Batch #20

On this past Sunday, 22 December, I started a new batch similar to previous batches, with the exception that I decided to add cranberry juice, substituting it for lemon juice and tea. Recipe #20:

• 5 gallon Kirkland's apple juice
• 1 pack Wyeast Whitbread (1099) Direct Pitch Activator
• 1/4 cup of raisins
• 3 pounds fresh cranberries

My thinking is that the cranberries would add acidity and tannins to the cider, so I would skip adding lemon juice and tea.

The first step was to juice the cranberries. I was hoping that 3 pounds would produce a quart of juice, but it only produced 20 ounces. As with previous batches, prior to adding juice and yeast to the carboy, I added to a pot:

• 1/4 gallon Kirkland's apple juice
• 20 ounces fresh juiced cranberry juice
• 1/4 cup of raisins

I cooked this mixture on the stove for 30 minutes at a temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. I then chilled this over ice to bring it to <80F, added this and 3/4 gallons of juice to the carboy, pitched the yeast, and then added the remaining 4 gallons of juice.

One thing (of many, I'm sure) I forgot to do was to measure the specific gravity of the cranberry juice.

Batch #19

On 30 November, I started a new batch with a similar recipe for batches #14-18, with the exception that I decided to try a batch with less currants. Recipe #19:

• 5 gallon Kirkland's apple juice
• 1 pack Wyeast Whitbread (1099) Direct Pitch Activator
• 1/4 cup of currants
• 1 lemon
• 2 English Breakfast tea bag

As with batch #14-18, prior to adding juice and yeast to the carboy, I added to a pot:

• 1/4 gallon apple juice
• 1/4 cup of currants
• juice of 1 lemon  (~1/5 cup)
• 2 English Breakfast tea bag

I cooked this mixture on the stove for 30 minutes at a temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. I then chilled this over ice to bring it to <80F, added this and 3/4 gallons of juice to the carboy, pitched the yeast, and then added the remaining 4 gallons of juice.

Batch #18

Today, I started a new batch with similar recipe for batches #14-17, with the exception that I decided to try a batch without the currants. Recipe #18:

• 5 gallon Kirkland's apple juice
• 1 pack Wyeast Whitbread (1099) Direct Pitch Activator
• 1 lemon
• 2 English Breakfast tea bag

As with batch #14-17, prior to adding juice and yeast to the carboy, I added to a pot:

• 1/4 gallon apple juice
• juice of 1 lemon  (~1/5 cup)
• 2 English Breakfast tea bag

I cooked this mixture on the stove for 30 minutes at a temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. I then chilled this over ice to bring it to <80F, added this and 3/4 gallons of juice to the carboy, pitched the yeast, and then added the remaining 4 gallons of juice.

Batch #17

Today, I started a new batch with the exact recipe for batch #14-16. Recipe #17:

• 5 gallon Kirkland's apple juice
• 1 pack Wyeast Whitbread (1099) Direct Pitch Activator
• 1 cup of dried black currants
• 1 lemon
• 2 English Breakfast tea bag

As with batch #15, prior to adding juice and yeast to the carboy, I added to a pot:

• 1/4 gallon apple juice
• juice of 1 lemon  (~1/5 cup)
• 1 cup dried black currants
• 2 English Breakfast tea bag

I cooked this mixture on the stove for 30 minutes at a temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. I then chilled this over ice to bring it to <80F, added this and 3/4 gallons of juice to the carboy, pitched the yeast, and then added the remaining 5 gallons of juice.

Batch #16

Saturday, September 14, I started a new batch with the exact recipe for batch #14 and#15. Recipe #16:

• 5 gallon Kirkland's apple juice
• 1 pack Wyeast Whitbread (1099) Direct Pitch Activator
• 1 cup of dried black currants
• 1 lemon
• 2 English Breakfast tea bag

As with batch #15, prior to adding juice and yeast to the carboy, I added to a pot:

• 1/4 gallon apple juice
• juice of 1 lemon  (~1/5 cup)
• 1 cup dried black currants
• 2 English Breakfast tea bag

I cooked this mixture on the stove for 30 minutes at a temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. I then chilled this over ice to bring it to <80F, added this and 3/4 gallons of juice to the carboy, pitched the yeast, and then added the remaining 5 gallons of juice.

Batch #15

Today I started a new batch with the exact recipe for batch #14, with the exception that I used two bags of English Breakfast tea, instead of one. I also am starting with 5 gallons of juice as I am using a smaller carboy. I plan to add a 6th gallon during a secondary fermentation stage. Recipe #15:

• 5 gallon Kirkland's apple juice
• 1 pack Wyeast Whitbread (1099) Direct Pitch Activator
• 1 cup of dried black currants
• 2 lemons
• 2 English Breakfast tea bag

As with batch #14, prior to adding juice and yeast to the carboy, I added to a pot:

• 1/4 gallon apple juice
• juice of 2 lemons  (~1/5 cup)
• 1 cup dried black currants
• 2 English Breakfast tea bag

I cooked this mixture on the stove for 30 minutes at a temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. I then chilled this over ice to bring it to <80F, added this and 3/4 gallons of juice to the carboy, pitched the yeast, and then added the remaining 4 gallons of juice.

Batch #14

On Saturday I started a new batch, following on the process from the previous several batches, with a slight twist on batch #13. Recipe #14:

• 6 gallon Kirkland's apple juice
• 1 pack Wyeast Whitbread (1099) Direct Pitch Activator
• 1 cup of dried black currants
• 2 lemons
• 1 English Breakfast tea bag

As with batch #13, prior to adding juice and yeast to the carboy, I added to a pot:

• 1/4 gallon apple juice
• juice of 2 lemons  (~1/5 cup)
• 1 cup dried black currants
• 1 English Breakfast tea bag

I cooked this mixture on the stove for 30 minutes at a temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. I then chilled this over ice to bring it to <80F, added this and 3/4 gallons of juice to the carboy, pitched the yeast, and then added the remaining 5 gallons of juice.

NOTE: The previous Saturday (8/3), I kegged batch #13, bottling an extra 8 22oz bottles.

Batch #13

Yesterday I started a new batch, following on the process from the previous several batches. But unlike any of the previous batches, I decided to try something fairly different with this recipe. Recipe #13:

• 6 gallon Kirkland's apple juice
• 1 pack Wyeast Whitbread (1099) Direct Pitch Activator
• ~1/2 cup of raisins
• 2 lemons
• 2 Earl Grey tea bags

I had been reading some blogs about adding tannins and acidity, so I decided to experiment with my base recipe and see what happens. So, prior to adding juice and yeast to the carboy, I added to a pot:

• 1/2 gallon apple juice
• juice of 2 lemons
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 Earl Grey tea bags

I cooked this mixture on the stove for 30 minutes at a temperature of 160 degrees Fahrenheit. I then added this to the carboy along with the remaining 5 1/2 gallons of juice. I then pitched the yeast.

Amy brought to my attention that Earl Grey might not have been the best choice for tea if I was just looking for tannins, as Earl Grey has added oils and is quite strong in flavor. So we'll see how this turns out. :-)

Batch #12

Following on the process for batches #10 and 11, I started a new batch a few weeks ago, near the end of June. Recipe #12:

• 6 gallon Kirkland's apple juice
• 1 pack Wyeast Forbidden Fruit (3463) Direct Pitch Activator
• ~1/3 cup of raisins

(I decided to try a different yeast based on a discussion I had with a friend.)

When I kegged the cider yesterday, I racked the cider to a second carboy, added ~1 quart of Kirkland's apple juice, and filled the keg, leaving a little space for future back-sweetening. Because I did a 6 gallon batch, this left me with 6 1 quart bottles. (Because I would have extra for bottling, I modified the process from batch #11, by racking to a second carboy, so that I could blend the added apple juice before bottling).

Batch #11

Following on the process for batch #10, I started a new batch sometime in the middle of March. Recipe #11:

• 4 gallon Kirkland's apple juice
• 1 pack Wyeast Whitbread (1099) Direct Pitch Activator
• ~1/3 cup of raisins

Again, the cider was allowed to ferment dry, before racking off to age in the keg. I decided to modify the process a bit by adding ~1 quart of apple juice to the keg to give the cider something to work with, in order to carbonate itself while aging.  I figured this would save me some CO2, as I didn't have to add any CO2 once the O2 was initially bled off using a CO2 tank.

Batch #10 (continued):

The approach that I came up with was:

• ferment 4 gallons dry
• age 4 cider in keg under slight pressure
• back-sweeten to taste
• refrigerate immediately after back-sweetening to prevent further fermentation

I think that this is a fairly standard process, with the exception of refrigerating immediately after back-sweetening. I did not want to use chemicals to kill the yeast, and didn’t trust myself to properly deactivate the yeast through cold crashing or filtering.

The 4 gallons and yeast were added to the carboy and allowed to ferment dry (~4 weeks). The cider was then racked of to a Cornelius keg, adding CO2 and bleeding off the O2. The cider was then allow to age for ~3 months. Once the cider had aged (6 months would probably be better, but who can wait!), the cider was back sweetened to taste (~½ gallon), resulting in a cider with SG of ~1.010. At this point, because there is active yeast, the cider must be refrigerated to keep fermentation from reactivating. The keg was placed in a refrigerator and attached to a CO2 tank to carbonate.

Drinking the cider has been great. The cider/juice blend did age a bit over the next month of drinking (something I wasn’t sure about, as this was my first time trying this process), with a noticeable change from a somewhat sweet cider (for our taste) for the first gallon to a very mellow dryer cider over the remainder. I don’t know if the initial sweetness was just a perception, as the juice and aged cider had not fully integrated, or because the carbonation was a bit low initially (I couldn’t wait to start drinking, and needed to adjust the pressure to reach the correct carbonation level), but the end product was a very drinkable cider that Amy and I (and friends) have really enjoyed.

Batch #10

On December 31, I started a 4 gallon batch which is targeted for kegging. That's right: I am setup for kegging! The plan is to:

• ferment a 4 gallon batch to dryness
• allow to age 3+ months in the keg at room temperature
• back-sweeten with apple juice to desired sweetness (~1.015 SG)
• refrigerate and force carbonate for drinking

One thing to keep in mind is that no chemicals will be added, so the cider will still have active yeast. Therefore the refrigeration after back-sweetening is essential: otherwise the yeast will begin to ferment the newly added apple juice. Recipe #10:

• 4 gallon Murray's apple cider
• 1 pack Wyeast Whitbread (1099) Direct Pitch Activator