Home made cider experiment

[Bjorn]

Will this work or not?

Ingredients:
2 litres of pure apple juice with no preservatives
1 packet of wine yeast from the local brewery store
White sugar

This is what I've done:
1. Get the juice to room temperature (about 18 degrees celcius)
2. Added about 6 table spoons of white sugar to the juice
3. Mixed the yeast with some room tempered water (as far as I could tell, the yeast is "working")
4. Mixed the juice and yeast together in two 1.5-litre bottles
5. Left it in a 18 degrees celcius, dark storage room sealed with coffee filter

I'm planning to leave it there for 4-5 days while it ferments, then add some more sugar, seal the bottles completely and put them in a cold place. Wait for a few days then try drinking it.

Have anyone experimented with this? I'd like to get into home brewing. I have no equipment so I'm just trying with what I've got in the house.

Alcohol is expensive in Norway. I need to hack it.

[lauren_knows]

I'm planning to leave it there for 4-5 days while it ferments, then add some more sugar, seal the bottles completely and put them in a cold place. Wait for a few days then try drinking it.

Typically you want to transfer the cider from the fermenting vessel to another vessel of some sort, to get rid of the yeast byproduct which doesn't taste very good.   That being said, what you're doing WILL create alcohol.  I would warn you that if you're stopping the fermentation after 4-5 days, that you NEVER let those sealed bottles get warm again... or else fermentation will restart, and you'll have exploding bottle bombs.

[deborah]

I have been experimenting with non-alcoholic brewed drinks - see http://www.sallywise.com.au/blog/sparkling-fruit-drinks/ which are somewhat similar to the recipe you have. Sally Wise suggests using PET bottles (that you get soft drinks in), and I have found it is very easy with them. The bottle gets rather tight, so you open the lid a little, and let the excess air out, then shut it again. Remembering the exploding glass beer bottles we used for making ginger beer and brewed lemonade in my childhood, the PET bottles are a very good idea.

[Bjorn]

Typically you want to transfer the cider from the fermenting vessel to another vessel of some sort, to get rid of the yeast byproduct which doesn't taste very good.   That being said, what you're doing WILL create alcohol.  I would warn you that if you're stopping the fermentation after 4-5 days, that you NEVER let those sealed bottles get warm again... or else fermentation will restart, and you'll have exploding bottle bombs.

Thats a great tip, hadn't thought about that. Thanks.

So... are you saying I could leave them in room temperature to ferment longer than 4-5 days? Most recipes suggest 2-5 days but I didn't find any arguments for doing that except from avoiding too high alcohol percentage - which in my book would be most welcome.

Could I let it ferment for like 2 weeks? Won't it rot?

[lauren_knows]

Typically you want to transfer the cider from the fermenting vessel to another vessel of some sort, to get rid of the yeast byproduct which doesn't taste very good.   That being said, what you're doing WILL create alcohol.  I would warn you that if you're stopping the fermentation after 4-5 days, that you NEVER let those sealed bottles get warm again... or else fermentation will restart, and you'll have exploding bottle bombs.

Thats a great tip, hadn't thought about that. Thanks.

So... are you saying I could leave them in room temperature to ferment longer than 4-5 days? Most recipes suggest 2-5 days but I didn't find any arguments for doing that except from avoiding too high alcohol percentage - which in my book would be most welcome.

Could I let it ferment for like 2 weeks? Won't it rot?

It depends on how sweet you want your final product to be.  I typically let my ciders ferment for 2-4 weeks depending on the temperature, and that ferments out ALL of the natural sugars in the juice.  You could then add sugar (or sugar substitute) to taste, and bottle it up. But, again, if you do this you should be aware that fermentation can restart when you add more sugar.

It won't rot.  The process of fermentation and the fact that germs don't really live well in alcohol make it pretty safe.

[Bjorn]

So if I want it strong yet sweet I should just drown the whole thing in sugar and keep it fermenting for as long as possible.

[lauren_knows]

So if I want it strong yet sweet I should just drown the whole thing in sugar and keep it fermenting for as long as possible.

Table sugar ferments into a rather hot "rocket fuel" as they call it. You don't want to use too much.  Try brown sugar if you have it, it's a bit more flavorful.

Yeah, if you want it on the stronger side, lean toward fermenting it longer then adding sweetness after.

[mandy_2002]

This looks pretty similar to this post on the main blog:  http://www.mrmoneymustache.com/2014/04/22/brew-your-own-cider/

I've been considering trying this, so it's nice to see that others are experimenting with it as well.

If you're adding flavors (strawberry, lime, etc.) when would that happen?  Before fermentation?  Right before cooling?

[ninjaneer]

The best way to ensure that you don't have bottle bombs if you still want it sweet is to add some sulfites after fermentation is complete.  This will kill of the yeast.  Then you can rack your cider to another vessel and add your sweetening sugar.  Note that it won't be bubbly, though, since the bubbles are the carbon dioxide the yeast creates from eating the sugar.

I've made a similar cider, but it was years ago.  I made mine dry and bubbly, though (I.e. no sulfites)

[Glenstache]

I've done this with mixed results. A couple of things to try:
1. use yeast intended for belgian beers. It will give a more complex flavor than the champagne yeasts that tend to strip most of the apple flavor out. Search online a bit for specific strains that people like, or get a few and try them out. These may cost a bit more than the cheapo champagne yeast, but will be worth it.
2. I mixed cranberry juice with apple and liked the result.

 

[Spork]

I have done this (used champagne yeast and fancy apple juice).  I wasn't overly impressed.  I am by no means a wine snob.

I would love to experiment with real apple cider made from actual apples.  We've got a handful of (very very young) cider apple trees started.

[MashedBanana]

I've done it. Or something similar. I left mine to ferment for longer. About two weeks

[Bjorn]

I've had the cider sit since Sunday now and it sure is smelling a bit...yeasty.

There are 2 bottles so I am planning to transfer the content of one of them into a new bottle together with some more sugar and put it in the refrigerator with a sealed cap.
The other one will wait for another week to ferment more.

[Lis]

Bumping this to follow along... I've read through a bunch of the comments on MMM's article and here's what I've surmised to be the easiest/cheapest method. Please tell me if I'm wrong.

- Apple juice with zero additives (can be pasteurized, doesn't affect the outcome)
- Empty plastic gallon jug (from milk or water, for instance)
- Airlock stopper OR plastic wrap/tin foil combo OR empty balloon with small holes
- I found champagne yeast on Amazon - 10 packets for under $7.

Leave it covered and untouched for 2-4 weeks at room temperature and a dark place, strain and transfer to air tight containers in fridge. You can reuse the yeast left at the bottom. Don't let the cooled and closed cider container come back to room temperature or it could go boom.

My one question is - if you prefer sweet cider to dry and you want to add sugar (adding brown sugar is definitely a tempting idea), is it better/safer to add it before fermenting or after?

[Glenstache]

My one question is - if you prefer sweet cider to dry and you want to add sugar (adding brown sugar is definitely a tempting idea), is it better/safer to add it before fermenting or after?

Add it after. If you add it at the outset, it will be fermented and up the alcohol content (unless you are already reaching the ABV threshold of the yeast strain). An easy approach is to blend with unfermented cider to taste immediately prior to drinking. 

As a side bar, yes it is possible to reuse the yeast (repitch it, so to speak). However, this should be done very quickly and carefully as it is very easy to introduce bacterial or off strains that will lead to undesirable flavors.

[Lis]

My one question is - if you prefer sweet cider to dry and you want to add sugar (adding brown sugar is definitely a tempting idea), is it better/safer to add it before fermenting or after?

Add it after. If you add it at the outset, it will be fermented and up the alcohol content (unless you are already reaching the ABV threshold of the yeast strain). An easy approach is to blend with unfermented cider to taste immediately prior to drinking. 

As a side bar, yes it is possible to reuse the yeast (repitch it, so to speak). However, this should be done very quickly and carefully as it is very easy to introduce bacterial or off strains that will lead to undesirable flavors.

Awesome, thanks Glen! So once it's done fermenting, toss some sugar (or brown sugar!) in there to taste, stick it in the fridge, and consume as desired?

And considering it's just me living by myself and not too many of my friends like cider, it should take me a while to go through a gallon of it (at least I hope so), so tossing the yeast is probably for the best.

Hmm... I see some experimentation in my future.

[schoopsthecat]

I have made several batches of cider.  If you want it sweeter, I'd suggest using splenda or truvia prior to bottling as opposed to more sugar.  You can add some corn sugar to make it carbonated prior to bottling if you want that.  Personally, I like mine fairly dry, so I don't add much if any sweetener any more (other than the corn sugar for fizziness).  I've only used pressed cider from a local orchard, so I don't know how apple juice comes out, but I second the suggestion to use something other than champagne yeast.  If you have a local brewery store, they can give you lots of suggestions. If it doesn't taste appley enough, you can add apple extract, although I've never done this.

[Bjorn]

I drank one of the bottles and it worked just perfectly. After sipping 3 beers, the 1 litre bottle of cider actually got me abit drunk. I'm guessing it had more than 10% alcohol from how drunk I got.

White, refined sugar works fine. But I will try with brown sugar next time. Hows syrup?

[Spork]

I drank one of the bottles and it worked just perfectly. After sipping 3 beers, the 1 litre bottle of cider actually got me abit drunk. I'm guessing it had more than 10% alcohol from how drunk I got.

White, refined sugar works fine. But I will try with brown sugar next time. Hows syrup?

With the MMM recipe?   Did you add sugar before the ferment?   Apple juice doesn't normally have enough sugar to yield more than about 6%.

[Bjorn]

Added sugar before and after the fermentation.

The yeast, which was meant for 4 litres was divided in two bottles at 1 litre each.