Joe's PD Hard Cider
4 Gallons Apple Juice / Apple Cider (NO PRESERVATIVES)*
1 Gallon Tap Water
2lbs Dark Brown Sugar
1 lb Crystal 60 Malt (optional but gives a caramel after taste)
1 Packet Safale - 05 yeast/Montrachet Champagne Yeast
Heat 1 gallon of water to 200 F to sterilize. Steep Crystal 60 @ 170F for 30 minutes in a mesh bag or cheesecloth. After the Crystal steep, discard the mesh bag and heat water to 200F again, slowly stirring in the Brown Sugar until disolved and water has reached 200F. DO NOT BOIL.
While the water/sugar/malt mixture is cooling to 70-75F, pour into your fermenter ( I used a 6.5 gallon ferment bucket with a 3 piece airlock) the apple juice. At this point, if you are using pasteurized juice/cider, there is no reason to boil or further sanitize the juice, it is essentially sterile in the jug. Once you have the juice in the fermenter and the water mixture is cooled to the proper temperature, pour the water mixture into the fermenter and pitch your yeast.
Fermentation should be very active within 48 hours. Ferment temperature should be 60-65F with the Safale - 05 and 65-75F with the Montrachet.
*Fermentation time with the Safale - 05 should take about 4 weeks for the yeast cake to settle. The Montrachet being a champagne yeast will ferment a bit quicker, about 2.5 weeks or less.
Starting Gravity should be 1.074, Final Gravity should be 0.996, yielding around 9.8% alcohol.
If you choose to leave out the Crystal 60 Malt, SG will be 1.060 and FG will be 0.998, yielding around 8.2% alcohol.
After carbonating for about 5 days, this was very drinkable and was a spot on match for Strongbow, the English cider. After about 1 week post-chilling (about 2 weeks post-bottling), the taste continued to become more complex, yielding some cinnamon esters (most likely from the Safale - 05 yeast, it has been known to cause a cinnamon like flavor in ales) and lots of caramel frontnotes and nose. At 4 weeks post-chilling, astringent quality of the cider (which is normal for this style) had mellowed to a very drinkable cider that closely resembled a sparkling dry white wine, with hints of strawberry, apple, cinnamon and caramel.
*A note about preservatives: Preservatives can keep your yeast from reproducing, and unless you introduce a very LARGE yeast cake or use a HUGE starter, your cider will never fully ferment. Watch out for Potassium Sorbate or basically anything other than juice in the ingredient list. Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C) is fine and the yeast seem to love it, just make sure to let your guests know that there is a fair amount of Vitamin C in your cider, some people are sensitive to this vitamin.
Cheers !
