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Posted 2011/09/11

Homebrew - Simply Apple Cider

As soon as I bottled the last hard cider I sanitized the carboy and started the next batch. Since making cider from juice is so easy I don't see why you wouldn't do them back to back like this. This time I bought 6 1.75 liter bottles of "Simply Cider" from our local Kroger. This was about $20 of juice and seemed pretty reasonable to me.

I pitched a packet of dry lager yeast which I did not hydrate before. This left me with some clumps of yeast stuck to the inside of the top of the carboy near the neck. I didn't hydrate the yeast because I keep reading that you don't have to for dry yeast packs. However I will next time because I don't like the idea of killing a bunch of the yeast by sticking them out of the juice. I put the carboy in a plastic fermenting bucket because I had filled it higher than I ever had before and was a little worried it might explode out the top.

We tasted a pint when we bottled it, it was very dry and obviously zero carbonation. Both of these things we actually want. Gemma thought it is a bit watery, lacking body and I agree. In a month we shall see how it has changed. In a break from the norm I filled two one gallon jugs as well as the bottles. I did this mainly because I could not be arsed with bottling but also I figured this is a good way to keep it from carbonating. I used bungs and airlocks to let the CO2 out.

Ingredients: 2.8 gallons of "Simply Apple" (Saflager S-23 Dry Lager Yeast)
Brew:        11 Sep 2011 
Bottle:      18 Oct 2011 (31)
Ready:       09 Feb 2011 (114)
Summary:     Primary 31 days, Condition 114 days

This cider got left untouched in the gallon jugs for a long time. Mostly because we had a load of homebrew ready to drink so there was no need to break into this batch. It turned out very much like the cider we made with more expensive juice. Based on this few batches of cider we have made I have a solid idea of what to do now. Relatively cheap 'Simply Apple' juice from Kroger, Saflager S-23 yeast, 21 days primary and then 30 days in the bottle. I am going to keep a bottle from this and the last batch to compare. I think we might be close to finding the optimal Blacksburg Cider to start experimenting on!

UPDATE 25/Feb/2012
I wanted to do some experimenting using the gallon jugs. Over Christmas I had already emptied one into a growler. I bottled the other one straight after bottling my King George Pilsner and had half of bottle of cider and beer left over so I combined them. Will be interesting to see what the hybrid bottle is like.

Brew

Bottle

Ready