing it to stand for half an hour. Then rinse thoroughly with cold water.
Once the cider has cooled to room temperature, poor it into your carboy leaving a few inches of room at the top for the yeast (if you have too much, just drink it! mmmm, warm cider!)
NOTE: I mentioned Campden Tablets earlier. If you chose to use this method you should not cook your cider. Basically what these tablets do is create a chemical gas in your cider that will naturally sanitize it and kill all the yeast. I have never used this method, though a lot of people prefer it because cooking does not always kill all of the yeast and you tend to lose some of the aromatics when you pasteurize with heat. If you want to use this method, I recommend you research it further, as I am not overly familiar with it.
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I also know that there are some filtration systems that use a glass tube and UV rays to filter fish tank water.
Could 2+2=awesome?
The better flavor of the unpasteurized cider with the benefit of not adding bacterial cultures to your intestines?
Brilliant!
We brew cider in an oak cask from late october / mid november till it is fully brewed. Then we bottle it and open the 1st bottle only "after the 1st song of the cuckoo !…" , so goes the saying !…
Watch the cork and have several hands each with a glass : if the cider is highly carbonated the cork will leave a hole well a dent…) in your ceiling and 3/4of the contents will be flooding table and ground before you can fill the 1st glass …
Idophor is best.
My cider has been fermenting for 48 hours and there are no bubbles in the airlock. There is gas in the air lock, as the liquid has been pushed into one chamber, but no bubbles?!
Also, I did not add sugar, as it says it is optional, I put 2/3 package of yeast, but the juice did not fill the my 1 gallon container completely, it arrives just below the shoulder of the container.
Should I add sugar? Is it too late? Please help.
Thanks
You can mix the nat yeast with your yeast and it will be fine. You are missing out on lots of natural flavors!
In most cases I use good ole redstar as well, with the nutrient, by juice is never heated, never sulfited. I feel that I want the true character of the fruit. But, of course, do what feels comfortable to you.
I would also strongly recommend against the use of bleach [even diluted.. it's toxic], if you are making the trip to the homebrew store, they have several safe products for cleaning your bottles and tools. I use B brite... which is an oxidizer...[similar to oxiclean].... and when you are done... it's basically harmless... but you do want a good rinse.
while I don't dose my juice, I do soak, scrub and rinse every vessel and tool and surface that is involved in the process.
In the spirit of Mr. Pollen, I encourage everyone to meet the people growing the apples you use, talk to them, look them in the eye.... and always return with a bottle of the finished product.
However, that being said, I just used Star San for the first time when making my cider the other day and it is infinitely easier to use than a bleach solution. It's a no-rinse acidic sanitizer that you don't even have to worry about the suds it makes after you're done (though I did rinse most of them away).