Thar she blows!

   Well, after sitting over night the ciders had really gotten to work.  The Hefeweizen yeast actually had a blow over.  This isn't a problem, and luckily it wasn't a bad blow over making a big mess.  The Nottingham cider was still just chugging along at a seemingly mild pace.

   After the blow off, the temperatures had gone down a bit, as well as the foam in the Hef cider.  However, over the next few days with very warm temperatures, there would be several spikes of activity.  This created blooms of yeast population which sometimes can affect flavor.  I'm unsure if it was due to the yeast nutrient or the volume of yeast I used that caused the Hef yeast to ferment so violently, while the Nottingham didn't.

   I'm not sure how much, if at all, the variance in temperatures affected the cider, but Head of Quality Control and Tasting, SWMBO, approved.  I get ahead of myself a bit.

   On 06-08, after four days in primary fermentation, the ciders were racked to secondary.  Racking a brew, whether cider, beer, or wine, serves the purpose of pulling the liquid off the cake of spent yeast on the bottom of the fermenter.  The biggest benefit to this is clarifying the brew, but in the case of cider (which is normally fairly cloudy), this helps to remove some yeast and slow or stop fermentation.

   A hydrometer reading of both ciders was taken, and I was very surprised that they had reached full fermentation within such a short period.  I imagine this was due mostly to the high temperatures.  My goal with both ciders was to ferment until around 1.015 and test that to see how the sweetness was.  The specific gravity of the Hefeweizen IV yeast was 1.020, which puts it's abv at 4.04% (thanks to me forgetting to raise to original gravity).  I fully expect much more change in the gravity since the fermentation was so aggressive.  The sweetness level of this cider was approved, so we added some apple juice to top it off and to over sweeten it back up to 1.030.  The purpose of this is to compensate for the continued fermentation and drying out during bottle conditioning.  The bottles will sit and carbonate for two weeks, where we will open one and test carb levels.

   Normally this is a no no.  Trying to bottle condition/carbonate sweet ciders will eventually result in exploding bottles.  So, as I believe I referenced in a previous post, once the bottles reach the desired carbonation levels, they'll be run through a cycle in the dishwasher to pasteurize and kill the yeast.

   The Nottingham, with it's much calmer fermentation was much more efficient.  After four days the gravity of the Nottingham was 1.010 and 5.21% abv. The abv is mid-range for the style, the taste was described as a bit bitter and dry. Surprising since FG numbers I found put the notoriously over sweet (still delicious, and SWMBO's favorite) Hornsby's cider at 1.010. I'm not sure if the perceived sweetness has to do with the yeast, or if the numbers I found for Strongbow (FG 1.007) and Hornsby's were incorrect.  Either way, my goal was to hit somewhere in between the two and I've succeeded.  So far, no fruity, banana, and clove notes were prominent enough to have been commented on.
 
   So, the Nottingham yeast was racked again to pull more of the yeast out of solution and on bottling day had held it's gravity of 1.010.  We'll let it dry a bit more, then use the remaining apple juice to sweeten it back up, and then follow the same process as the Hef.

   Each brew I make is getting substantially better, and although I did forget to raise the original gravity (I think I may try Hef IV again since it came out well, but add molasses to up the OG and add complexity), they're very drinkable.  They just aren't very potent, and that's ok.

We're Off Like a Herd of Turtles

   In my previously limited research on cider making, it was my impression that one used either a wine (predominantly champagne) yeast, or a cider specific yeast.  Wine yeasts are fine, and great because of their resilience and attenuation.  Perfect for making a dry sparkling cider.  However, I've since learned that there's as much experimentation by home brewers with various yeasts in cider as in beer.  Especially when looking for a sweeter cider, many times ale yeasts are used.

    The two most significant elements in brewing, in general, are temperature, and yeast.  I believe yeast plays a greater part than temperature, but only just since although yeast gives the overall character to the beverage, temperature can greatly effect how a yeast behaves.

   This post in www.homebrewtalk.com by a member was very informative, in layman's terms, about the outcome of using various ale yeasts.  One such ale yeast is Danstar's Nottingham Ale dry yeast:

   Based on this poster's results, and my own research into the qualities of individual yeast strains I came up with a list of five various yeasts, which I'd like to eventually try.  For the two batches I'm making now, I decided on the tried and true Nottingham yeast, and White Lab's WLP380 Hefeweizen IV liquid yeast.  I chose it over WLP300, the basic hefeweizen yeast because of WLP380's pronounced fruity flavors, in addition to the banana and clove hefeweizens are known for.  The profile of WLP380 can be found here.

   Apple juice is also lacking in the nutrients needed for yeast to thrive, as opposed to beer wort and grape juice.  Although fermentation can and will still happen, in an effort to help make sure the yeast does it's job, and is healthier, I purchased some yeast nutrient.  There are various options, chemical and natural.  All work well, and are used for ciders, beers, everything.  Think of it as cheap insurance.  I opted for the natural kind, Fermaid K.  A little of this stuff goes a long way.  The package recommends 1g/1 US gallon.  Based on info at Making Hard Cider, I just used 1/4 teaspoon.  It may work out the same, I didn't measure.

   So here's what I used:

• 2 gallons Lattin's Old Country Cider (http://www.lattinscider.com/)
• 2g Danstar Nottingham Ale yeast (in gallon 1, though the whole packet can be used)
• White Labs WLP380 Hefeweizen IV liquid yeast (whole tube)
• 2 1 gallon glass jugs
• 2 #6 1/2 bungs
• 2 airlocks
• Iodophor Sanitizer
• 1 funnel
• Hydrometer (measures specific gravity of a liquid)

   I left the cider and yeasts on the kitchen counter to warm up to room temperature while I left for work.  Upon returning I sanitized both glass jugs using about 1/2 teaspoon sanitizer.  Iodophor is an iodine based commercial sanitizer used by home brewers and restaurants and does not need to be rinsed if diluted down enough.  I also filled a Tupperware container with sanitizer solution where I sanitized the airlocks and bungs, as well as my hydrometer and funnel.

   I transferred the cider from the plastic jugs, to the glass carboys.  Although the Nottingham packet says the entire 11g packet can be used for batches as small as 1 gallon, since they're usually used for full 5 gallon batches I added 2g, plus the 1/4 teaspoon Fermaid K.  I then placed the bung, and gently mixed.

   The process for the other gallon was identical save that I used the entire tube of liquid WLP380.  Mostly because liquid yeast does not keep well without making a starter, and for convenience sake.  Over pitching really isn't a valid worry as I'll be stopping fermentation via pasteurization once I reach my target gravity.

   At this time I took Original Gravity readings.  The Nottingham cider came to 1.050, the WLP380 (hefeweizen) came out to 1.051.  That is average gravity for apple juice/cider.  However, with a targeted final gravity of 1.015-1.010, this will only produce a 4% abv beverage.  What cider makers do, and which I forgot, was to raise the original gravity by adding fermentable sugars.  This usually comes in the form of brown sugar, black strap or regular molasses, or honey.  I imagine Dry Malt Extract could be used, and would also give the cider a bit more body.  Usually, enough added fermentable sugars are added to raise the original gravity of the juice to somewhere around 1.070 (Beersmith software puts the og at 1.045-1.065 for Common Cider).  The goal of a cider is to be between 5-6%, though some commercial ciders are 4%.  With an OG of 1.065, and a FG of 1.015, my ABV would be 6.53%.

   Forgetting to raise the OG simply means that I will have lower alcohol content, and possibly less body.  Next time I'll make the same ciders, but use either maple brown sugar or black strap molasses to add some flavor complexity.

   The ciders will sit in primary fermentation for four days before being racked to secondary.  The very warm temperatures, mid-high 70's in the area helped speed things up, and I'm sure the Fermaid did it's part.  Very vigorous fermentation and thick layer of krausen (foam caused during fermentation) was seen within the first 2-3 hours!  Usually fermentation isn't going strong for 24-48 hours in my experience!  My only concern now was the heat, and the inconsistent ambient temperature.

   In my next post, I hope to have you all caught up with how the process is going now.  It's going much more quickly, and a bit differently than I'd expected, but will allow me to use conventional as well as unconventional finishing methods.

Happy Wife = Happy Life: Giving Cider Another Try

   I finally decided to get serious, and more clinical about brewing.  Along with learning the technical side, numbers and such, that means taking notes.  Looking for an easy way to access and save those notes, as well as share them, I thought about starting a blog.  I've never blogged before, but at the suggestion by a friend, I went to it.  Here, I'll post all my observations, notes, and really anything having to do with home brewing beer, cider, and mead.

   My last foray into cider making wasn't terrible, but certainly ended up with far too much dumping.  The reason being, that fermentation was not ended, and because of the very aggressive wine yeast I used, it over fermented resulting in a very dry, sour beverage that was far too hot (too much alcohol).  I had used the same yeast and roughly same techniques, though a longer fermentation time, to make a mead at the same time, with similar results. In addition to having learned much more about brewing techniques, and the brewing process in general, I did, however, learn a few things specifically related to these newest batches:

• Red Star Cote des Blancs champagne yeast makes a very dry, very bland cider.
• Back sweetening with sugar alcohols (Splenda, Stevia, etc) can compensate for this.
• My fridge was not, at the time, cold enough to properly cold-crash unracked cider.
• Rack.  Then rack some more.
• Dishwashers are useful brewing tools.

  Doing much research to find a way to make a sweet, yet sparkling cider for SWMBO, I came across a great post here in one of my favorite home brewing forums.  The original writer of this info is/was (it's an old post, Google digs deep) the president of a Michigan home brew club, and winner of multiple consecutive Cider Maker of the Year awards.  It gives lots of great info, explains things many other forum members talk about but of which never state the whys and results, and is actually from what I've seen, innovative.

  You see, conventionally, you can either have sparkling dry apple cider, or still sweet cider which is essentially low-gravity Apfelwein.  If one were to try to bottle carbonate (as is done with beer) a sweet cider, the fermentation would not bottom out and the resulting pressure would cause exploding bottles.  So, to create a sweet cider, the cider is cold-crashed once the cider reaches the desired gravity.  This means storing the bottled cider at ~36F for 24-48 hours after racking to a secondary or tertiary fermenter, then bottling.  This effectively stops fermentation, killing the yeast.  This also stops any chance of carbonation.

   For a sparkling dry cider, the cider is allowed to dry out to a FG (final gravity) of around 1.005-.995.  Then  bottled, then pasteurized or cold-crashed.

   So, how to create a sparkling sweet cider, without the bottle bombs?

   The commonly accepted solutions to this are to make a very dry cider, then adding Splenda, Xylitol, or Stevia (sugar alcohols which cannot be fermented by yeast) which will sweeten the cider without causing a continuation, or re-start of fermentation.  The other is to force carbonate by injecting CO2 via a kegging system.

   Though most people are happy with the results of back-sweetening, not being a fan of those sweeteners, I was wanting to avoid it.  Though this helped convince SWMBO that a kegging system is a necessary household fixture, it just isn't yet in the cards.  So what to do?

  As mentioned in the article above, one could brew a semi-sweet cider to more on the dry end, say 1.007 (think Strongbow), then add 'too much' preservative free apple juice during bottling time.  Checking the carbonation levels every two weeks or so.  Once desired levels of carbonation are reached, soaking the bottles in 160F water for 10-15 minutes will pasteurize, killing the yeast, while maintaining the sweetness and carbonation.  Easy way to do this: run the bottles through the dishwasher (do not use high heat dry).

   Forum members posted good results with this technique.  So, one problem solved (the problem of a lack of  kegerator is still there).  At this point I wonder, why dry out and back sweeten at all?  I believe, that after multiple rackings (transferring cider to a fresh fermenter, which will remove the cider from the cake of yeast at the bottom), which should slow fermentation down due to fewer yeast cells, why not just bottle and pasteurize once the cider is at the desired gravity/level of sweetness?

  I believe one poster left a comment that they had done just the very thing with success.  So, this will be my goal.  Tonight was the first racking, and with amazing efforts of SWMBO, things went well.  However, very active yeasts due to very warm temperatures (and possibly the added yeast nutrient, I'm not sure how much that affected the violence and speed of fermentation), things moved much more quickly than I had intended.

   Everyone loves a cliffhanger, so I will end this post with that.  I will post the continuation tomorrow, with my notes and observations of the last four days of fermentation!