Hey guys! New here! I’ve been stalking the forum lately and was curious for some advice!
i recently took a trip to Gatlinberg and had a chance to stop by the Tennessee Cider Company shop they have down town! we did a tasting and the cider was so good! Anyway, this has sparked me to want to try my hand at cider making again! I’ve made cider once before with a 1 gallon kit from Amazon.. it turned out okay… I bottle carbonated them… at the time I did not understand that the yeast would continue to eat the sugar in the bottle… I was lucky that nothing exploded lol but at the end of the day I prefer my cider to be sweeter… most nights I go out I enjoy an angry orchard to drink if that tells you how sweet I like them… anyway all that to say I wasn’t impressed my first time around and just shoved everything in a cabinet in the far reaches of the kitchen…
I think it’s time I try it again… this time I think I want to add some flavoring to it or at least to a couple bottles… I’m thinking I ferment the first time without any additions other than maybe some sugar to increase the alcohol content depending on my starting specific gravity of the juice. I’m not sure what yeast to use. I’ve heard good things about cote de blanc but if you have any suggestions I’m open! If there’s anything with a doughy or sweet taste that would be good! I want it to taste like apple pie
After the first ferment I was thinking of cold crashing in the fridge to clarify the cider before bottling. Then I was thinking about mixing in some spices… not sure when to put in the spice blend… was thinking about using a cheese cloth or something to make it easy to remove… anyway I was then thinking of back sweeting with apple juice concentrate and maybe a touch of maple syrup… also may throw in some vanilla extract… i Plan to sweeten to taste then follow directions for priming the bottle with sugar.…
finally let the bottles carbonate… I saw a trick of using a coke bottle as a measure of carbonation that I wanna try. Once the come bottle feels right I want to follow the steps on here to carefully pasteurize the bottles to kill the yeast and stop fermentation. I figure this way I’ll be able to enjoy sweet and bubbly homemade cider… over sweetened initially to account for eh carbonation step.
Are there any errors in my thinking? Or does anyone have suggestions that would make things better or easier? Like I said, total newbie to this but I’m a biology major and love cooking so this stuff is really interesting to me!
Thanks y’all!
i recently took a trip to Gatlinberg and had a chance to stop by the Tennessee Cider Company shop they have down town! we did a tasting and the cider was so good! Anyway, this has sparked me to want to try my hand at cider making again! I’ve made cider once before with a 1 gallon kit from Amazon.. it turned out okay… I bottle carbonated them… at the time I did not understand that the yeast would continue to eat the sugar in the bottle… I was lucky that nothing exploded lol but at the end of the day I prefer my cider to be sweeter… most nights I go out I enjoy an angry orchard to drink if that tells you how sweet I like them… anyway all that to say I wasn’t impressed my first time around and just shoved everything in a cabinet in the far reaches of the kitchen…
I think it’s time I try it again… this time I think I want to add some flavoring to it or at least to a couple bottles… I’m thinking I ferment the first time without any additions other than maybe some sugar to increase the alcohol content depending on my starting specific gravity of the juice. I’m not sure what yeast to use. I’ve heard good things about cote de blanc but if you have any suggestions I’m open! If there’s anything with a doughy or sweet taste that would be good! I want it to taste like apple pie
After the first ferment I was thinking of cold crashing in the fridge to clarify the cider before bottling. Then I was thinking about mixing in some spices… not sure when to put in the spice blend… was thinking about using a cheese cloth or something to make it easy to remove… anyway I was then thinking of back sweeting with apple juice concentrate and maybe a touch of maple syrup… also may throw in some vanilla extract… i Plan to sweeten to taste then follow directions for priming the bottle with sugar.…
finally let the bottles carbonate… I saw a trick of using a coke bottle as a measure of carbonation that I wanna try. Once the come bottle feels right I want to follow the steps on here to carefully pasteurize the bottles to kill the yeast and stop fermentation. I figure this way I’ll be able to enjoy sweet and bubbly homemade cider… over sweetened initially to account for eh carbonation step.
Are there any errors in my thinking? Or does anyone have suggestions that would make things better or easier? Like I said, total newbie to this but I’m a biology major and love cooking so this stuff is really interesting to me!
Thanks y’all!