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Step 5Brewing with Commercial Cider (Creating A Starter)
[EDIT]
This is an optional step but after reading some comments on the original instructable, I thought it would be a good idea to include a few options for advanced brewing techniques, especially because this step is essential for those of you who are not making cider from scratch.
Here's the deal: if you want to make hard cider from store bought cider (which is a good option if you don't own a juicer or want to make high volumes of cider without putting in a lot of time squeezing apples), you will inevitably run into issues involving Potasium Sorbate. Now, there are a lot of rumors out there about Potassium Sorbate and its effects on Homebrew. Let me clear some things up:
-- Potassium Sorbate is added to most commercial ciders to stop yeast from reproducing after pasteurization. Potassium Sorbate DOES NOT KILL YEAST. It prevents yeast colonies from reproducing, which technically causes the colony to die, but it doesn't have the same effect that say, introducing a pesticide to the colony would have. Most importantly, IT IS STILL POSSIBLE TO GET AROUND POTASSIUM SORBATE FOR THIS REASON.
-- You CAN brew with pasteurized, commercial cider. Pasturization kills yeast and since we are introducing new yeast anyway, it doesn't really make a difference. Just make sure your juice contains juice from apples and the unavoidable Potassium Sorbate. If it's got anything else in it, I'd steer clear.
Anyway, as I mentioned, PS inhibits yeast reproduction, but it won't kill yeast by itself. Therefore, to get around it all you have to do is get the yeast started reproducing (i.e. create a starter) before you pitch it in and you're all set.
To Create A Starter:
Basically you will be taking yeast and putting it into a nutrient bath that is free of Potassium Sorbate and allowing it to begin fermentation over night so that it has a running start and won't be inhibited by the PS in the rest of your juice. For this you will need:
3-4 apples
Brown sugar or Honey (optional)
A juicer or, failing that, a blender and a mesh colander.
A food-grade plastic or glass container (I use a sanitized 1/2 gallon milk jug)
Step 1: Juice your apples or chop them in your blender/food processor until they are the consistency of apple sauce then put the mush into a mesh colander and squeeze out the juice into a bowl. Now you have pure, untainted, unadulterated apple juice.
Step 2: Heat your apple juice to about 140 degrees F for 10 minutes or so. Stir in the sugar or honey. Heating the cider is optional, but it helps to get rid of any possible wild yeast (basically up until this point we've just followed the first few steps of the recipe)
Step 3: Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature (a little on the warm side) and pour it into a clean, sterilized milk jug or similar food-safe container.
Step 4: Add your entire packet of yeast and agitate gently until the yeast is mixed in. Put the cap on and wait.
It should take a few hours to start bubbling, so rather than waiting around for the cap to pop off from the Co2, I usually just cap the bottle my starter is in with an airlock and leave it alone over night. By the morning it should be fermenting vigorously.
Now when you go to make your cider, all you have to do is pour the juice into your sterilized carboy and add the starter. It should begin to ferment within hours, but be patient if it takes a little while.
I have done this several times with commercial cider containing Potasium Sorbate and I have never had a problem getting it to ferment.
As I mentioned, this is an essential step to making cider from store-bought juice, but if you're making cider from scratch it's not a bad idea either. It will speed up your fermentation process if you make a starter and if you're worried about your yeast not working out, it will ensure that they are alive and kicking before you pitch it in to your hard-earned juice.
This is an optional step but after reading some comments on the original instructable, I thought it would be a good idea to include a few options for advanced brewing techniques, especially because this step is essential for those of you who are not making cider from scratch.
Here's the deal: if you want to make hard cider from store bought cider (which is a good option if you don't own a juicer or want to make high volumes of cider without putting in a lot of time squeezing apples), you will inevitably run into issues involving Potasium Sorbate. Now, there are a lot of rumors out there about Potassium Sorbate and its effects on Homebrew. Let me clear some things up:
-- Potassium Sorbate is added to most commercial ciders to stop yeast from reproducing after pasteurization. Potassium Sorbate DOES NOT KILL YEAST. It prevents yeast colonies from reproducing, which technically causes the colony to die, but it doesn't have the same effect that say, introducing a pesticide to the colony would have. Most importantly, IT IS STILL POSSIBLE TO GET AROUND POTASSIUM SORBATE FOR THIS REASON.
-- You CAN brew with pasteurized, commercial cider. Pasturization kills yeast and since we are introducing new yeast anyway, it doesn't really make a difference. Just make sure your juice contains juice from apples and the unavoidable Potassium Sorbate. If it's got anything else in it, I'd steer clear.
Anyway, as I mentioned, PS inhibits yeast reproduction, but it won't kill yeast by itself. Therefore, to get around it all you have to do is get the yeast started reproducing (i.e. create a starter) before you pitch it in and you're all set.
To Create A Starter:
Basically you will be taking yeast and putting it into a nutrient bath that is free of Potassium Sorbate and allowing it to begin fermentation over night so that it has a running start and won't be inhibited by the PS in the rest of your juice. For this you will need:
3-4 apples
Brown sugar or Honey (optional)
A juicer or, failing that, a blender and a mesh colander.
A food-grade plastic or glass container (I use a sanitized 1/2 gallon milk jug)
Step 1: Juice your apples or chop them in your blender/food processor until they are the consistency of apple sauce then put the mush into a mesh colander and squeeze out the juice into a bowl. Now you have pure, untainted, unadulterated apple juice.
Step 2: Heat your apple juice to about 140 degrees F for 10 minutes or so. Stir in the sugar or honey. Heating the cider is optional, but it helps to get rid of any possible wild yeast (basically up until this point we've just followed the first few steps of the recipe)
Step 3: Allow the mixture to cool to room temperature (a little on the warm side) and pour it into a clean, sterilized milk jug or similar food-safe container.
Step 4: Add your entire packet of yeast and agitate gently until the yeast is mixed in. Put the cap on and wait.
It should take a few hours to start bubbling, so rather than waiting around for the cap to pop off from the Co2, I usually just cap the bottle my starter is in with an airlock and leave it alone over night. By the morning it should be fermenting vigorously.
Now when you go to make your cider, all you have to do is pour the juice into your sterilized carboy and add the starter. It should begin to ferment within hours, but be patient if it takes a little while.
I have done this several times with commercial cider containing Potasium Sorbate and I have never had a problem getting it to ferment.
As I mentioned, this is an essential step to making cider from store-bought juice, but if you're making cider from scratch it's not a bad idea either. It will speed up your fermentation process if you make a starter and if you're worried about your yeast not working out, it will ensure that they are alive and kicking before you pitch it in to your hard-earned juice.
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1) what can I use in place of "campden tabs" to carbonate my cider.
2) can I "make" a hygrometer?... or will I have to buy it on the internet?
3) when you say "entire" packet of yeast do you mean 10 grammes?
Please help gang... it looks like you are having an awful lot of fun and I would like to join in.
I have found the alcohol content and flavor can be amended simply by adjusting the amount and types of sugar and adding different types of fresh fruit. Trying to make everything too complicated tends to make everything, well...too complicated. Good luck!
Glad to hear you're getting into brewing cider in Brazil! Maybe you'll start a national trend. I'll see if I can answer your questions;
1. Campden tablets are used to pasteurize your cider, not to carbonate them. I think you're thinking of carbonation tablets sometimes used in beer brewing. You can use heat to sterilize your cider, as I suggested in the recipe, or you can order Campden tabs. For carbonation, you can use priming sugar or carbonation tabs, but you will want to calculate the specific gravity/alcohol content in order to use the right amount -- otherwise you'll have bombs on your hands. There are some good comments on carbonation and priming sugar on this thread and some even better resources out there online. It's a tricky business and I'm not necessarily the most qualified person out there :)
2. Making a hydrometer is relatively easy (http://www.ecawa.asn.au/home/jfuller/liquids/hydrometers.htm) , but it can be tricky to calibrate. I would recommend either buying one online, or simply winging it by following the recipe exactly :)
3. The yeasts that I typically use come in 5 gram packs and are good for 5 gallons of wort, but every yeast is different. If you don't have access to champagne or white wine or cider yeast, you can probably make do with something else, but I can't say from experience how much will be effective. Fortunately the amount of yeast that you use is not of great importance, as long as you're somewhere in the ballpark. Way too little yeast may take longer to get going, and way too much yeast will result in more silt/yeasty flavor, but unless you're way off, you probably won't notice a difference.
Hope that helped. My advice would be not to worry about it to much your first time. Cider is a very easy and cheap beverage to ferment and you can always improve your technique over multiple batches.
I'm making a list of needs now and off shopping for basic parts tommorow. I've got 5lit water jugs to start with and will end up making a vapour lock of some description (heh), but thanks a million for the Hydrometer site.
As far as yeast goes I've had to start with cooking yeast (which is bubbling away nicely) and one site that I looked at suggested a very heavy dose, but I like the idea of an approximate 1gram/ gallon of wort, that sounds more like it.
Am I right in thinking that with a yeast and "yeast nutrient" (please explain the difference) I'll be looking at about 3 months till I'm drinking it?... when can I start tasting it? ... heheh, sorry, a little too eager maybe!
I'm going to re-read your blog, but thanks again... you've opened my eyes to a whole new game ;)
Yeast nutrient is made of food-grade dehydrated urea. It's not needed, but it contains nutrients (ammonium ions) that keep the yeast healthy and productive. Probably something you'll want to pass rather than make yourself.
I haven't used cooking/baking yeast, but I know it can be done. Between 1-2 grams per gallon should do the trick.
Some friends are sending me some toys from the UK to help with the first couple of Batches. I hope to get the various campden tablet ingredient and Yeast types copied and batched by a pharmacy here... then we're off... till then baking yeast will do.
Another alternative to boiling is to get some sulfites from a homebrew/wine making shop, though I've not really read into the specifics of it. It will kill any wild yeast and bacteria present in the juice, though.
Search online for Orchards and your State, and the word cider, and you will find orchards that grind and press apples for cider, where you can purchase it unpasturized or flash pasturized, without any preservatives, and in bulk prices too. Make sure to add sugar to a specific weight of 1.10 or up to 1.2 and the yeast will produce alcohol in concentrations sufficient to sterilize the end product... except for possible contamination by vinegar yeasts which eat alcohol. The recommended campden is to prevent those vinegar yeasts. Cooking to pasturize is not recommended, as it will change the flavor to that of cooked apples, but flash pasturized cider will not have cooked flavor due to the very short time involved in the heating process.
Thanks on the prompt response, though (it's actually late enough here that I'm seeing the infomercial for the Jack La Lane power juicer, ahh irony). I'll give the grocery store cider a shot, and luckily there's an organic food store nearby if it doesn't.
Works well and is easy to clean. Had another brand and prefer Jack's.
That surprised me. Go for it.
EnsPulver