homebrew bum cider thoughts?

[mainbutter]

The situation:

I have a small batch of IPA I'm going to bottle tomorrow. I have a gallon of relatively fresh unfiltered apple juice from the farmer's market in the fridge. I want to make a cider, but I'm also lazy and have no more packets of yeast on hand.

The question:
If I aerated the juice, poured it on the yeast cake (US-05) from the previous batch, added some yeast nutrient, and swirled the fermenter a bit to kick up some yeast.. would I end up with some drinkable, ready to bottle hard cider? (My thought is to let it ferment for three weeks or so, no secondary since I don't have one)

I've never reused a yeast cake before, either by harvesting into small jars, washing, or just adding a new batch of fermentable wort/juice/whatever directly on top. If this is a perfectly fine and workable idea, are there any caveats I should be aware of?

My one concern from a flavor standpoint is that there surely has to be some hops in the yeast cake/trub/settled stuff in the bottom of the fermenter. Part of me is thinking that since hopped ciders and grafs are pretty popylar, it'll still turn out great.

My plan is to go forward and give it a shot. Unless someone here puts up a big "STOP! DONT DO IT BECAUSE [insert a good, realistic reason]!", I'll keep this thread updated with the results going forward. Hope to post some pics tomorrow.

Let me know what you guys think

 

[MindenMan]

the situation:

I have a small batch of ipa i'm going to bottle tomorrow. I have a gallon of relatively fresh unfiltered apple juice from the farmer's market in the fridge. I want to make a cider, but i'm also lazy and have no more packets of yeast on hand.

The question:
If i aerated the juice, poured it on the yeast cake (us-05) from the previous batch, added some yeast nutrient, and swirled the fermenter a bit to kick up some yeast.. Would i end up with some drinkable, ready to bottle hard cider? (my thought is to let it ferment for three weeks or so, no secondary since i don't have one) yes

i've never reused a yeast cake before, either by harvesting into small jars, washing, or just adding a new batch of fermentable wort/juice/whatever directly on top. If this is a perfectly fine and workable idea, are there any caveats i should be aware of? no

my one concern from a flavor standpoint is that there surely has to be some hops in the yeast cake/trub/settled stuff in the bottom of the fermenter. Part of me is thinking that since hopped ciders and grafs are pretty popylar, it'll still turn out great. if that was a question, then the answer is yes

my plan is to go forward and give it a shot. Unless someone here puts up a big "stop! Dont do it because [insert a good, realistic reason]!", i'll keep this thread updated with the results going forward. Hope to post some pics tomorrow.

Let me know what you guys think

1

 

[BeeDeeEff]

I'd say do it. Hops in cider is delicious.

See: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=598808

 

[mainbutter]

That's all the enabling I need! What a great community.

Can't wait to update with how this goes.

 

[bernardsmith]

I think it may depend on how stressed (or not) the yeast are from their work on the IPA. But in principle, there is no good reason why you cannot dump the apple juice onto the yeast. What's the very worse that can happen? What's the very best that might happen? I say go for it.

 

[Transamguy77]

I make all my ciders that way, keg beer dump in juice.

 

[mainbutter]

Bottling went easy last night, and went ahead and got the cider going! I added a teaspoon of yeast nutrient and 1/5lb brown sugar dissolved in boiling drinking water as well for some added fermentables on top of the 1 gallon of fresh pasteurized cider. I think I was able to keep the fermenter sanitary and protected during the bottling and refilling.

Fermentation is vigorous! I woke up to regular bubbling in my airlock, and not too much foam. Went to work, got home at midnight to foam starting to creep up the airlock, so I swapped it out for the only semblance of a blow off tube I had, maybe 3/8" tube that fits where the airlock goes? Anyhoo, the other end is in a jar of sanitizer, hopefully if I start to get blowout, it works enough. I wish I had a tube to replace the cap on the jug for a wider blow off, but nothing to be done now except hope it works.

I have some pics on my phone - am I able to upload photos directly to HBT or do I have to host them on a sharing site and link them?

Thanks again for the input, my beer closet smells DELICIOUS with this cider going.

 

[mainbutter]

Giving uploading pictures from the reply dialogue a shot.

 

[mainbutter]

Here it is with the small blow off tube. Crossing my fingers it is sufficient! P.S. sorry for the sideways photo.. still trying to figure out how to orient landscape-style photos from the phone.