Fall Cider

My buddy Chris had a bumper crop of apples out at his house this year. We took the time to pick a few... What a great fall activity - picking free organic apples in the beautiful Colorado sunshine, and then turning them into booze.

I ran the first batch through a juicer. That thing is apparently made to produce a cup or two of juice - 6 gallons was a little much. I changed tactics on the second batch by shredding the apples with the food processor, and then pressing them in a Home-School press I whipped together.














Here's a gripping live action exclusive that I entitle, "Next Year I am throwing down on a full sized cider press and apple grinder setup".


Below are the recipes I used for the two batches. Both are for 6 gallons. The first batch had an initial greenish hue as I juiced the apples without peeling them. A lot of sediment settled out and was removed during the first racking. The second batch was golden amber, like cider from the store. I added pectic enzyme to both prior to pitching the yeast. Also, I used potassium metabisulfate on the first batch to sterilize it 24 hours prior to pitching the yeast. I don't think that was necessary as the yeast will produce some sulfur, and thereby sterilize the juice.

Cider #1
6 gal Apple juice
3 lb Brown sugar
1 Cup honey
3 tsp Yeast Nutrient
1 Lime (juiced)
1 Cinnamon Stick
1 pkt Lalvin Champagne yeast.

This sucker was pitched on September 10th, and is still going strong. The champagne yeast should make this one pretty strong.

Cider #2
6 gal Apple Juice
2 lb brown sugar
1 Cup honey
3 tsp yeast nutrient
1 lime (juiced)
1 Cinnamon stick
White Labs Saison Ale yeast

This was fermenting like crazy, but has seriously slowed down. This is a hallmark of the Saison yeast, I guess. I cut back on the sugar as I don't want the Alcohol to get to high and kill the yeast as I'll need it to carbonate the batch. (OK, so I only had 2 lbs on hand and didn't feel like running to the store...)