SeamusMac
Well-Known Member
Hey guys,
The cider mills here in Nova Scotia are starting to press some excellent blends of apples right now and I'm ready to make some hard cider!
Memories that I have of cider involve a medium-brown cloudy drink that tastes sweet, but not too sweet like apple juice. I want to make this for the holidays and so I've decided that my final ABV will be around 5% to ensure drinkability by the first weekend of December. As it stands the SG of the juice is 1.046-1.048 so I should be OK assuming the FG is more than 1.008 when it's all said and done. Then back-sweeten with concentrate.
But before all of that, I'll be starting off on the "wrong" foot. Like I said, I want cloudy cider so I'll be boiling my sweet cider to kill off the wild yeast and set the pectins before fermentation. I'm hoping that I'll have a hard cider that doesn't drop a lot of junk onto the bottom of the keg once it goes into the fridge...
I'd like to hear from anyone who has done this, my searches all result in HBT'ers telling others not to boil because it sets the pectins and nothing else... I'm going to go ahead with this regardless and post my progress and results, might even make it a youtube series if I can find a camera man/woman ha ha.
Thanks HBT!
The cider mills here in Nova Scotia are starting to press some excellent blends of apples right now and I'm ready to make some hard cider!
Memories that I have of cider involve a medium-brown cloudy drink that tastes sweet, but not too sweet like apple juice. I want to make this for the holidays and so I've decided that my final ABV will be around 5% to ensure drinkability by the first weekend of December. As it stands the SG of the juice is 1.046-1.048 so I should be OK assuming the FG is more than 1.008 when it's all said and done. Then back-sweeten with concentrate.
But before all of that, I'll be starting off on the "wrong" foot. Like I said, I want cloudy cider so I'll be boiling my sweet cider to kill off the wild yeast and set the pectins before fermentation. I'm hoping that I'll have a hard cider that doesn't drop a lot of junk onto the bottom of the keg once it goes into the fridge...
I'd like to hear from anyone who has done this, my searches all result in HBT'ers telling others not to boil because it sets the pectins and nothing else... I'm going to go ahead with this regardless and post my progress and results, might even make it a youtube series if I can find a camera man/woman ha ha.
Thanks HBT!