Apple Cider Question ?

[jlh42581]

Bottle conditioning makes weird tasting cider anyhow. If you cant force carb it, dont bother.

 

[jeepdiver]

 
Bottle conditioning makes weird tasting cider anyhow. If you cant force carb it, dont bother.

Sorry but you are doing something wrong.  I bottle conditioned many batched of cider before I started kegging, and I still naturally carb in the keg and it doesn't have any strange taste either.

 

[dougmays]

HB99 you sound like you know what your talking about. I have a question, the guy at the brew store i bought my supplies at told me that once the alcohol your brewing gets to a certain percentage (maybe around 14%) it kills the yeast. is that not the case?

 

[jeepdiver]

It depends on the yeast. Different ones have different limts. You may be able To get a little higher with wine or champagne yeast. There are distillers yeast that can get you around 20% but I doubt you will like the taste.

If you get close to 14% you are going to have to age it a long while before it will be worth drinking

 

[bubba mcnabb]

for you cider experts we make our own cider on the farm got a small hand press and a small orchard 20 or so trees. So ive made 100s gal of wine and they always turn out great. I've left cider in my fridge for 3-4 months and made some awsome hard cider so... I thought id try a couple bigger batches. did one in a 6gal glass carbouy and one in a half keg (smaller barrel). the one in the cabouy i put brown sugar and yeast in the barrel i left plane. They both taste awfull like vinegar? can any one tell me were i went wrong or what i nead to try next year?

 

[mike johnson]

for you cider experts we make our own cider on the farm got a small hand press and a small orchard 20 or so trees. So ive made 100s gal of wine and they always turn out great. I've left cider in my fridge for 3-4 months and made some awsome hard cider so... I thought id try a couple bigger batches. did one in a 6gal glass carbouy and one in a half keg (smaller barrel). the one in the cabouy i put brown sugar and yeast in the barrel i left plane. They both taste awfull like vinegar? can any one tell me were i went wrong or what i nead to try next year?

There are lots of wild yeast and other living things on the apples that can wreck a batch. Before your next batch use some Camden tablets to kill all those little nasties a day or so before pitching your yeast. Its a tablet per gallon. This makes your odds much better for a good outcome. I personally wouldn't try the spontaneously fermenting method with more  than a Gallon or 2 per batch, that way if it goes bad you lose one or 2 instead of it all.