Bugs in cider

[Calder]

Whenever I find cheap apple juice, I usually make a couple of gallons of cider with whatever yeast I have on hand.

I currently have 6 pints of wort/beer brewing with some bugs & yeast that will be used to top up other sour fermenters. I will not be using the cake from it, so my thoughts were to use it for a couple of gallons of cider.

It's fresh and certainly has a healthy sacc strain in it, but also has some Brett. Lacto and Pedio in it. Do you think it will do anything to the cider, or will the sacc just consume all the sugars leaving nothing for the rest?

 

[JacobS]

Made a buggy cider last year, very dry crisp almost lemony. The brett will come through a bit in the nose (mine smelt like wet hay) and there was some Lacto that gave it a good pucker but in my opinion one of the best hard ciders I've had. I added pectic enzyme since I had used crushed apples, and it a dash of oak chips, let go for a year brilliantly clear.

 

[Calder]

I just bought a couple of gallons of 365 apple juice for $5 each. Pretty good since they come in gallon glass jars. I think I'll give it a try. The worst that can happen is I get a couple of gallons of decent cider.

Based on experience, this juice will take at least a year to clear.

I usually add about 4 ozs sugar to a gallon of juice to bring the OG up to about 1.060. Since this will probably ferment to about 0.996, that will give me about 8.5 abv. Lacto and Pedio don't like it that high; I should probably skip the sugar addition. I'm figuring the juice OG is 1.050, which will give a potential abv of about 7% without any sugar addition.

 

[ryane]

I would measure that 365 juice, i recall using it an if i remember correctly it clocked in at 1054.

As far as bugs + cider, you have to be careful, as apple juice can be quite tart on its own, and too much acidity can make it very unbalanced, I would suggest adding some 71B as it will metabolize some of the malic acid in the apples and make lactic acid (softening the acidity)

Cider + brett can be quite good, if youve ever had basque cider thats reached the US its typically dominated by brett and is quite good (this isnt true of fresh stuff though)

 

[Calder]

I would measure that 365 juice, i recall using it and if i remember correctly it clocked in at 1054.

As far as bugs + cider, you have to be careful, as apple juice can be quite tart on its own, and too much acidity can make it very unbalanced, I would suggest adding some 71B as it will metabolize some of the malic acid in the apples and make lactic acid (softening the acidity)

Cider + brett can be quite good, if youve ever had basque cider thats reached the US its typically dominated by brett and is quite good (this isnt true of fresh stuff though)

1.050 was just an assumption. I know it can be anywhere between 1.040 and 1.060. Not going to check it until I open it and add the yeast

I have done a lot of cider using just Brett and find it to be one of the best yeasts to ferment cider with. Makes an excellent cider. I have a gallon going at present.

I think I'm going to give this a go. I suspect there will not be much for the bugs to work on. I like a dry cider; will be interesting to see what this does to it.

 

[Calder]

Well, I put it together this evening. We will see what we get in 6 to 9 months time. ........ It's a simple cider; I'm not planning on leaving it any longer.

I would measure that 365 juice, i recall using it an if i remember correctly it clocked in at 1054.

Checked gravity, and it was 1.062. That's the highest cider gravity I've ever had. The high alcohol should keep the acidity in check. ...... well, maybe!

 

[smellysell]

I ended up with 8 gallons of cider pressed from mine and a friend's trees this summer and did half with Westmalle yeast, and half with my house bug cocktail. Haven't tried either yet, but I'll update in here when I do.