Advice Before First Brew?

[TattyJJ]

Hey everyone,
I'm going to be starting my first brew this weekend. I have managed to acquire about 200kg of apples which was a LOT more than i was expecting

Anyone with some experience care to impart some tips so i'm a little less likely to mess this up....?
I'm hoping to press about half the weight as juice, enough to fill four 5 gallon carboys (Plastic not glass, they seem to have a reputation)
Couldn't decide what kind of yeast to use so have opted to try a different one on each carboy, i have gone for:
WLP720
Safcider
VR21
Nottingham

I'm also planning to bring the SG up on them slightly differently, so one with honey, another with brown sugar and the last 2 just normal white sugar. One of which will later be matured whisky oak chips and vanilla.

I'm especially not sure when and how i'm supposed to go about adjusting the tannin, or indeed if i even need to.
Also, do i literally just dump the yeast in and give it a stir (After adjusting SG and PH etc etc) or am i better to make a starter, however you go about that


Ta muchly

 

[TasunkaWitko]

The best advice I ever got was:

Don't over-think it.

Seriously...don't over-think it.

Enjoy!

Ron

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi TattyJJ. You don't start small. Two hundred kg of apples. Do you know what varieties are in that harvest? You may not need to adjust tannins if some (or all) of the apples are grown for cider rather than eating. Do you know the Brix of the apples? (the sugar content?) Is there a reason for assuming that you need to up the sugar levels? Cider apples tend to have more sugar than eating apples but you can expect a starting gravity of about 1.045 - 1.050 from juice made from eating apples (a potential ABV of about 6% - Guinness has an ABV of about 3% , I think).
Why would you want to adjust the pH? If the apples are edible (not necessarily eating apples but apples that are not so acidic that they will melt tooth enamel then the pH is likely to be high enough for the yeast (not too acidic). If the pH is below 3.2 then that may be too acidic and create problems for the yeast. Now, if you mean you want the cider to have "zing" then that has less to do with the pH and far more to do with the TA (titratable acidity) but your tongue and your taste is a good measure of that... and "that" you would want to adjust not before you pitch the yeast but before you bottle.
Last point: despite the fact that folk on this forum often routinely talk about "brewing" cider, you are not using any heat. Cider ain't beer... or tea... The only time you might apply heat in connection with apples is if you are making jam or apple sauce... You really do not want to set the pectins in the apples you have. In fact you may want to break them up by adding pectic enzymes about 12 hours before you pitch (add) the yeast... Also, if you are pressing the apples yourself you may want to add K-meta to the juice (24 hours before you pitch the yeast). There will likely be very large colonies of wild yeasts in those apples and without UV pasteurization (uses light - not heat) you might find that they crowd out the yeasts with which you want to inoculate the juice. Two hundred Kg..Wow! Good luck!

 

[TattyJJ]

Me, not over think, good one


My intention wasn't to start with quite so much, things just, kinda, got carried away and i ended up with a lot more than i was expecting!
When the bloke at the fruit farm says 35quid for 50kg or a half bin (150kg) for 50quid, what ya gonna do.....
The apples are a total mix, I've got gala russet braeburn and 1 or 2 more varieties i don't recognise, all eaters though. Plus about 50kg of cooking apples from someone at work.
I've no idea what the sugar content is, but I have a hydrometer so will have a good idea of where i'm at when they are pressed. Something between 6-8% would be to my liking.
I have no idea if i will actually need or should adjust the sugar or PH though, only that i've read a whole bunch of stuff online that says i might need to, and thus got the bits to measure and make any changes.

OK ok, so the actual meaning of brewing was unknown to me, i'm just fermenting, no heat being used here.

I have campden tables to kill natural bacteria and yeast, my understanding is i put them in leave for 24hrs then pitch the yeast?

 

[TattyJJ]

I might have bitten off a little more than i can chew....

 

[MindenMan]

You are not going to use a kitchen juicer, are you? j/k That looks like a nice selection of apples you have there, and I am of the "don't overthink it" camp as well. What is your possible fermentation range of temperatures? 15*C-16*C would make great tasting cider.

 

[TattyJJ]

You are not going to use a kitchen juicer, are you? j/k That looks like a nice selection of apples you have there, and I am of the "don't overthink it" camp as well. What is your possible fermentation range of temperatures? 15*C-16*C would make great tasting cider.

Haha oh hell no! I have a small scratter, the Vigo one, and a 12l press. Would have liked a bigger press, but costs were already getting put of control

I'm in south England and it's starting to get pretty chilly here now. I'm going to be doing it all in the garage, it's integrated to the house so should hold temps of around 12-16c. I can put a small heater in there to keep it around the top end of that though

Btw, what on earth do i do with pectolase? Got it for some reason, cant for the life of me remember why

 

[Maylar]

Looks like you could make a lot of apple pies for the holidays...

Pectolase / pectic enzyme is added to the cider to help it clear. It binds to the pectins in the apples and makes them fall out of solution. I add it when I pitch the yeast, though some folks say 12 hrs before is even better. If you don't mind cloudy cider, it's not necessary.

 

[TattyJJ]

Looks like you could make a lot of apple pies for the holidays...

Pectolase / pectic enzyme is added to the cider to help it clear. It binds to the pectins in the apples and makes them fall out of solution. I add it when I pitch the yeast, though some folks say 12 hrs before is even better. If you don't mind cloudy cider, it's not necessary.

Ahh yes, that's right. Think i read somewhere it can help with flavour too?
I can also use 2 part wine finings to clear the cider after it's finished fermenting?

 

[MindenMan]

The other thing pectic enzyme does is it help the fruit to let go of their juice, so in theory it could help with flavor but IMHO, it helps clearing the "fruit chunks."
Some folks use the chitosan 2-part method, and some use gelatin, and some just wait......

 

[oldmate]

I'm in south England and it's starting to get pretty chilly here now. I'm going to be doing it all in the garage, it's integrated to the house so should hold temps of around 12-16c. I can put a small heater in there to keep it around the top end of that though

I would try to keep it even warmer, maybe 18 degrees if you can. A lot of yeast will give up around the 15 degree mark from memory. Worst case they stop fermenting, best case it will take you a lot longer to finish fermentation.

 

[MindenMan]

Popular theory is ferment your cider as cool as is possible with the yeast you have. Most yeasts will ferment cooler than the "advertised range", so you may need to figure out where that is for your house and yeast selection.
Cider is like BBQ, low and slow is the way to go.

 

[TattyJJ]

Because i'm using a different yeast in each carboy, they all have a slightly different temp range. The Safcider is good down to 10*C, whereas the VR21 says don't go below 22*C.
They just gonna have to get what they are given, if any show signs of problems i'll have to find a way to deal with it.
Ideally i want to keep them as cool as i can get away with though.

Today is pressing day, wish me luck!