My Adventures with Cider (NZ)

[Troy Dougherty]

 Hi everyone.  I have enjoyed the resurgence of cider and have now begun brewing it.  What I found during my research was that most of the information online was not very applicable to New Zealand - we cannot just pop down to WalMart to pick up cheap apples and juice!

So I thought I would post how I am doing and post progress updates if anyone wants to comment and follow my progress! 

I am aiming for something drinkable that is not as sharp as the cheap ciders you get from the store.  I also want natural fermentation rather than the cheap fizz you feel in mass produced bottles.

First disclosure is that I am a Research/Process Chemist so if I gloss over stuff just ask.  It possibly helped with sourcing some stuff and (guessing) which things were OK to replace to make this venture a lot cheaper!

Second disclosure is that I have just finished off my first cider brew of 10L, the second (20L) is in the bottles, and the 3rd (75L) is now in the primaries.  I am going for this :)  The first batch worked out at 7.5% ABV as a drinkable, dry cider.  One 750mL bottle is 4.4 standard drinks so its good fun.  I also calculate this at ~$1 per bottle and it is WAY easier than brewing beer from those Mangrove Jack tins (which I also tried) to see if I wanted to get into making beer.

So, apples:

If you have a local source of apples then that's great - please let me know where. 

I used Pak'N'Save fresh 100% juice - no additives for my first batch.  This was about $3 for 2L.  This was a bit bland

Fresh Up Granny Smith (Crisp Apple) is about the same price.  This is also good for increasing the tartness which appears to be important.

For my current batch I called up enzafoods and they sell 20L concentrate that dilutes to 160L of juice for $140 + GST, delivered.  This is also a blend of apples (my current batch is braeburn, gala and thinnings) which will probably be more tart than drinking apples.  At a guess, this is what the breweries are probably using.  enzafoods also sell pear concentrate for the same price and next year I will be making this too.  I was not able to find any other suppliers who supply a 20L jerrycan, or supply one at such a good price.  You also get a 20L brew vessel out of it!

Other fruit.  I am lucky enough to have a plot of raspberries, blackberries, boysenberries and a tayberry plant.  These can be cut in during the secondary phase.  I'm not bothering too much right now but will report back later when I start experimenting.

Fermentation vessels.  I bought a 30L tank from a homebrewstore and another off trademe from someone who didn't seem to want to do it anymore.  These are at the "fairly expensive end" of vessels.  Now I tend to just go to PakNSave and get a 15L Tongoriro Water container.  You can get a bung and airlock from a homebrewstore to fit these.  This works out to be $20 total for 15L fermenter.

I also have more Tongoriro fermenters as my secondaries.

Making the cider then is fairly easy.  Obviously clean stuff.  You pour the juice into a fermenter until it is almost at the top.  You rehydrate your yeast in 37 degree water for 30min or more (this will stop the yeast from dying because the sugar-water enters the dehydrated cell wall and kills it - my first batch took aaaaages to ferment cause I dry pitched).  Tip off the water if you are using store juice, or factor the water into your juice if using concentrate.  Then pitch the hydrated yeast into the juice.  After ~2 days you will get vigorous fermentation at 18-20°C.  Try to keep it low.  This hasn't been a major issue in my garage - I just put some insulation over them during the day then let them cool overnight.  It takes a lot to heat 15-30L 1 degree!

I used Mad Millie Cider Yeast for my first batch but after googling am using Safale-S04 for the next brew (check this out if you want more info).  I brew until its stopped and then siphon it into a secondary without disturbing the yeast cake.  It's normally 1 month in the primary.  I've been topping the juice in the secondary (clear granny smith juice is what I've been using) to reduce oxygen. It will be about 2 months in the secondary to clear up and condition.

For bottling I've been adding 12% clear apple juice to the cider to provide carbonation in the bottle and putting into bought bottles and cleaned out soda bottles, squeezing out the air.  The cider is (just) drinkable after 2 weeks but gets better and better to where I would start drinking it from 4 weeks.  I will be reserving bottles for drinking notes on the different juices I use.  It must be refrigerated for 24h to but the CO2 back in the drink, like anything else.

Current flavour comments: PakNSave 100% Fresh Juice

The cider I have made is dry, but not offensively so (considering we are used to sweet cider from the breweries).

The bubbles are nice and keep going until the bottom.  But it is definitely the right feel I am after with soft bubbles rather than forced fizz.

There is a little sharpness.

There is a definite smell of apples, but not much apple flavour.  This is to be expected as the yeast is fairly brutal.  I'm hoping that the Safale-S04 will be more gentle with the fruit flavours than Mad Millie!

The colour is very golden, but not totally clear.  It came from a totally opaque cloudy juice with nothing added, just settled naturally.  It is satisfying to watch the bubbles.

I enjoy the initial attempt during this hot November spell.  The biggest disappointment is that I need to share some this weekend for tasting and I will then need to wait 3 more weeks for my next brew!  At least I have 10L of alcoholic ginger beer to tide me over!

Please let me know feedback and I will be back in here with feedback from my tasting, and when I crack the next brew!  Hope this helps anyone else who is interested.

[Rhys Williams]

I've never made from juice - only from apples - free apples! You can usually find someone in the season who's crop ends up on the ground.  We use a re-purposed gobbly guts insinkerator thing - you gut cut the apple into quarters and bung them through. You get a bit of foaming, but that settles down. This is run through a friend's press - a production line of 3 people works well.

You didn't mention any gravity readings - using granny smiths last time I got at starting gravity of 1.054. Your 7.5% would knock you around a bit as a summer quaffer - you might want to look at reducing....

After juicing, you use 1 campden table per 5L to nuke anything on the apples - and the then say 2 days later pitch the yeast. I had split into 2 repurposed 15L water bottles like you - and after 2 days one had the signs of start of fermnentation  so I only pitched into the one of them. The spontanous ferment was a bit ropery at first - but then calmed down...  At bottling time I forgot to label each of the batcvhes - so had no way of telling which was which - but after 4 months or so - all the bottles seemed to be the same anyway...

Champagne yeast is another good option. I used this on a perry - using heirloom pears froma friend orchid, this was pretty good...

If the cider is too dry - try adding a dash of raspberry cordial/syrup - you can dial this in a take the edge off - some people like sweeter - others drier - so tune to taste!

I though I had documented more cider adventures - but no - http://wilberforce.co.nz/2014/04/06/2014-perry

[Troy Dougherty]

My S.G are about 1.058-1.060 and FG end up 1.005 so it looks like I am resigned to 6.8-7.5% for now.  I have read that I can kill the yeast off, etc, but for now I am trying for just apple(juice) and yeast with zero additives, and no extra sugar for carbing, etc (just a bit more juice).  I have heard that pears have more complex sugars so will not ferment down to zero so I am going to look at cutting them in on my next batch too...looking at your perry FG that looks right.

You mention looking at reducing the sugar content - any suggestions - even with your 1.054 SG I calculate out ~6.5% in the final product?  I guess I could water it down, but I am loathe to do something so rash!

[Eggbert]

I first used the apples from our tree. Then when that ran out i used Fresh Up: 12L+1.5kg of white sugar + cider yeast = 12-13% cider. Just used primary (as i only had one fermented at the time) and left it in there until it started clearing then i bottle it. Dangerously good stuff. But I have found it has not been as good since they changed the recipe in 2014 from 100% apple juice to less and less. Is it any good with their current recipe?