Day 27 Bottling Cider Batch #2

Bottled cider batch #2 this morning. Henceforth to be known as “TARDIS Cider (Bigger on the Inside)” Designed the label last night and will be printing and applying later today. I’m hoping there’s a little live yeast in there to eat the primer and give this batch some carbonation. The clarity is very good and the color is a light, golden.

Carboy of Cider Batch #2, ready to siphon for bottling.

There was no sediment in the growler and very little in the carboy.

Very little sediment.

In what I sampled, I wasn’t really getting the alcohol. The FG is 0.0995 @ 70F, adjusted to 0.0996 for hydrometer calibration at 60F. The OG was 1.045, so there must be alcohol, right? The calculator says it should be 6.43% ABV. We’ll see. I got 14 twelve ounce bottles and a not full soda screw cap bottle for checking if any carbonation builds.

Yield from Cider Batch #2

Frankly, I fear this batch will not have much flavor, not much alcohol and not much carbonation. I hope some time proves me wrong…if only I had a TARDIS, so that I could use it to pop ahead a few weeks to sample this batch! Notes on Cider Batch #4 : I see the airlocks are bubbling! Bucket #1 is going at about 14 seconds and bucket #2 is going about every 10 seconds.

5 pm   I looked at the frozen concentrate apple juice at the store and what they had said it could be from China or Argentina. Really?! I went to the juice aisle and bought a 64 oz bottle of Murray’s Apple Cider ( Bonus! It comes in a free, clear glass growler!).

Murray’s Apple Cider from Roanoke, Virginia. Free growler!

The cider is filtered and pasteurized and comes from “tree ripened, whole apples” in Virginia. No preservatives and no sugar added. Boom!

Murray’s has been around a long time…good stuff.

So, I carefully opened the PFB’s and added 2 cups of juice to each and resealed them. Airlock bubbles started back up with no trouble. The only issue will be figuring out the exact alcohol content, since I did not check the SG after adding the apple cider. I’ll just go with the original and just know that it is a little higher ABV % than I calculate. I’m sure someone could figure it out. The commercial cider’s SG is 1.046 @ 70F  = 1.047  adjusted/actual. I added 2 cups to my 1-1/2 gallons of cider  in each bucket whose actual SG was 1.053 in bucket #1 and 1.049 in bucket #2. If specific gravities are able to be averaged, then the new SG for bucket #1 would be 1.0523  and bucket #2 SG would be 1.0487. Thanks to my Chemical Engineer spouse for showing me how to do that!

7:15 pm   The airlocks have just about evened out at 8 to 9 second intervals.

Day 26 Two Gallon Stout After Thanksgiving, Pitching Cider #4

Went to Atlantic Brew Supply today. They are off of Hillsborough St. and closer to me than American Brewmaster. While I will take advantage of American Brewmaster when they open in Cary, Atlantic Brew Supply seems to be a much bigger operation. They also have their own brewery, an onsite brew thing for home brewers one Saturday a month and will loan a burner set-up and sell the “recipe of the month” ingredients for 1/2 price. The guy that helped me was laid back, but knowledgeable  and very friendly and helpful. The grains are bulk and priced by the pound…those and a grinder are self service (or they will help). I was pretty impressed.

I bought a small bottle of a no-rinse sanitizer to try, some Safale s-04 yeast and the ingredients and recipe for a Dry Stout. I’ll make the stout after Thanksgiving. Tonight, I’m going to add some honey to cider batch #4…maybe 1/2 cup…since I was a little short on sugar. I’m also going to add some water, maybe a gallon, since I had extra juice. I’m going to separate the cider into two primary fermentation tanks, each with about 1-1/2 gallons of cider, so I can eventually rack at least 2 full gallons. Once they are separated and the honey is added to both with the extra water (heated to dissolve), then I’ll pitch the s-04 yeast. More on that later.

8:00 pm     Followed my plan and opened the PFB on cider batch #4, removed the pommace bag and squeezed the juice out of it. I had sanitized a second PFB, an airlock, some measuring cups and a spoon. I put 4 cups of hot water in a measuring cup and added    4 oz of honey and stirred to dissolve it. I added the honey water mixture to the cider.  I then divided the cider equally between the two buckets. To each, I added another four cups of water. I checked the OG and it was 1.034 @ 70F. Adjusted is 1.035. That seems a little weak. Maybe I raised the volume of liquid too much. I think I’ll add some brown sugar. I did go ahead and pitch the           Safale s-04 yeast, 3 grams in each bucket.

Okay, I added 8 oz of brown sugar to each PFB and stirred well. Checked the OG again and Bucket #1 is 1.052 Bucket #2 is 1.048 at 70F. Adjusted for temp and hydrometer calibration to 1.053 and 1.049.  The flavor is now sweet, but the apple may be a little weak. We’ll have to see how it ferments. I haven’t liked the idea of adding apple juice concentrate (thawed from frozen), but it may be necessary to get some apple flavor back.

Tomorrow might be a good day to go ahead and bottle Cider Batch #2 and try out one of the bottling buckets. Prime with priming sugar…no tablets!!! I’ve done 1/2 teaspoon per bottle or 1 oz per gallon (so about 1-1/2 oz for this batch). Using the bottling bucket, I think I’ll use the option of adding the priming sugar to the bucket. Name…name…name…”TARDIS Cider. Bigger on the Inside.”  I like it.