I have a hobby orchard of 20 dwarf trees in my backyard in town. One of the reasons is to have juice. My opinions of cider are, thus, not well informed but are nevertheless deeply held.
Juice is, in fact, too sweet. I freeze it and open it a gallon at a time. I let it set on the kitchen counter in warm weather for a couple of days until it fizzes really well, and then I keep the jug in the fridge while I use it up, which takes a couple of weeks. The partial fermentation consumes some of the sweetness, provides natural carbonation, and kills undesirable microorganisms. The fermentation has to start fairly quickly or other things besides fermentation occur, so keep it warm to begin with. The taste improves up to a point, even under refrigeration. I don’t let it get too alcoholic because I don’t like hard cider much, either. I’m not a fan of commercial hard cider, which seems bitter to me.
My single branch of Kingston Black is getting some color on it, which makes me think that cider season is not far off.
Great info/advice, @CRhode . Thank you. I did notice that change in taste when buying some unprocessed cider last year and if began fermenting in the refrigerator. It tasted better with age the first few days, but then not so much…and I finished it off quickly.
I have some Kingston Black “branches,” but nothing producing any fruit yet. Next year,maybe though. And it seems to be growing pretty well compared to some other varieties here in Montana! (I have KB on newly grafted B-118, three Y/O G-890, and also grafted onto 50 Y/O established trees.)
I think you may be right about tasting the bugs too, depending on your experience at tasting different ciders. Perhaps I should not be too hasty, and I should be more selective If I care about the quality–as much as I do! Thank you again!
What you describe with fresh fermented juice is absolutely the best! It beats martinelli sparkling cider and as I understand it is the stuff Oktoberfest is made of.
Many of our trees are starting to come into production now with some less sweet like Bramleys Seedling, Granny Smith and Belle de Boskoop carrying crops. Hopefully they help balance the Golden Delicious and like kinds.
You can certainly carbonate your cider like naturally carbonated rootbeer. You simply inoculate with champagne yeast, bottle the juice, and refrigerate when it reaches the desired carbonation. It is tricky to learn the temperature, time, and yeast activity. If you over-carbonate, or get a lager yeast infection, you can end up with glass grenades. Fresh hard cider can be made by measuring the specific gravity of your must, and bottling when you reach the desired alcohol content. I have known several people over the years who made cider this way.
It has to be kept refrigerated, or the bottles explode.
So let me get this straight. First, you take hydrometer reading of the juice, and for an example you get a reading of 1.060 SG. So next you add yeast, bottle, and wait two weeks (or use one plastic bottle, and when it feels hard open and try it). If it is satisfactorily carbonated, put all bottles in refrigerator and enjoy. And if when tasting plastic sample you tested with hydrometer again and got reading of 1.040 SG, your alcohol ABV of 2.63%. Correct?
You ferment it in a jug until the gravity is right. Then put it in a bottle, and cap. You have to test a bottle every so often, based on how fast you are fermenting. It will achieve carbonation in a day or two if the yeast is active.
It takes a remarkably small amount of sugar to ferment into a bottle-bomb. What is being described here is very dangerous.
Fermenting between 1/3 and 1/2 the sugar and bottling is a bad bad bad idea. Please don’t do this… the fact that it hasn’t caused a problem for some doesn’t make it any less dangerous. Please.
If you only want it partially fermented, put it into a lightly capped milk jug in the fridge. It won’t be carbonated and any excess gas will escape before it can become a problem.
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Years ago, I bottled my first batch ever when I thought fermentation was complete. I left a bottle on the kitchen counter. It spontaneously exploded, covering pretty much everything near it, floor to ceiling, in cider. Glass shards all over the kitchen. One chunk hit a ceramic tea pot 3ish feet away with enough force to break it into pieces. If it had exploded when I was holding it to uncap it… definitely a visit to the emergency room.
I had a similar experience with homebrew, but the bottle was in a cardboard box and it wasn’t quite as dangerous there. But yes, “Bottle-bomb” is a good term.
If you are uncertain as to how to use a hydrometer and insist on using glass you can put a balloon where the cap would go. As long as the balloon stays upright the brew is still working. When it flops over you can judiciously cap it. But each of the caps should be indented- i.e., slightly concave. If one should go convex (would that be outdented?) open them all.
Probably the safest way to do it is to let it ferment until it is thoroughly still, and then add a teaspoon of granulated sugar to each quart bottle and then cap. At least, that used to work for me when I brewed my own beer.
Youdambetcha! Putting fermenting cider in the fridge slows the fermentation but doesn’t stop it. You still need to drink it on a schedule if you want it gone before it gets too dry.
… or you can use an airlock. The fermentation provides a slight natural carbonation, which for me imparts just the right amount of fizz.
Waiting for the fermentation to complete before bottling means dry cider. Some people want more residual sugars, and that is not so easy to control. The reliable way is to sterile filter it when it reaches the right gravity, and artificially carbonate. Whether it ferments at cold temperature depends on the yeast you use and the temperature of your refrigerator. Lager yeasts ferment cold. Champagne yeast will stop fermenting reliably at cold temperatures. You also have to worry about bacterial infections causing fermentation. Best drunk fresh, like naturally carbonated softdrinks.
In the brewing industry, they have special bottle caps with a pressure gauge mounted on them to know when their brew is done carbonating. They have similar caps with thermometers mounted for pasteurizing as well. Natural carbonation is trickier and more dangerous that artificial, so few breweries do it anymore. Sierra Nevada is probably one of the best known. They had tech invented specifically for their brewery, so they could accurately dose each individual bottle.
The procedure I described for carbonating juice was meant as a way to ensure the fermentation described by @CRhode for @joleneakamama to make juice less sweet, slightly carbonated. Rather than leaving the juice on the counter and relying on a “wild” fermentation, I thought you might add yeast only, and no sugar (because it is already too sweet). And I thought by using the plastic bottle, you would know the rest are also carbonated and it is time to refrigerate them all ASAP to stop fermentation (so they don’t all become bottle bombs). The risk for explosion would be if you don’t realize the plastic bottle is hard (carbonated), because it happened it 2 or 3 days rather than the 2 weeks you were expecting, AND also a risk the refrigeration does not stop the fermenting to develop further.
I suppose you could just add a little yeast to the store bought juice, leave it on the counter until it has warmed for 6 to 12 hours or so, then put it in the fridge in a plastic jug and watch to see if the jug swells. And if it is only in the plastic jug and no bottles, all you have to do is loosen the cap.
Most experienced homebrewers keep their bottles in cardboard boxes while they are carbonating. If they explode, you don’t have to worry about flying glass. Sometimes noobs will bottle a stuck fermentation, and kaboom. Sometimes the rousing and O2 pickup during bottling is just enough to reactivate the fermentation.
I don’t recall the exact values, but I believe an SG drop of 0.01 is sufficient to carbonate at champagne levels of 5 of 6 atmospheres pressure. This is sufficient to blow a beer bottle. Bottling at 1.04… if that ferments, it’ll blow. Maybe when it’s in the box. Maybe in your hand when you pick it up. Maybe when it’s on the counter. If for some reason it doesn’t explode… when you open it, your cider will be on the ceiling before it hits the floor. Also, bottling at 1.04 will result in a very low alcohol level, further risking fermentation/biological contamination.
There are ways to bottle sweet, carbonated cider.
Keeving, but it’s quite the process.
Some will filter and rely on sulfite/sorbate. This requires force carbonation unless you choose to go still. Should the yeast start to reproduce down the line despite the sorbate… boom!
Some will force carb or bottle condition, then pasteurize.
If I were set on partially fermented carbonated cider… I’d keep it in the fridge with a way for CO2 to escape and invest in a soda-stream.
I hope you get something delicious after all this conversation!
I think I’m correct in saying that most states prohibit the commercial sale of apple juice that has not been irradiated, pasteurized, or preserved. You have to look sharp at the label. The preserved product won’t ferment.
@CRhode and @marknmt, I have purchased cider that was fresh, here in Montana, and it fermented in my refrigerator. It came from Washington state in a 1/2 gallon plastic jug that swelled like crazy in the fridge…and so I had to loosen the cap. I forget the name of the orchard it came from, but besides that brand I have purchase other jugs which were also “fresh,” and did the same thing (fermented) but to a lesser extent.
I have too, Johnny, but I thought the regs changed a few years ago. I very disappointed when I bought a jug of Swanson’s (from Hamilton/Corvallis area) and it had been pasteurized. But maybe I’m wrong? It can happen!
It is sold unpasteurized in Michigan, but with caveats. I believe that cideries can sell direct to consumers, but if they distribute to the likes of grocery stores, etc, it must be treated in some way. I believe that cideries that sell direct need permitting from the health department or something like that. I’ve heard rumors that other cideries can sell to consumers with signed agreements/liability waivers that the juice is not for consumption without fermentation.
Regardless, lots of cideries/orchards sell unpasteurized/treated juice here.
Thank you again!