(Part 2) Top products from r/cider

Sorry I tend to do my brewing calculations in imperial (Murican) but.. what I shoot for is a ratio of roughly (usually just a tad under) 1 oz/1 gallon when using dextrose.

For a 5 gallon batch I usually use 4-5 oz in most beers/ciders of medium-higher carbonation. Perhaps shoot for the lower side of that spectrum if you think you may have any residual sugars. If a cider is a bit undercarbed in the end it's not so big of an issue in my opinion.

So to convert converting to metric that would put you at about 13g/liter of what I use maximum if I'm not mistaken. 10-12 g/l should be more than plenty.


> Are there any major differences between top to top siphoning between fermenters, and tap to bottle? (Presuming 10 minutes to let the priming solution diffuse.) We would minimise splash and thus oxygenation in both cases.

Sorry not sure what you're referring to with your process. Maybe you could explain a little better what you're looking to do.

Here are the general beginner steps most people use for bottle carbonating:

1. Heat the measured dextrose in a small amount of water (I wouldn't stress the volume of water, just enough for it to dissolve and become an aqueous solution works fine).
   I usually heat it until just before a boil or cut it right as I see a boil. As it cools I start getting everything setup.
   
   
2. Once I'm ready I pour the dextrose water (once it's not boiling hot) into the bottom of a bottling bucket allowing my dextrose to get an even dispersion in the cider when I rack vs just pouring it on top after racking.
   Usually the dextrose mix cools relatively quickly especially as the cold bucket acts as a heat sink. It's best to not rack the cider right onto the boiling hot mixture.
   
   
3. I rack my cider carefully into the bucket.
   A good tip is keeping the tubing just below the surface of the cider in the bottling bucket as it fills so I'm not splashing and introducing larger amounts of oxygen.
   
   
4. Then I use a bottling wand attached to my tubing and fill each bottle from my bottling bucket and subsequently cap them.
   
   Sorry for the wall of text haha. That's a quick little rundown, hopefully it helps! If you have any questions feel free to ask!

Well if you live in Canada like I do, get the President's Choice Fresh Pressed Apple Cider from Loblaw's/Superstore. It's $5 for 3L and works awesome as a base for all my ciders. I almost always use Lalvin BM 4X4 yeast, which ferments nice and dry at basement temps, good body, retains a lot of fruit characteristics. Most of the time I use plain ol' white sugar to bring up the SG. The PC cider on it's own will get you to around 4-5% ABV, but I like to bring my ciders in around the 8-10% range. If you want to split the difference and go for, say, a nice 7% ABV you're looking for between 1.050 and 1.055 SG. Ferment it out for a few weeks until you see little to no more activity in the airlock. Rack to secondary and add any additional flavours you want. From there it's just a waiting game depending on how long you want to age before bottling, the clarity you're looking for, etc. For bottling I use either 750ml flip tops or 650ml beer bombers. I use two of these tabs in each bottle for conditioning. If I'm worried that there's not enough residual yeast left at bottling time, I put a few grains of dry BM 4X4 per bottle before filling. I go at least 2 months before cracking open the first one.

Does the shop stock any cider books? Seems like a win-win if they'd let you borrow a book or two.

Start at the top of this list and work your way down. Reading a few of these books will be a far superior learning experience to browsing online and trying to piece information together.

Cider Appreciation and History
World's Best Cider: Taste, Tradition and Terroir, from Somerset to Seattle
The Naked Guide to Cider
Cider - CAMRA
Ciderland
Golden Fire: The Story of Cider

I also enjoy Alan Stone's cider books, but the best one is currently sold out.

Apples and Cider Making
Haynes Cider Enthusiasts' Manual: The Practical Guide to Growing Apples and Making Cider
Craft Cider Making
How to Grow Apples and Make Cider
The Apple Orchard: The Story of Our Most English Fruit

You pretty much need a hopper.

If you don't have some weight on top of them they don't get pushed through. I have the same crusher and with the hopper I have no major issues. I don't cut the apples so small so that may be part of your issue as well. When I get to the bottom of a bushel I push the last few through with a wooden spatula.

The thing will never be fast, it's a hand grinder, but it can do much better than what I see in your video.

One thing to note: when you are done, take the thing TOTALLY apart to clean it. If not you will get chunks of apple left in there, and they will start to stink.

Making Craft Cider - A Ciderist Guide (Simon McKie, 2011)

Craft Cider Making (Andrew Lea, 2008)

Cider - Making, Using and Enjoying Sweet & Hard Cider (Proulx & Nichols, 2003)

Powdered Brewery Wash. I actually use pure Sodium Percarbonate (an ingredient in PBW that I can get at my homebrew store) and a bunch of other people use OxyClean FREE--all are excellent cleaners for cidermaking equipment.

Thanks for the input. Is this the one you have?

Yeah, that's tough. U could do the natural way in a 2 litter bottle too though. Just gotta get one of those soda pumps to keep the fizz.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B00004XSH3/ref=cm_sw_r_other_apa_i_owZBDbTPMHQ3S

I would start with 6 gallon bucket $8.50 compared to morebeer buy a spigot and airlock as a starting point. Look for a sale on a 7 gallon pot and I think your good.

Ah. Right. Check your local health nut store and/or the health nut section at your grocery store of choice. One or both should carry something like this. You might want to comparison shop though — I think the last time I bought it, the cheapest source was Puritan's Pride.

No, I'm bottling one bottle into a plastic bottle with this pressure gauge. The rest will be in glass bottles. I will pasteurize them all once the gauge reaches near 30psi.

The pressure gauge will be an experiment. I've seen lots of people do it with hand-made versions successfully. I read that 3/4 hose thread is close enough to bottle threads, so I thought I'd try this pre-made one out.

More info on bottle carbing
http://www.howtomakehardcider.com/carb-oh.html

Question: what's the difference between jacked cider and distilling cider.

one book I borrowed from rev Nats library in the tap room

another local portland cidery's book on homebrewing cider

I'm doing my 2nd batch ever and bought this to sweeten when it's done. I believe the directions on the bottle say 7ml per liter but the website says the directions are twice that amount. idk. I'm just going to add to my preference.

Wine Conditioner 500ml https://www.amazon.com/dp/B002LNT2OO/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_wrhhAbXQ4CX5Y