Cider hints anyone?

[saramark]

We just made our first batch of apple cider. We have about 10 gallons, some in glass gallon jars and some in plastic quart jugs. What do we have to do to preserve it, ferment it, or whatever? I am open to all suggestions.

Thanks all

Mark

[TomK]

first think about pasteurizing it: Unpasteurized (unheated) apple cider has been linked with illness caused by E. coli O157:H7 bacteria. If these bacteria are in the feces of deer or cattle, apples that fall on the ground could be contaminated.

Pasteurization kills harmful bacteria. Heat the juice to at least 160 degrees F for one minute.

Then you can preserve it short term or long term: pasteurized cider can be stored in the refrigerator for about a week. You can freeze it for longer storage. When freezing it though, be sure to allow at least a 2-inch head space since the cider will expand during freezing and can rupture the container.

[bill not in oh]

Toss a couple of tablespoons of sugar in a gallon (unpasteurized). Replace the cap LOOSELY, and store in a cool dark location. 2-3 weeks you'll have yummy hard cider. When I lived in Virginia, I'd go up to the mountains to get apples every fall. It was pretty easy then to find unpasteurized cider and I'd always buy 2 gallons - one to drink right away, and I'd let the other one 'turn'. Both were yummy. Oh ya, if you don't have a hydrometer to determine the alcohol content, don't slam down a pint of the hard cider - drink a maybe four oz glass to test it for kick...

I've never tried to, but I suspect you can can it in a hot water bath canner. I'm sure someone on the Food Preservation forum would know.

[chas]

I for one refuse to drink anything pasturized.Google actual cases of 0157:E.coli from raw cider.You would have a better chance of being run over by a truck in your living room.(could happen but don't stay up worrying about it)!
You destroy much of anything good in it,might as well eat the raw fruit as to ruin it with heat!
If you have your trees in a feed-lot with manure up to the cows knees your chances are VERY HIGH of getting it.
I worked a couple of years in a commercial press,loading bins of apples into a hopper and then using a water spray that would pulverize a rotten apple which cleaned them very well.
All our families lived on cider, late summer into the winter.
That and raw milk(natural antibiotics) have given us immune systems that we don't worry about flu or colds anymore.
We freeze it raw and enjoy latter and let some turn into the best healthiest vinegar you can have.
I was born in vinegar valley (near Wampum and Chewton Pa.)everyone had a barrel in the barn or shed which eventually made the best vinegar to be had!
My 2 cents worth
Chas

[saramark]

any way to speed up the fermenting process, maybe warmer climate?

[bill not in oh]

Not that I know of Mark. The process will start pretty much immediately - actually it already has LOL. The added sugar will just raise the alcohol content of the final product. You might add brewer's yeast, but I'm not sure. You can drink it at anytime during the fermentation process - I just seem to remember it being 2-3 weeks before it seemed to be through. I'd be concerned that added heat might affect the flavor and/or destroy the yeast (it currently has natural, airborne yeast in it). Wish I was gonna be there to raise a glass with you and Sara....

[stanb999]

Here is a recipe that I posted on anouther tread.



Get Alcotec 48 Yeast Get it here http://www.midwestsupplies.com/prod...spx?ProdID=5623

Get 4 gallons of cheap apple juice. Store brand. Replace with cider

5 lbs. of sugar

1 five gallon food grade plastic pail w/lid.

Take yeast package.......empty into 1 pint canning jar.

Wash bucket with soap and water. Rinse very well.
Pour 2 gallons of juice in bucket.
Put two heaping table spoons of yeast into bucket of juice. Reseal and place in dry place.
Add all sugar. Add remaining juice.
Cover loosely with lid.

Let stand at room temp. for 5-7 days.
you will have about 4 gallons of home made hooch.
The alcohol content will be quite high so I'd suggest mixing it with soda about 50/50.

For a sparkling drink......
Decanter into original bottles.....If plastic.
Let the wine settle out for 24 hours.
repeat decanting. At least twice (careful to leave sediment behind). over the next two days.
Seal bottle and leave it at room temp. until bottle is hard from co2. About 3 days. Put in fridge. Enjoy chilled.

Just remember this is pretty strong stuff.

Cost is like 4.50 a gallon for 18-20% or 36-40 Proof. Not to shabby.

It will work well with cider. No sterilizing or long fermentation times. It will taste great.

[Ralph in N.E.Oh]

Water bath can it. It taste just like the day you canned it. It is a yummy treat on Christmas served hot or cold. Mom used to freeze some in the plastic gallon jugs too. She just took a large glass out of each gallon and froze the balance of the jug. I like the canned stuff better... it is especially good over ice after unloading a bunch of hay on a hot July day!

[bill not in oh]

Originally Posted by stanb999

Here is a recipe that I posted on anouther tread.



Get Alcotec 48 Yeast Get it here http://www.midwestsupplies.com/prod...spx?ProdID=5623

Get 4 gallons of cheap apple juice. Store brand. Replace with cider

5 lbs. of sugar

1 five gallon food grade plastic pail w/lid.

Take yeast package.......empty into 1 pint canning jar.

Wash bucket with soap and water. Rinse very well.
Pour 2 gallons of juice in bucket.
Put two heaping table spoons of yeast into bucket of juice. Reseal and place in dry place.
Add all sugar. Add remaining juice.
Cover loosely with lid.

Let stand at room temp. for 5-7 days.
you will have about 4 gallons of home made hooch.
The alcohol content will be quite high so I'd suggest mixing it with soda about 50/50.

For a sparkling drink......
Decanter into original bottles.....If plastic.
Let the wine settle out for 24 hours.
repeat decanting. At least twice (careful to leave sediment behind). over the next two days.
Seal bottle and leave it at room temp. until bottle is hard from co2. About 3 days. Put in fridge. Enjoy chilled.

Just remember this is pretty strong stuff.

Cost is like 4.50 a gallon for 18-20% or 36-40 Proof. Not to shabby.

It will work well with cider. No sterilizing or long fermentation times. It will taste great.

There ya go.. The man with the plan AND experience. I'd follow these instructions. One questions Stan - how long between adding the yeast and adding the sugar and remaining cider?

[stanb999]

Originally Posted by bill in oh

There ya go.. The man with the plan AND experience. I'd follow these instructions. One questions Stan - how long between adding the yeast and adding the sugar and remaining cider?

Well it's really put in that way to help the stuff mix some. the last cider will mix the yeast and sugar without any added effort.

[gimpy]

For a better tasting final product either invert the cane sugar or use honey. Cane sugar is sucrose which gives the yeasts an off flavor byproduct. Honey is a natural monosaccharide combination of fructose and glucose. To invert sugar add about a tablespoon of lemon juice per pound of suagr and just enough water to get it to a slurry and get it to boiling while stirring. Then allow it to cool while covered before adding it to your wort or mash. It also will taste better if you allow all the yeast to settle before decanting. Be careful about substituting corn syrup (which is also a natral combination of glucose and fructose) because most commercial corn syrups have anti-yeast presevatives


Also if it turns to vinegar, don't fret it will be a great marinade, or salad dressing

[jersey girl]

We always freeze some for use during the winter. We do not pasturize and leave containers about 3/4 full. Just throw in the freezer and enjoy later. We are wanting to make some cider vinegar this year.
Joanie

[saramark]

WOW, I left two jugs on the counter overnight. One I put in the fridge cause it was gettin' a little spunky, and left the other one out. Has been in 65 degrees for about 15 hours now and it smells more than slightly alcoholic. Guess that wind storm headed our way is a good chance to sit around and experiment with cider. The wind is about 30 mph sustained right now, little rain though. We are in for 2-3 inches of rain and gusts of up to 65-70mph. You know you live in Maine when the highly anticipated event of the evening is driving to Rockland Harbor to see if the Breakwater lighthouse is getting smashed. I love wind and I love Maine. Yee Haw

Back to the topic, how long will this stuff continue to ferment before I get vinegar? Any other problems I may encounter with cider? I won't be pasteurizing any of the cider, and I have 8 gallons of "unspunky" stuff in the storage room, kept at about 40 degrees.

mark

[Christiaan]

At 40 it will very slowly ferment. Don't know when it would become vinegar, could never keep any around that long.
Back in my student days at WSU at Pullman, first week of school one of the Ag clubs sold cider. You set these outside on your window sill (if you were in a dorm) and they would be really good drinking in just 4 or 5 days.
At home we used to can and freeze it. Then with the frozen cider we would take a jug out, set it upside down in a strainer in the refrigerator (or mud room if it was cold enough) and let it drain into a bowl. Instant apple syrup, you do have to watch it to make sure the ice doesn't melt. Great on pancakes, of course, and ice cream and pound cake.

[KCM]

How long will and opened jug of apple cider last in the refridgerator? I've got an open jug that has been in there a couple of weeks at least. I drink a little bit of it now and then.
Should I be concerned about storing it too long after opening, and if so, then what should I be concerned about?

[WisJim]

We make a bit of cider (50 gallons last year and a bit less than that this year). We usually can some (pasturize it according to times and temps in canning books), although it never tastes as good as fresh, it is still better than store bought if you are very careful not to overheat it!!

We freeze some, putting it in plastic jugs, about 3/4 full, directly out of the press, just run it through a strainer and funnel into the jug and into the freezer.

We ferment half of it or maybe more. We do it in 5 gallon carboys and add some started yeast. We have used ale yeast or cider yeast. Ale yeast works fine. Letting it ferment naturally works, too, but I like to add a good yeast culture to make sure that there aren't other kinds of fermentations starting that might spoil it.

We use basic winemaking equipment, such as air locks, and ferment it until it stops, then bottle it in wine or beer bottles, with corks or caps as appropriate to the bottle.

We never add sugar to cider.

If you want vinegar, take some cider that has fermented to hard cider and either add some mother of vinegar (which might be in some kinds of store bought organic apple cider) or leave the cider in an open container, exposed to the air, and it is likely that tha proper bacteria that turn it into vinegar will get to work, and soon you will have vinegar. It can be really good stuff. Then, in the future, you can use some of your own vinegar to add to hard cider to make it into vinegar.

A jug of ciderin the refrigerator will most likely get a bit "fizzy" after a few days or weeks, showing that fermentation has started. It will ferment slowly in the refrigerator, and unless it is contaminated somehow and gets moldy or otherwise spoils, it should be fine, just getting harder and harder (higher alcohol content as it ferments).

[MariaAZ]

Originally Posted by saramark

any way to speed up the fermenting process, maybe warmer climate?

I don't know if cider is like beer, but when brewing beer one needs to watch the thermometer carefully because off flavors tend to form at higher temps.

[Shirley]

Put two heaping tablespoons of yeast into bucket of juice. Reseal and place in dry place.
Add all sugar. Add remaining juice.


You reseal and put in dry place for how long before adding the remaining sugar and juice?
(I know you already answered it for bill in oh but I didn't understand what you said, sorry)