In late 2004, a few of us began experimenting with some recipes for making hard cider. With an ample supply of locally grown apples and pre-pressed ciders, it seemed appropriate for us to make our own version of this ages old beverage, not to mention it would be a fun experiment for the winter months. So, we set out to achieve the desired result ourselves.
Cider Equipment
The equipment needed for making cider is similar to beer and wine. A primary fermenter, glass secondary carboy with airlock, sanitation supplies (scrubbers, brushes, and The fermentation process is simple, and quite similar to fermenting wine.
When it comes time to bottle or keg the cider, you go through the same steps as for beer, using a can of compressed CO2 gas, numerous lines, and as many 5-gallon Cornelius kegs and assorted bottling jugs as you need.
The following are brewing notes from the process. These were written in chronological order, and help describe the process, surprises, miscellaneous notes, and final results achieved along the way.
12/14/2004, 6pm
Added 7 gallons of organic pressed apple juice/cider to the primary fermenter. Added 3/8 tsp potassium metabisulfite to the must.
Boiled up one pint of cider with 5 teaspoons of prepared mulling spices; let simmer for 20 minutes, then added to the must.
12/15/2004, 7pm
After 24 hours, began a yeast starter culture using 2 pints of cider and Lalvin KV1116 wine yeast.
Took Specific Gravity (S.G.) readings -- 1.053, adjusted for 68F room temp. This presents a resulting potential of about 7% alcohol.
After 40 minutes, stirred yeast well and added to the must.
12/16/2004, 11pm
Fermentation is well under way with a rapid amount of fizzling and sizzling and airlock bubbles. All is doing well. S.G. 1.052.
12/18/2004, 10pm
Fermentation continuing as the must is now chilled down to 57F in the cold garage.
Latest S.G. is 1.039. Fermentation is proceeding at a loss of about .04 to .05 per day -- just right for the Lalvin yeast (it ferments slower than other types).
12/21/2004, 1:30am
Fermentation continuing as the must is now chilled down to 52F in the cold garage.
Latest S.G. is 1.028. Fermentation continues at about .05 per day.
12/27/2004, 10pm
Racked cider into secondary carboy. S.G. is 1.021.
1/1/2005, 7pm
Noted MLF seems to be underway in carboys -- lots of pinhead-sized bubbles foaming away. All is looking good!
1/11/2005, 4:30pm
MLF continuing. S.G. 1.019. Good enough for me -- that's almost two weeks with very little change in S.G. This equates to about 4.5% by volume. Added Sorbistat at 3/4 tsp/gallon to kill off all yeast, in preparation for kegging and bottling.
1/12/2005, 5pm
MLF still continuing, but that is okay -- under pressure, MLF will halt long enough for kegging and bottling. Any MLF in the bottle will add to the carbonation slightly, but will not affect flavor or quality of cider that much.
We sampled the cider, and found it extremely fruity, with a lovely bouquet of mulling spices. A fair amount of the sugar was still present, but that's okay. A holiday cider shouldn't be as dry.
A 5-gallon cornelius keg was sanitized in preparation for kegging. As there was almost 7 gallons produced, we set up three additional 1/2 gallon growler bottles.
We positioned the carboy three feet off the ground, with kegs and bottles below, and using a "wine pump" (a plastic hand-pump attached to a length of polyeurothane tubing, which has a hand-operated crimp to allow the flow to start and stop), started a gravity flow. Once the flow begins, gravity takes over and lets the cider flow neatly from one container to the next.
We first filled the three growlers. This left approximately 5.5 gallons in the carboy. As the bottom of the carboy had collected much of the dead yeast and sediment, this would result in approximately 5 gallons of good cider for transferring to the keg.
After capping growlers, we then began filling the cornelius (corny) keg. With about four pints left in the carboy, we noted the corny keg was full, and so crimped off the flow, and sealed the corny keg using its rubber-lined lid.
Corny kegs have have several vales -- a pressure-sealed lid, an IN valve, and an OUT valve (which has a tube connected to the bottom of the keg, permitting you to draw the beverage contained within from the bottom of the can).
The safety lock on top allows the can to be pressurized up to a high level, and requires the can to be under pressure to form a safe and secure seal. After attaching the C02 can to the IN (top) valve, we blew out all remaining oxygen from the corny keg by filling the head space, and releasing the gas through the emergency release valve at the top of the keg. Doing this three or four times is sufficient for removing all oxygen.
We then attached the C02 line to the OUT valve, and by setting the C02 can to 30psi, pressurized the keg from the bottom up. This is something of a secret among home brewers, and permits the fluids within to be quick-pressurized in only a day or two (instead of the required week to two weeks, were the IN valve used instead).
With the keg pressurized, we moved the entire setup (keg and C02 can) into an empty refrigerator. By chilling the liquids, more C02 is able to be absorbed by the cider, so chilling under pressure is a necessity for kegging, especially if you plan on bottling the cider later on.
1/15/2005, 5pm
We sampled some of the cider from one of the chilled growlers. Fantastic!
Using a special tap, we also poured off some of the carbonated cider from the chilled keg into a glass. Again, fantastic.
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We hope you enjoyed this article on producing Oregon Holiday Cider. While this article is no doubt incomplete in many ways, we will fill in as many details on the process (including more in-depth recipes) in future articles.
