A friend at work is getting married in a few months. She is a foodie and although she doesn't like beer, she has a great respect for well crafted beer as well as all well crafted food and drink products. She knows I homebrew and so for her wedding she asked if I would mind making a batch of cider. I haven't made a cider in about 3 years and my first attempts were fusel, hot, acetic messes. I have done some research on ciders since the last batch and I used this knowledge to make this batch of cider. My friend likes a slightly sweeter cider with lots of apple flavor and aroma. To achieve this she bought 4 gallons of California organic apple and organic apple cherry cider. I decided based on what she wanted and the research I have done that I would use an English Ale strain. In the past I have used Champagne yeast. In addition I wanted to keep the cider fermenting at a lower temp than in the past, so I placed the fermenter in a water bath in which I placed frozen water bottle to hold the surrounding temp in the 50-60s. I am hoping that with a less attenuating yeast held at cooler temps I should avoid the hot fusel alcohols I have gotten in past batches. I also did not boil, or pasteurize the must in any way. The cider was flash pasteurized already and I didn't want to lose any aromatics or apple flavors. I poured in the must and pitched the yeast.
Ingredients: 2.5 gallons Organic Apple Juice, 2.5 gallons Organic Apple Cherry Juice, Pectine Enzyme, WLP002-English Ale Yeast.
Thew cider came out great, it lost some of its apple flavor and aroma so I back sweetened right before bottling. I was every happy with the results of this cider and I look forward to making another batch this fall.
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