Notebook Export
The Art & Science of Cider: The Journey of a Craft Cider Maker
Chezem, Thomas
Cider: The Apple
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Titration is a process to measure the total grams of acid in a cider.
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apples that aren’t irrigated will have higher sugar. Water dilutes, so if you get apples from orchards that irrigate you’re likely to find they are bigger but the sugar concentration is lower. If you pick your apple from a tree in your backyard, it will probably be smaller and the sugar is more concentrated.
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For me, the sugar ranges and potential alcohol level if you fermented it dry is reflected in the following table.
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As for an ideal cider, you’d have an apple that has super high sugar, an apple that has high acid, and an apple that has medium tannins. This would give you the ability to create balance and a spectrum of sweet to dry ciders just by mixing more or less of one type over another. What this doesn’t cover is my other element, aroma.
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aroma requires you to use and develop your palate.
Cleaning and Sanitizing
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Since we are fermenting, we generally don’t need to worry as much about your beverage making you sick with one exception: if you don’t create enough alcohol, since the alcohol will kill and prevent bacteria that can make you sick.
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you want to clean and sanitize the equipment that will be used. I have used two products, One Step, made by Logic Inc. and Star San, made by Five Star Chemical & Supply. Both are no-rinse products.
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Ideally, you have a drying rack or have sanitized your counters.
Selecting Apples
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You would ideally want a combination of apples in the range of 50-60% Sweets with nice aroma, 30-40% Sharps, and 10-30% Bittersweets.
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This would potentially give you a well-balanced cider. If you are like me, finding apples with bitter tannins is a never-ending search.
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yeast also has a big impact on the flavor profile of your cider. For this reason, I advocate for measuring sugar, pH, noting visual tannins, and whenever possible, acid levels so you can blend or add adjuncts to cider after primary fermentation. For this reason and because most home cider makers are doing smaller 1-5 gallons batches, I usually juice one variety of apple and try to ferment each variety separately. That doesn’t always work, so understanding each apple helps me decide how to blend at any stage in the process.
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Another trick to gain residual sweetness is to mix in some pears. Pears contain sorbitol, which is a sugar that won’t ferment. This means that a cider that ferments dry will still provide some balancing sweetness for ciders high in acid.
Pressing Apples
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Another reason I tend to juice and ferment single variety ciders is because of the juicer I use. Every cider book I’ve read will tell you how to juice using the traditional method of grinding your apples and placing them in a sack to make a cheese, stacking the cheeses between racking layers of wood or plastic material, pressing with a hydraulic ram or mechanical screw and collecting the juice as it flows from the cheeses and into a bucket. To me, this sounded like a lot of work not only to build or buy theses machines but to clean, sanitize, and maintain them. I also started wondering how fast they really were. Some people talked about spending half a day to juice a bushel (~ 45 pounds) of apples. In about 4 hours, my wife and I juiced about 150 pounds of Early Gold apples. This includes sanitation of everything, measuring sugar, pH, photographing, and cleanup.
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I admit that I’ve never ground apples, packed them in cheeses, and pressed it since I can’t imagine that it would be as easy or efficient as what I do. I’ve thought about how I might commercialize my home cider making passion, and I could see where a grind and press system might be more advantageous if I needed to process 10,000 to 20,000 pounds of apples at a time. However, for a home cider operation, when you might do a couple hundred pounds and are interested in blending post-fermentation, I’d strongly recommend a big mouth masticating juicer
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Trying to juice fruit that is dry or has large seeds is how I broke my second masticating juicer.
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There are a number of benefits to a wide mouth masticating juicer for home cider-making. The first is the cost. You can buy one that will work really well for $ 80.
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I normally get about 1 gallon of juice from 15-16 pounds of apples but this can vary depending on the texture of the apples.
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Apples that are mushy to eat tend to be mushy to juice and will include a lot more solids in the juice.
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For cider, you generally are trying for clarity. This is why you will want to add Pectic Enzymes to your juice: usually you add 1/ 2 teaspoon per gallon but read the directions. The Pectic Enzyme helps separate the pectin solids from the juice and increase yield. It’s a white powder that you can buy in a small bottle or one pound bag. It is also important if you want to eliminate pectin haze that can make your cider cloudy. This doesn’t impact the taste but definitely affects the look. Some ciders are appealing with a little haze but other times you may want to go for crystal clear. If you find yourself dealing with a hazy cider, my suggestion is to just embrace it. Otherwise you will have to filter or fine it, and even that may not clear it completely.
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The other step I usually take is to strain my juice as I’m putting it in the fermenter. I purchased a large funnel and our large stainless-steel strainer fits well into it (see the following photo). Using a rubber spatula, I will pour the juice through the strainer to collect the large solids. Normally, I’ll use the spatula to agitate the solids and even press them to remove more juice. The residual is almost like applesauce and you could store and eat it. My wife often makes fruit roll-ups from it or you could add water back to it and use it as a base for Ciderkin, a low alcohol cider made by adding water to pomace and repressing. You could also just leave it and let it settle out, but this will give you a larger lees layer at the bottom that can make racking more difficult. Lees are the solids and yeast that collect at the bottom of the fermenter during the fermentation process. It’s the junk you want to leave behind when you rack or transfer your cider from one container to another.
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Just a reminder: all equipment should be sanitized, not just cleaned in a dishwasher.
Selecting a Fermenter
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What fermenter should you use? As you can see from earlier photos, I have a few 1 gallon and 3 gallon Fermonsters that I use. These are plastic and have a wide mouth.
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The lids are drilled for a bung and airlock
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The plastic is great to avoid shattered glass all over the floor as I’ve learned from personal experience. However, the plastic can create pull back, which is when the solution in the airlock is pulled back or sucked back into the fermenter, when you are moving it. This is why I normally use cheap vodka in my airlocks over water or sanitizing solutions. Vodka won’t add any unsavory components and harm anything if a little spills into the cider as it ferments.
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The goal is to seal the system from outside air. The yeast eats the sugar and coverts it to alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO2). The CO2 expands, ultimately pushing the air out of the fermenter leaving only CO2 in the fermenter. CO2 is heavier than air so it also settles on top of the cider creating a barrier between the air and the cider. While you need oxygen in the initial fermentation process, you want to limit exposure to oxygen after the primary fermentation is well along. We will discuss this more during racking and filtering.
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Pull back can occur if you move your fermenter into a refrigerator. As the cider cools it creates a vacuum, drawing the liquid in the airlock back into the fermenter. You need to remember this if you ever cold crash (see glossary) a cider trying to clarify it. Plastic fermenters can also create this situation as they can flex, causing air to rush in or out of the fermenter through the airlock. For this reason, I usually try to fill my airlocks in place instead of filling and carrying them to the fermenting location.
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I’d suggest your first batch of cider be made using one-gallon organic juice in a glass carboy from a store like Whole Foods. These can also make great primary and secondary fermenters. The challenge is cleaning the carboy, as you need a specific brush and carboys do break.
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What fruit should you juice? I’d suggest the following, which should be readily available and give you a nice final blend for standard dessert apples. I’d strongly recommend you buy organic. You should get over one gallon of juice. You can freeze any extra juice in a plastic container and use this for topping off your carboy for aging.
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Why did I choose Ambrosia or Fuji? These have medium to high sugar and relatively lower acid with good aroma and flavors. I’d use Ambrosia if you can find them. Bosc or Anjou Pears: those aren’t apples but pears and apples are both considered part of cider. Actually, if you have over 50% pear juice, it would be a perry and not a cider. The real benefit besides adding some nice flavors and aroma to the mix is that you’ll get just a bit of residual sweetness. This will help balance the acid you’ll have from the dessert apples. Bosc and Anjou should be easy to find and will give you similar results.
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Lastly, the Granny Smith apples will give you a nice acid kick to make your cider refreshing and palate pleasing. This cider will not be astringent because the apples and pears lack tannins, but you should get a nice crisp cider with just a touch of residual sweetness.
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You should measure sugar, pH, temperature, acid, and tannins (visually) for each apple that you juice. I usually do a photo of two apples, one cut horizontally and the other vertically.
Measuring Sugar
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Commonly used in wine making, Brix measures the percentage of sugar by weight in a solution. Brix and specific gravity are measuring the same thing and can be converted using the following formulas, which are sometimes needed as different websites use one or the other.

Brix = ((SG - 1) x 220) + 1.6
SG = ((Brix - 1.6) / 200) + 1
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Specific gravity is a desnity measurement of a solution or liquid relative to another liquid, which for us is water. Water has a specific gravity or density of 1.000. In other words, water doesn’t have any sugar. If you take sugar and pour it into a glass of water and mix it until you can’t see the sugar, the liquid now includes the sugar and is more dense. The specific gravity of this liquid will be above 1.000 depending on how much sugar you mixed into the water. You might hear someone talk about points or degrees of sugar, like that apple has 55 points of sugar, meaning it’s specific gravity is 1.055 and you have .055 grams of sugar per 1 milliliter of liquid. That sugar is what you have available to turn into alcohol or leave behind to balance some of the acid and tannins in your cider.
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You should measure the sugar level several times during the process, usually at key steps along the way (e.g. at each racking). However, the most critical measurement is the first one. Without this measurement you won’t know your starting point and, therefore, how much alcohol you have created in the fermentation process. The second most important is the final measurement. This tells you the residual sugar that is remaining in the cider as well as allowing you to calculate the alcohol created and the alcohol by volume or ABV that must be listed on bottles and cans purchased commercially.
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calculating the ABV of your cider is the following. This is a common equation used to estimate the level of alcohol. There are more accurate equations, but for the home cider maker and even small commercial cideries, this equation would be sufficient.

ABV = (OSG - FSG) x 131.25
Example: 5.25% = (1.043-1.003) x 131.25 Most books recommend a hydrometer for measuring sugar. I’ll be honest, I’ve never used one. I purchased a refractometer that measures Brix and specific gravity and I’ve never looked back. However, there are trade-offs with both devices that might drive you to like one over the other.
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The hydrometer’s main benefit is that it gives true readings regardless of the level of alcohol in the solution. Its drawback is the amount of cider you have to use to get the reading. Basically, you have to fill a cylinder with cider to measure. While you can sanitize everything and pour this back, it’s just a lot of moving liquid and increases the chance for introducing oxygen and contaminants. Generally, it is not recommended to return this liquid to your batch so you lose it. This is a decent amount for a home cider maker, especially if you are making 1 gallon batches.
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A refractometer uses just a few drops of juice or cider. You put it on the lens and drop the cover and take the reading. It will give you a true initial reading when measuring juice without alcohol. Its drawback is that it requires a calculation to compensate for the amount of alcohol in the cider as fermentation progresses. Alcohol is less dense than water so you have to compensate for it. You can find websites that do this for you.
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under the tools section. This website has a Brix correction calculator that corrects a refractometer reading as long as you have the original sugar content.
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do an adjustment that estimates the alcohol, and for the home cider maker this will be more than sufficient. In fact, just knowing the initial sugar level goes a long way to understanding your cider. Also, be aware that hydrometers and refractometers are temperature-dependent. If you are measuring liquid that is significantly different from the calibration temperature, you will want to adjust this. Most are calibrated for 68 degrees Fahrenheit.
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I’ve recently purchased a couple of new devices that replace or work in conjunction with the hydrometer or refractometer and have a “coolness” element if you like technology.
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The first device is a PLAATO Airlock,
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It looks a lot like a standard airlock but it does require power.
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the basic premise is it measures the CO2 that is created by the yeast during the fermentation process.
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While I liked the presentation of the material, I wasn’t a big fan of needing to measure the specific gravity and volume. This meant I had to use my refractometer and estimate the volume of juice, which I did by measuring the distance up the side of my fermenter with a tape measure after filling it in half gallon increments.
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The Tilt Hydrometer is the other device for measuring sugar that I experimented using.
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The Tilt is a direct immersion hydrometer device, meaning you place it in the juice or must.
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The Tilt measures the sugar and the temperature directly. It is battery powered so no plug is necessary. The sugar is measured based on how the device is floating, how tilted it is in the liquid. You don’t need to pre-measure anything or input anything into the App for it to start doing anything. It’s a digital hydrometer that is temperature-compensating. You just need to remember to log the data on a regular interval, especially your initial reading so you have the starting point.
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It has a couple of drawbacks, though. The first is that it is only Bluetooth, no WiFi.
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As I mentioned before, sugar is key because it defines the potential level of alcohol and the potential for residual sweetness as a balance to acid. It also identifies potential carbonation levels if you bottle condition your cider. To give you a guide, I created a table that provides several references. Note that this table represents estimates and absolutes. What I mean by “estimates” is that not all sugars are the same and not all yeasts ferment all sugars.
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What I mean by “absolutes” is that the numbers reflect 100% of the sugar being converted to alcohol and CO2.
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The other key note I want to make is about the CO2 Volume column. This column represents the additional CO2 Volumes that will be added to your cider based on that amount of sugar. This may not reflect the total CO2 Volumes in your cider. We will talk more about carbonation but it’s key to remember that when you ferment, your cider absorbs some of the CO2 naturally even without being in a keg or having added pressure.
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At atmospheric pressure (an open container), and room temperature (68F), your cider will absorb about 0.85 CO2 Volumes. Therefore, unless you do something to remove this CO2, whenever you use sugar to create CO2 Volumes, you will need to add this 0.85 CO2 Volumes to your calculation.
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This 0.85 is an estimate that will vary based on the temperature of your cider, your altitude, and how much you agitate your cider when racking. If you force-carbonate, you don’t need to worry about this because the cider will naturally balance the CO2 that it has already absorbed with the additional CO2 you are forcing on it.
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Let’s look at what this table tells us so you get a better idea. If your cider has a specific gravity of 1.010, that means it has 26.2 grams of sugar that is still dissolved in it per liter, which is equivalent to 99.2 grams per gallon. If you wanted to add that much sugar to your cider, it would be approximately 9 tablespoons but I’d weigh the sugar if at all possible. Most servings in the United States are 12 ounces, which is a common beer bottle. Therefore, if you bottle the cider, it would have 9.3 grams of residual sugar per serving or bottle. Many commercial ciders list the grams of sugar so this gives you a reference to those. Something with 9 grams is normally a semi-dry to semi-sweet cider. If you let this sugar ferment more, or if you bottled it and it kept fermenting, you could end up with 1.29% more alcohol. This would also produce an additional 6.5 CO2 volumes, which is bottle explosion territory. Also, this isn’t the total CO2 volumes you have in the cider. You also have to add the amount absorbed during fermentation, which is usually around 0.85 CO2 Volumes, which would make this approximately 7.35 CO2 Volumes. CO2 is expressed in volumes where 2 volumes would indicate there are 2 gallons of CO2 dissolved in 1 gallon of cider. The table shows you that the fermentation process creates lots of CO2. If you have 1 gallon of juice with a specific gravity of 1.055 and you ferment it completely dry, you will create 37.4 gallons of CO2 and you will have converted 570.1 grams of sugar into alcohol and CO2 doing it.
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Be careful you don’t go overboard bottle-conditioning cider as you can easily over-pressurize a bottle and break it. For example, anything over 3.5 is concerning because beer bottles aren’t designed to handle this level of pressure.
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Cider Sugar Reference Table
SG Grams / Liter Grams / Gallon Tbsp / Gallon Grams / 12 oz Serving % Alco Pot CO2 Volumes
1.001 2.6 9.8 0.9 0.8 0.13% 0.6
1.002 5.2 19.7 1.8 1.6 0.26% 1.3
1.003 7.8 29.6 2.8 2.3 0.39% 1.9
1.004 10.4 39.5 3.7 3.1 0.52% 2.6
1.005 13.0 49.4 4.6 3.9 0.64% 3.2
1.006 15.7 59.3 5.6 4.7 0.77% 3.9
1.007 18.3 69.3 6.5 5.5 0.90% 4.5
1.008 20.9 79.2 7.4 6.3 1.03% 5.2
1.009 23.6 89.2 8.4 7.1 1.16% 5.9
1.010 26.2 99.2 9.3 7.9 1.29% 6.5
1.011 28.9 109.3 10.2 8.7 1.42% 7.2
1.012 31.5 119.3 11.2 9.5 1.55% 7.8
1.013 34.2 129.4 12.1 10.3 1.68% 8.5
1.014 36.8 139.5 13.1 11.1 1.81% 9.2
1.015 39.5 149.6 14.0 11.9 1.94% 9.8
1.016 42.2 159.7 15.0 12.7 2.07% 10.5
1.017 44.9 169.9 15.9 13.5 2.20% 11.2
1.018 47.6 180.0 16.9 14.3 2.34% 11.8
1.019 50.2 190.2 17.8 15.1 2.47% 12.5
1.020 52.9 200.4 18.8 15.9 2.60% 13.2
1.021 55.6 210.6 19.7 16.7 2.73% 13.8
1.022 58.4 220.9 20.7 17.5 2.86% 14.5
1.023 61.1 231.2 21.7 18.4 2.99% 15.2
1.024 63.8 241.4 22.6 19.2 3.12% 15.9
1.025 66.5 251.7 23.6 20.0 3.25% 16.5
1.026 69.2 262.1 24.6 20.8 3.39% 17.2
1.027 72.0 272.4 25.5 21.6 3.52% 17.9
1.028 74.7 282.8 26.5 22.5 3.65% 18.6
1.029 77.4 293.2 27.5 23.3 3.78% 19.3
1.030 80.2 303.6 28.5 24.1 3.91% 19.9
1.031 82.9 314.0 29.4 24.9 4.05% 20.6
1.032 85.7 324.4 30.4 25.8 4.18% 21.3
1.033 88.5 334.9 31.4 26.6 4.31% 22.0
1.034 91.2 345.4 32.4 27.4 4.45% 22.7
1.035 94.0 355.9 33.4 28.3 4.58% 23.4
1.036 96.8 366.4 34.4 29.1 4.71% 24.1
1.037 99.6 376.9 35.3 29.9 4.84% 24.8
1.038 102.4 387.5 36.3 30.8 4.98% 25.5
1.039 105.2 398.1 37.3 31.6 5.11% 26.2
1.040 108.0 408.7 38.3 32.5 5.25% 26.8
1.041 110.8 419.3 39.3 33.3 5.38% 27.5
1.042 113.6 430.0 40.3 34.2 5.51% 28.2
1.043 116.4 440.6 41.3 35.0 5.65% 28.9
1.044 119.2 451.3 42.3 35.8 5.78% 29.6
1.045 122.0 462.0 43.3 36.7 5.92% 30.3
1.046 124.9 472.7 44.3 37.5 6.05% 31.1
1.047 127.7 483.4 45.3 38.4 6.18% 31.8
1.048 130.6 494.2 46.3 39.3 6.32% 32.5
1.049 133.4 505.0 47.3 40.1 6.45% 33.2
1.050 136.3 515.8 48.4 41.0 6.59% 33.9
1.051 139.1 526.6 49.4 41.8 6.72% 34.6
1.052 142.0 537.4 50.4 42.7 6.86% 35.3
1.053 144.8 548.3 51.4 43.5 6.99% 36.0
1.054 147.7 559.2 52.4 44.4 7.13% 36.7
1.055 150.6 570.1 53.4 45.3 7.27% 37.4
1.056 153.5 581.0 54.5 46.1 7.40% 38.2
1.057 156.4 591.9 55.5 47.0 7.54% 38.9
1.058 159.3 602.9 56.5 47.9 7.67% 39.6
1.059 162.2 613.8 57.5 48.8 7.81% 40.3
1.060 165.1 624.8 58.6 49.6 7.95% 41.0
1.061 168.0 635.8 59.6 50.5 8.08% 41.8
1.062 170.9 646.9 60.6 51.4 8.22% 42.5
1.063 173.8 657.9 61.7 52.3 8.36% 43.2
1.064 176.7 669.0 62.7 53.1 8.49% 43.9
1.065 179.7 680.1 63.8 54.0 8.63% 44.7
1.066 182.6 691.2 64.8 54.9 8.77% 45.4
1.067 185.5 702.3 65.8 55.8 8.90% 46.1
1.068 188.5 713.5 66.9 56.7 9.04% 46.9
1.069 191.4 724.7 67.9 57.6 9.18% 47.6
1.070 194.4 735.8 69.0 58.4 9.32% 48.3
1.071 197.4 747.1 70.0 59.3 9.45% 49.1
Measuring pH and Acid
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pH and acid levels are not directly correlated. A juice with a pH of 3. o will generally have a higher level of acid in it than a juice with a pH of 4.0. However, as those numbers get closer together, say 3.25 versus 3.4, that may no longer be a good assumption. The acid in the juice with a pH of 3.25 might be less than the one with 3.4. This is because different acids may be present, which can influence the perception (pH) of how acidic something is. Malic acid can be perceived as significantly more acidic than lactic acid.
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So ultimately, which is more important: pH or acid? For the home cider maker, pH is the most critical and the easiest to measure. You can buy some wine pH test strips in the pH range of 2-4 but I wouldn’t recommend it. They change color but good luck trying to tell what color they become. Spend the $ 20-40 and buy a digital pH meter from Amazon or a brew shop. They are easy to use and they also give you temperature, which can help if you need to adjust your hydrometer or refractometer for the temperature.
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The main reason the pH is key is because juice or cider where the pH is high (low acid), say 3.7 or higher, is more at risk to spoilage, i.e. turning into unsavory cider. Besides being a palate cleanser and giving your cider some zip and character, acid helps reduce growth of bacteria and microbes that can convert cider to acetic acid, vinegar, or other problems. Most apples have enough acid that this isn’t an issue, but not all apples have enough acid.
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When an apple doesn’t have enough acid and has a higher pH, you need to blend it with others that do. However, if you’re like me and often ferment single variety ciders before blending, you need to pay attention if you’re fermenting a low-acid cider. You have to be extra careful to avoid exposure to oxygen and any potential contaminates. Remember Sweets are low on acid and would be susceptible as their pH could be 4 or higher.
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Now that we’ve looked hard at pH, it’s time to turn to acid: what exactly is it, and why would you measure it? The acid measurement defines the weight of total acid in a volume of liquid. My calculations and references in this book are done in grams per liter of malic acid versus tartaric acid, which is usually used for wine. This is because apples mostly contain malic acid. Remember, I said there are a number of different types of acid. The importance of measuring the total acid, grams per liter, is because it helps you craft balanced ciders. This is where art and science combine to make something better. If your cider has 13 grams per liter of total acid, I’d suggest you try for some residual sugar—otherwise, I hope you enjoy really tart things. Knowing the acid level allows you to consider how you might balance this tart and crisp cider. For example, I find adding hops or spices can give some balance. Or, I add some perry with its residual sorbitol sugar. Other options are to add ginger, a little organic Stevia, or even another fruit juice. I will often use raspberry, and then filter it with a 0.5 micron filter and force-carbonate it to remove yeast and prevent bottle fermentation or conditioning. Some add sulfites, but I personally avoid adding sulfites or preservatives as I’m trying to reduce my intake of them. Knowing the total acid helps you consider how best to craft a balanced cider.
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The question then becomes: how to measure acid in your cider? You use an acid titration kit that you can get from Amazon or brew shops, usually for wine. The kit will usually contain sodium hydroxide, phenolphthalein, a syringe, a testing cup or tube, and instructions. You can use these and do the testing, but I recommend buying a 10-15ml graduated cylinder and some extra syringes. You will need a 1ml syringe and a 3ml syringe.
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This will allow you to do my preferred method as described by Claude Jolicoeur in his book, The New Cider Maker’s Handbook. Basically, he adapts the process described in the titration kit so that it uses less solution and gives you an output in grams per liter of malic acid.
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Let’s first review what you have in the kit and how you will use it. First, you have a sodium hydroxide solution. Ideally it’s a N = 0.2 solution. What does the N and 0.2 means? It reflects the moles or molecular weight of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) suspended in 1 liter of water. A solution of 0.2N would mean that there are 8 grams of NaOH dissolved in 1 liter of water. That’s because the molecular weight of NaOH is 40 grams, so 0.2 or 20% of that is 8 grams. You can usually find solutions for 1, 2, 0.1, and 0.2 available for various applications on Amazon. My calculations assume you have a 0.2N solution. If you purchased a kit with 0.1N solution, you could still follow the method I describe but adjust based on the NaOH having 4 grams per liter of water. Besides the NaOH solution, you will also get the phenolphthalein, which is an acid indicator solution that has an eye dropper top. This is what will turn your juice or cider a different color when combined with the sodium hydroxide. It will usually say to add 1-2 drops. Don’t worry if you add extra. It will only help in identifying the color change but don’t go overboard. An extra 2-3 drops won’t hurt if you are struggling to see the color change. The syringe is probably a 20ml one and for this method you want a 3ml and a 1ml syringe. Also, I like to use a 10-15ml graduated cylinder because they stand up and you can swirl them easier.
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If you bought a kit, the instructions are most likely setup to measure tartaric acid, the most common acid found in wine. The conversion factor for adjusting tartaric acid to malic acid is to multiply the tartaric acid by 0.8934. The molecular weight of malic acid (134.09) is 89.34% of tartaric acid (150.09). Most titration kits tell you to use a sample size of 15ml of juice but this is for tartaric acid. For malic acid, you can adjust the sample size of your juice from 15ml by multiplying it by 0.8934. You would only need to use 13.4ml. However, to further reduce the sample size of juice and the amount of sodium hydroxide you will need, you can divide everything by 5. If you divide the 13.4ml by 5, you only need 2.68ml of juice. Ultimately, this can save you as much as 15ml of your sodium hydroxide solution. This is why you need the 1ml syringe, which you will use to apply the sodium hydroxide. Once you note how much sodium hydroxide you used, you will multiply this by 5 to get your total acid measurement in grams per liter of malic acid. The 5 is simply math: first you reduce the volume of everything and then you simply scale it back up. Let’s walk through it step by step.
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Step 1: Gather your kit
Step 2: Extract 2.68ml of apple juice and place in 10ml graduated cylinder. Remember: if you are pulling directly from a container you are using to make cider, your syringe must be sanitized. I often pour a small sample into a small glass and use this for all measurements to prevent contamination.
Step 3: Add 3-4 drops of phenolphthalein into the cylinder and swirl.
Step 4: Extract 1ml of NaOH 0.2N solution from the bottle. Lift and tap the sides of the syringe to purge air and refill if required. I usually take over 1ml so I can remove air and get 1ml.
Step 5: Gradually add NaOH solution into the cylinder with the juice and phenolphthalein. Swirl cylinder to mix and watch for the color change to be permanent. I usually try to add around 0.1ml at a time. If you use the entire 1ml syringe, which is common, note it and extract another 1ml of the NaOH and begin adding it. Repeat until you achieve the permanent color change.
Step 6: Note the total quantity of NaOH added to the cylinder that was required to change the color of your juice. Multiply this number by 5 and this is the total acid in grams per liter of malic acid in the juice or cider. You will find these numbers for some of the apples in the database that was provided earlier.
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It’s important to note that juice or cider must not have carbonation when tested. You can heat it to remove the CO2, or let it sit and occasionally swirl it to release the CO2. This is why I tend to take my measurements as juice versus after fermentation as fermentation can change these numbers. As a home cider maker, my goal is to understand the total acid level to help me create a better balanced cider.
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It is critical to understand how sweet and how acidic an apple is in order to make a good blend, but these aren’t the only elements. These just happen to be easy to measure with some accuracy.
Assessing Tannins
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The last two elements of an apple, tannins and aroma, are more challenging for the home cider maker to assess.
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Tannins are polyphenolic biomolecules.
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Tannins are an element found in plants that create bitter and astringent characteristics. They are found in bark, leaves, seeds, and fruit skins like grapes and apples. They are what make red wines complex and they do the same for cider. However, they also make apples ugly when you cut them because it is the tannins that turn the apple flesh brown when exposed to the air. But what does bitter and astringent really mean?
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Aren’t lemons bitter? Actually, no, they are acidic. What? Next thing you know, I’ll tell you sour candies aren’t really sour. Okay, sour candies aren’t really sour. They are acidic. It’s no wonder our palates are confused. We are confused.
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Acidic or tart is not the same as bitter or astringent, and none of these are sour. A lemon is acidic and tart. A cranberry is bitter and astringent, and vinegar is sour. Bitter and astringent are different but tannins create them both. Bitter is a strong caustic or acrid taste. Astringent is a drying sensation in your mouth. Most people appreciate astringency.
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A great way to experience tannins is to brew a cup a tea. However, use 2 tea bags of black tea and only 4 ounces of water.
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You’ll get some tea flavor, but what you should really get are tannins, bitter and astringent. Note the harsh bitter taste and the drying effect on your mouth.
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A touch of the bitter taste in a cider and that drying effect balanced with some sugar and acid will give you a cider that is very complex. It hits a number of your key taste sensors before drying your mouth and making you want some more.
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Nuts are also good ways to experience tannins. Raw walnuts will have a slight bitterness and astringency. If you just want to experience astringent tannins, try roasted chestnuts. The chestnuts don’t have the bitter of the walnut but they have a huge astringent element. In fact, have some water ready so you don’t choke.
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Tannins are also phenolic, which mean they can add spicy, earthy, funky complexity to a drink. Oak barrels impart tannins and some funk to drinks. This is different from esters, which can impart fruity elements to drinks. We will talk about esters and phenols more when we discuss yeasts. At this time, just be aware that tannins generally add a depth to a drink beyond the sweet or acidic. The biggest issue for cider makers is finding apples with high tannins. Our dessert apples have been bred to eliminate tannins and the ugly brown color they turn when the apple is cut.
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for assessing them at home, you have two options.
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The first way is by taste. Take a bite of an apple and see if you get bitter or astringent characteristics. The problem is: if it’s also sweet or acidic or both, you may not discern the tannins unless they are dominant. This is why I often rely on the second method. Cut an apple and see if it turns brown. If it turns brown while sitting in the air, it has tannins. The browner the cut apple and the sooner it starts to brown, the more tannins it has. The browning is from the tannins oxidizing and it’s something apple breeders have tried to eliminate in dessert apples, which are the ones you usually find at the grocery store. Some apples, like an Ambrosia or a Granny Smith, don’t ever seem to brown.
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Also, finding resources where tannins were measured, like data from a university or research center, will tell you if you can expect an apple to have tannins.
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There are several ways to add tannins to a cider. First, you can follow the wine approach and add powdered oak tannins.
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It is actually produced by using a solvent to extract the tannins, drying the solvent, and grinding this into a powder. A similar way to add tannins is to age your cider with oak or wood.
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This can be done by aging the cider in oak or wooden barrels or by using wood chips or wood spirals. You add the chips or spirals to the cider when aging. The chips or spirals will be the easiest method.
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The second method of adding tannins is my preferred, which is to add other fruit or juices to the cider. You can add these with the apple juice and ferment it together, or you could add after primary ferment as part of aging your cider. Some of this might depend on how much sugar is in the adjunct or juice you are adding. For example, I will add organic pomegranate juice or concentrate to my apple juices and ferment them both together. Usually, if I have juice, I’ll put it in with the apple juice and ferment them together. If you have dried fruit, say dried elderberries, you might want to add those after the first racking. For herbs and teas, I’d steep them in boiled water and add them after primary. You don’t need to add a lot of this, as the intent is to bring a little tannin to the cider and not make cider from these. Just a little will often give your cider a nice color change as well.
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If you’re using juice (J), target 6-8 ounces per gallon and add to the primary fermenter. If you’re using fresh fruit (F), I would crush or quarter the fruit before adding it to the primary if it’s a heavy juice fruit. For direct fruit additions, I’d suggest 8-16 ounces by weight depending on the fruit, but I’d still recommend you add it during the primary ferment. You need to experiment to your taste. If it’s a drier fruit, the skin or peels, or a tea: I’d treat it like an herb (H) and steep it or add it directly, often called “dry hopping,” after the primary ferment. I’d normally target 8 fluid ounces per gallon of a concentrated “tea” using water and steeping. Again, the goal is tannins and not aroma, though you will get some aroma depending on what you use.
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Here is a list of fruits or adjuncts that you can add to get some tannins into your cider, which is key if you only have dessert apples. I identified whether I’d use them as a juice (J), a fresh fruit (F), or an herb (H) but you can experiment.
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I can also get fresh citrus and I always use the peel to introduce bitter elements to my ciders. For me, it’s not fully citrus if it’s just the juice. I usually don’t need acid, which is what the juice will give you. I need the bitters from the oils in the peel.
Assessing Aroma
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Assessing Aroma Aroma, like tannins, isn’t something you can readily measure and it really requires you to develop your palate. What I call “aroma” can also be thought of as “flavor.” You have experienced how aroma is linked to flavor when you have a head cold and eat something.
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The only way I know how to measure aroma is by tasting and smelling. To do this effectively, you have to ignore the other 3 elements. You have to ignore the sweetness, the acid, and the tannins and just focus on the esters and phenolic compounds you find in the apple.
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The yeast you use and even the blend of apples can impact these aromas. This is another reason I like to ferment single variety ciders first and blend second. You can note and better understand how a yeast and apple combination performs.
Selecting Yeast and Fermenting
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Yeasts are single cell microorganisms that are part of the fungus family. In the process of multiplying or budding, yeast converts sugar into alcohol and carbon dioxide (CO2).
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They are generally 3-6 microns in size with some being as large as 40 microns while some are smaller. However, if you are trying to sterilize a cider through filtering, I’ve found that you should target using a 0.5 micron filter. You can remove a lot with a 1 micron but you may not remove enough. Another option would be to filter it multiple times as many filters are only about 85% effective.
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many recommend adding potassium or sodium metabisulfite (sulfites), which I try to avoid because they are a form of preservative and I’m already exposed to enough preservatives. Just for reference, sulfites are used even more often in commercial ciders to suppress yeast so they won’t ferment after bottling. If you want to ensure you have a sweet cider and not rely on sugars that won’t ferment (like stevia, lactose, or artificial sweeteners found in diet sodas), you will need to pasteurize your cider or treat the cider with sulfites right before packing or bottling. This will allow you to add sugar, called “back sweetening”, and not worrying about it fermenting in the bottle. The sulfites prevent any remaining yeast from restarting the fermentation process.
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Many commercial cider makers and books about cider call for the use of sulfites at the start of the fermentation process to suppress wild yeast that might cause spoilage during the slow startup.
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When you use cultured yeast, it will generally start quickly and naturally suppress any bad microorganisms. Basically, you overload the wild yeast with a known variety.
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However, the main reasons I haven’t tried a wild yeast cider is because I don’t really know what I’ll get. I learned early that yeast has a big impact on your cider, and I also learned that the yeast recommended for cider by most books and websites didn’t work for me. Yeast plays a major role in how your cider looks, smells, and tastes so I’ve been trying to understand yeast and how it influences my cider. My engineering brain is too structured to enjoy using a random element that could expose my cider to spoilage. That same brain also doesn’t enjoy creating something that I might never be able to reproduce. That level of random chaos seems like a method to madness.
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the weather and fertilizer used are key contributors to year-to-year variation.
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However, that variation is nothing compared to the impact yeast can make. You can have a fruity cider or a spicy phenolic cider from the same juice by using different yeast. The discussions about vintage are about degrees of variation—when you think about it, the focus is on the fruit versus the yeast since most vineyards use cultured yeast. I want to focus on the apple and understand how yeast enhances or distracts from the apple.
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What have I learned? If you live in a warm southern climate, I wouldn’t recommend wine yeast. In fact, I even wonder if you should be using it in some of the northern climates. Book after book would recommend Lalvin EC-1118. Call me a contrarian, but I’m not a big fan. It’s a fast fermenter with high attenuation, i.e. it will convert all the sugar to alcohol. It also has a wide temperature range and will work in highly acidic must or juice. It is also an extremely aggressive fermenter, meaning you need to give it a lot of head space. The flocculation tends to be high, which means it falls relatively clear; and it’s supposed to be a neutral profile, meaning it doesn’t contribute much to the flavors and aromas. It sounds like a great yeast, but I usually get a sulfur smell when I use it and often a mess from the aggressive ferment.
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a group that liked SafAle S-04 because it had more fruit aromas or esters and another group that liked LalBrew Belle Saison, which had more spicy and phenolic aromas. They are both considered ale yeasts. The attenuation of the Belle Saison is higher than the S-04, which means it’s more likely to ferment completely dry where the S-04 is more likely to have some residual sweetness. The S-04 also has a high flocculation, which means the yeast will clump and fall out of the cider leaving it clear. The Belle Saison has lower flocculation and may require filtering or aging to get the yeast to fall out unless you want a hazy style.
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Many yeast companies do offer a cider yeast and I’ve tried them. My issue is they are a little too much of a black box for me. In other words, I don’t know what yeast they are really using and I want to understand my yeast.
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I have tried to assess four key yeast characteristics. These properties are the temperature range of the yeast, the flavor profile of the yeast, the attenuation of the yeast, and the flocculation of the yeast.
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The table below lists a variety of yeast options that I have tried and their reported characteristics.
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There are not any lager yeasts in my list, though I know some cideries have used them. Lager yeasts have a very low temperature range, which requires a cold room.
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I also have not included wine yeasts that are normally associated with bold red wines. After my initial experience with wine yeast, I moved away from them and have only recently started experimenting with Lalvin 71B, which has the unique characteristic of degrading 20-40% of the malic acid during ferment. The thought is that if you have a highly acidic dessert apple like a Granny Smith, this yeast might mellow that sharpness.
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SafAle S-04 yeast
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It is currently my go-to yeast for making cider as it leaves a little sweetness and falls clear rather quickly. I once pitched a cider with this yeast and packaged it the next weekend as it had fermented and dropped clear that quickly. For reference, pitching refers to the process of adding yeast to a cider to start the fermentation.
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With regard to pitching or inoculating yeast into cider, the yeast suppliers will provide instructions. I tend to use the “direct pitch method,” which is literally sprinkling the yeast on top of the juice. I don’t rehydrate. The yeast supplier, Mangrove, advocates this method commonly, but others suppliers advocate mixing the yeast into water or juice at an elevated temperature until the yeast is frothing. With the direct pitching method, you should increase your amount slightly to account for losing some yeast to shock. Adding more yeast to juice or must will not harm it. However, not putting enough yeast in the juice could cause the fermentation to stall and you might have to add more. I may be a little cheap but I also am trying to find ways to stall a fermentation to produce some natural residual sugar. This is why I like trying yeasts with medium attenuation, something in the 70-80% range. That way, if I miss I still might end up with a cider that has some residual sweetness. I suggest initially erring on the side of adding too much yeast when you start making cider and then explore how you might adjust your process and the impact it has.
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Once you pitch the yeast in the fermenter, you should attach the top and install the air lock. Make sure you have plenty of head space if you are using a vigorous fermenting yeast, which are usually the wine yeasts. On a one-gallon glass carboy, your juice or must shouldn’t reach higher than where the neck starts to taper. For the Fermonster, I try to stay about 1/ 2 inch below where it starts necking. This is to prevent frothing that occurs during peak fermentation from coming out the air lock. I usually fill my airlocks with inexpensive vodka once I’ve moved the fermenter to the location I’m going to let it ferment. The vodka forms the barrier that keeps the air and oxygen out of the fermenter but lets gas escape from the fermenter. It creates a sealed system, which means you can sometimes pull fluid from the airlock into the cider. I prefer a little vodka versus sanitizing solution getting in my cider.
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I stopped using yeast nutrients in my cider because I wanted to slow and potentially stop the fermentation before it was fully attenuated. Slow fermentations tend to create the best aroma and one of the most effective ways to naturally create a cider with some residual sweetness is to restrict and exhaust the nutrients in the juice. This is what the French process known as “keeving” ultimately does. Apples will naturally have the needed nutrients for fermentation so I don’t believe you need to add any. On the other hand, if you want a cider to be completely dry, consider adding some. It won’t hurt your cider or cause any issues.
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Having pitched the yeast, after 2-3 weeks you should now have cider. Depending on the yeast, it may still be fermenting very lightly, it may be cloudy, or it may be clear and still. It will definitively have a layer of sediment at the bottom called “lees.” For bottom-fermenting yeast, which is the kind I’ve used and listed above, this is a combination of the dead and active yeast as well as particles from the cider.
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Remember the Pectic Enzyme you put into your fresh pressed juice? Its job is to separate the pectin, which also falls into the lees. A cider that is cloudy at this point either still has yeast suspended in it or maybe you forgot the Pectic Enzyme and the cider has a pectin haze. The haze may continue to fall out over time and clarify, or you may need to filter or fine the cider to clarify it. Fining is the process of adding compounds to a cider to attract the suspended solids and drop them into the lees. You can also embrace the haze as it is relatively common for ciders to be hazy. It’s really a preference as to whether you like crystal clear cider or not.
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Once your cider has significantly slowed or even stopped fermenting and cleared, you want to separate the cider from the lees. This is called racking.
Racking
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Racking is the process of moving your cider from one sanitized container to another while leaving something behind, normally the lees.
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you should really invest in an auto-siphon or at least a racking cane.
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Since the goal of racking is to separate the cider and the lees, keeping the lees settled and undisturbed is critical. Otherwise, you’ll need to let your cider settle again.
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Why is it important to separate the cider from the lees? The answer may be that it’s not. Some cider makers leave the cider on the lees. This changes the aroma and flavor of the cider and can impart stronger esters and phenolic characteristics from the yeast, which may or may not be desirable. However, it can also expose your cider to spoilage or malolactic fermentation. Spoilage can be the result of oxygen seeping into the container, especially if this is the primary fermenter. You made sure you had enough head space to allow for frothing during fermentation. This head space is now filled with CO2, but if you’re using a plastic fermenter or your air lock dries out or starts to leak, oxygen can reach your cider and start turning it from cider to cider vinegar. While you need oxygen for fermentation, it’s your nemesis at every other step in the cider making process. It’s a big reason you want to purchase an auto-siphon.
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Using an auto-siphon or racking cane allows you to draw cider from near the bottom, just above the lees, and into a new sanitized container without exposing it to air. The benefit of using an auto-siphon is that if you accidentally stop the flow, a pump or two will restart and you can usually do this without disturbing the lees. Because you are using gravity to move the liquid from the one container to the next, remember that the second container must be located below the primary container. If it’s not, it won’t continue to drain.
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The goal is to not disturb the lees and to avoid splashing or adding oxygen, which would happen if you just poured directly from one container to the next. Remember that you won’t get all the liquid from the primary container. When racking your primary fermenter, you might have 1/ 2 to 2 inches of lees that you want to leave behind. This used to be called the “angel’s share.”
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If you’re using a racking cane or just a tube, remember that you have to create a suction to start the siphoning. This is why an auto-siphon is appealing.
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Once you have racked your cider off the lees and placed it in another sanitized container, you need to ensure it can age without spoiling. Remember that oxygen is your greatest nemesis now that the juice has become cider. This is where you need to decide on what type of container you will use to age your cider.
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The one-gallon glass carboys that I recommended earlier for your primary fermenter can also make a good secondary or aging container. These containers should be stainless steel or glass and not plastic because plastic actually allows oxygen and CO2 to permeate its walls over time.
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For a glass carboy, you can cap it with a bung and airlock but you will need to top it off so only the very top of the cider is exposed to oxygen. You can use filtered water, other cider, or spirits. You could also use some juice but this will ferment again. Water will dilute the cider and spirits will increase the alcohol and may impact the flavor. Just remember that if you don’t top it off, you can allow oxygen to start oxidizing the cider and potentially risk it converting to vinegar. Ultimately, using cider or spare juice is the preferred method, but topping it off is always better than exposing it to oxygen.
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Adding water or spirits to a cider may not be feasible because you have to add so much that you will impact the taste.
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my preferred method for aging cider is a stainless keg. I use ball lock style kegs ranging from 1.5 to 2.5 gallons.
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I like these best because once you put your cider in a keg, it becomes much easier to move from step to step in the cider making process. Also, you don’t need to top off the cider. You can simply purge all the oxygen by adding CO2, say 10 pounds per square inch (PSI), and then opening the relief valve. CO2 is heavier than air so it will push the air and oxygen out of the keg, leaving a layer of CO2.
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Earlier I mentioned that leaving the cider on its lees can encourage a malolacticfermentation. This is where lactic acid bacteria convert malic acid to lactic acid. The bacteria work anaerobically, which means it happens without oxygen. This is usually a secondary fermentation but it doesn't result in additional alcohol. It just converts the harsher malic acid from the apple to softer lactic acid. It also creates a buttery or butterscotch aroma. This is a commmon process for wines, when the lactic acid bacteria is actually added. Some people consider this a fault in cider, but other like it. However, I would recommend you inoculate your cider with the latic acid bacteria if you want to try it versus randomly seeing if you can generate the malolactic fermentation.
Aging
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Once you have racked the cider off its lees from the primary fermentation, you start the aging process. Aging has three main goals. The first is to let the fermentation stabilize completely. While most ciders will cease fermentation in two weeks, some might take months to truly stabilize. When you rack your cider, you should also measure the sugar remaining in it. This will give you an idea of how to treat it. If you started with juice at a specific gravity of 1.060 or 60 points of sugar and are now at 1.010 to 10 points, that means the alcohol by volume is approximately 6.6% and you still have around 8 grams of sugar per 12 ounce serving in the cider. This would be a semi-dry to semi-sweet cider if it stopped. It also could continue to slowly ferment, adding another 1.3% to the alcohol by volume.
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You have to decide whether you want to let this cider age and ferment out as it might or try to stop any additional fermentation. Stopping fermentation will require you to add sulfites to inactivate the yeast, pasteurize to kill the yeast, or filter to remove the yeast. I try to avoid sulfites and everything I've read says pasteurizing changes the flavor due to the heating. If I'm going to try to stop a fermentation, I try filtering.
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The second goal for aging is clarification. As the fermentation stabilizes, the yeast will fall out of suspension. You might remember the term flocculation and how different yeasts have higher or lower flocculation characteristics. A yeast with low flocculation, like the Mangrove M-21 Belgian Wit, may never become completely clear or even as clear asa high flocculation yeast, like SafAle S-04. However, the longer it sits, the more it will clarify. Aging a cider is one way, though not the fastest, of clarifying your cider. Storing it in a refrigerator or cold storage area can also assist with this natural clarification process. This is known as cold crashing. Overall, the longer the cider sits undisturbed and ages, the clearer it will become. You just have to remember that you will have to rack your cider again with the goal of leaving this new deposit of lees behind. You also need to remember that when you rack off your cider and leave a little behind, you need to refill your aging container to remove the air and oxygen unless you're aging in kegs and can add a CO2 blanket.
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The last goal of aging is to allow flavors to develop in the cider or actually add flavors. The most effective way to add flavors is by adding adjuncts to the cider, which it integrates and absorbs. There are a lot of ways to add aromas and flavors to cider. Some people turn their nose up at adjuncts but also have a limited definition of what an adjunct is. For me, an adjunct is anything that will impart aroma, flavor, and coloring to a cider. Some adjuncts, like caramel coloring or artificial flavoring, I do turn my nose up as they are not adjuncts I will use or recommend but they are still adjuncts. For my definition, aging your cider in a barrel or with wood chips is using an adjunct.
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If you are aging your cider with anything in order to augment its color, aroma, flavor, or characteristics: you are adding adjuncts to your cider.
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Consider a cider that is “acid-forward,” meaning its taste and finish are dominated by acid versus sweetness or tannins. I find these ciders may benefit from some adjuncts to help provide balance to this acid. For example, when I make a cider from Granny Smith apples, I will often balance its biting acid with other fruit or even hops. I have found that the earthy aromas or fruity citrus aromas of hops along with some of their bitters are enhanced by the acid from the Granny Smith. My favorite though is to add just a small amount of fresh berry juice to the cider. Fresh raspberries pressed and added or even sliced are excellent. I usually press about 8 ounces in weight per gallon of cider. Because these have sugar that could restart fermentation and I am trying to retain this touch of sweetness, normally add the juice and immediately filter it.
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here are some adjuncts that I have used and you might consider trying.
Note that you don’t need to add adjuncts of any kind to make a great cider.
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However, you do need to have the apple varieties available to support your effort. You can make a good single variety Granny Smith cider but it will tend to be one dimensional, which will be tart and crisp. It may be a good cider, but great ciders require multiple dimensions. This is usually why I add adjuncts.
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Ciders aren't like spirits or even wine from an alcohol perspective, but the higher the alcohol and the higher the tannins in a cider, the more aging will generally benefit it. I'd recommend aging every cider for at least 2-4 weeks, and 2-4 months for cider with a decent amount of tannins. If you have a cider with high alcohol, say 8-10% ABV, and high tannins, you might want to consider 6-12 months. On average, I'd say my ciders spend around 2 months in kegs before I bottle them, then another 2-4 months in bottles before I serve them.
Filtering and Fining
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Filtering and Fining While aging will naturally clarify cider, you can also clarify it through filtering and fining. Filtering is a mechanical means of removing yeast, micro-particles, and microorganisms that can cloud cider, cause the cider to turn to vinegar, or cause added sugar to ferment. Filtering is usually done by forcing the cider through a series of smaller filters to trap these elements. Yeast is normally 3-6 microns in size, though some can be smaller and some much larger. I have found that to get very clear cider you need to filter down to 0.5 micron or smaller. Filtering to this level will also remove most if not all the yeast and significantly reduce the risk of fermentation restarting if you have added some fresh juice or have a cider with some residual sugar present. I will say that not all filters work the same so you should test your filters.
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Not using sulfites or pasteurizing means that any ciders with residual sugar could start fermenting again. Filtering and force-carbonating will reduce this risk considerably and should be sufficient for a home cider maker. However, I would still recommend that you package these ciders in bottles that can withstand high pressure.
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Another way to clarify your cider is called "fining." Fining is the addition of different compounds to the cider. There are several different types of fining materials in the market. I've tried two of these. The first is pretty common: gelatin. Gelatin is generally made from collagen, which is commonly made from animals. The second is Super- Kleer, which is a two-part system that consists of Chitosan and Kieselsol, which come from shellfish shells. In layman's terms, the fining material acts like magnets to yeast and other particles in the cider. These particles are pulled out of the cider and allowed to fall to the bottom along with the fining material as lees. There are other options for fining. If you are like me and cringed when you read animals and shells, clay or other fining materials probably won't make you feel any better. I think it's easy to see why I moved to filtration over fining.
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Filtering is used by many commercial alcoholic beverage makers, especially in England, but most also add sulfites as a second protection to prevent fermentation of sugar added as a back sweetener. Most large commercial cider makers back sweeten their products. They usually pump cider through filters on a massive scale. You can find small pump systems for home cider makers, usually for wine, but the systems I've used are reliant on a CO2 cylinder to push the cider through a filter. I use a 5- pound cylinder or tank, which is a nice size for a home cider maker. This CO2 cylinder is really key for using kegs and doing other process steps. It is used: to put CO2 blankets in kegs for aging, to push cider for filtering, to force- carbonate, and to bottle cider. A 5- pound cylinder will last quite a while,
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Filtration is my preferred method for clarifying cider. I even filter cider that has cleared naturally, usually because it just gives it a nice finished polish by removing any lingering particles. However, I also use filtration to stabilize my cider to prevent fermentation of residual sugar. While I usually try to limit the residual fermentable sugar in case it does restart fermentation, I've had good luck filtering and force- carbonating ciders to keep them stable.
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This is normally a concern when I use some fresh juice as an adjunct. The risk isn't just that your cider will ferment dry versus semi-dry, it's that you'll have too much carbonation for the bottle type and it will break.
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Also, I tend to force-carbonate these ciders to a high level. This is because when you force CO2 into the cider, you make any yeast in the cider less likely to ferment because there is no place for the CO2 to go.
Carbonating
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For tax purposes, the U.S. government limits the amount of carbonation a cider can have. This, along with the alcohol level that qualifies cider for a lower tax rate, was expanded in 2017. The new law allows for an ABV of 8.5% and a carbonation of 0.63 grams per 100 ml or just over 3.2 volumes of CO2. This is just one classification for carbonation. You can have cider with higher levels but it would not qualify for the lower cider tax rate.
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There are often three categories that are used.
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The sugar you add for the purpose of carbonating or bottle conditioning is called priming sugar.
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If you want to share your homemade cider with friends, you will probably want a clear cider that you can drink from the bottle or not worry about how you pour it. This means you purchased a couple kegs, a filter system, a CO2 cylinder or tank, and a bottle filler.
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The next step in the process is force- carbonating your cider. Besides a keg and CO2 cylinder, you need a refrigerator or location you can keep it cold. The colder you can make it without freezing, the better. Have your ever opened a warm bottle of soda or carbonated beverage? I don't advise it. As liquid chills, it will absorb more CO2. As it warms, it will release more CO2. If you want to create a highly sparkling cider: the colder you can make it, the easier it will be to force carbonation into the cider. Also, having a really cold cider helps to reduce carbonation loss when bottling, which we will talk about next. The concept behind force-carbonating is the same as my question about having opened a warm soda. Take a liquid and put CO2 with it under pressure. The liquid will absorb the CO2. The colder the liquid, the more CO2 will be absorbed.
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The best way I've found to force- carbonate is to attach the CO2 cylinder to the keg, set your target pressure and place them in the refrigerator together. Now, as the CO2 is absorbed, the cylinder will continue to replace it in the keg. This will allow the cider to absorb as much CO2 as possible for that temperature until the system stabilizes at the set pressure. This will normally take 2-3 days, depending on the surface area of the CO2 and the cider in the keg. The more surface area in contact with the CO2, the faster it will absorb.
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CO2 is generally expressed as a unitless number, like 3.0, or sometimes referred to as volumes. What this really defines is the volume of CO2 that has been dissolved into or absorbed by 1 volume of liquid. A carbonation level of 3.0 means you have 3 gallons of CO2 absorbed into 1 gallon of cider. It would also mean that 3 liters of CO2 is dissolved into 1 liter of cider. The units cancel each other, so what you are saying is that you have 3 times the volume of CO2 as volume of cider.
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Temperature plays a big role in this process. You need higher pressure to force 3 gallons of CO2 into one gallon of cider at 60 degrees Fahrenheit than do at 45 degrees Fahrenheit.
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The table below shows you the in pounds per square inch (PSI) that you need to set in your keg to achieve the CO2 volume target you want at the temperature (Fahrenheit) you are carbonating. This means that you need to know what the temperature of your cider is in the refrigerator. Therefore, identify the CO2 volume you want in the first column. Move across this row until you reach the temperature column that your refrigerator is able to chill your cider. The cell in the table where the CO2 row meets the temperature column is the pressure, in pounds per square inch (PSI), that you need to set your keg's regulator. Here is the formula I used to build this chart.

Pressure = 14.504 x (((0.196 x CO2) / (2.718)-10.738 + (2617.25 / ((0.556 x (Temp - 32)) + 273.15 ))) - 1.013)

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The amount of time required to force- carbonate your cider will depend on how much surface area there is between the CO2 and the cider and how large of a keg you are using. If you fill it to the top and just have a little bit of head space, it will take a long time to carbonate. If your keg is tall and skinny, it will take longer than one that is shorter and bigger around. I normally spend 2-3 days force-carbonating.
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A way to check how much carbonation is in a keg is to back off the regulator screw on the CO2 cylinder until it only has 1-2 PSI on the gauge. Then connect it to the keg. Slowly increase the pressure using the regulator and listen to when you hear the CO2 cylinder activate and start adding CO2. It usually "squeaks" when it initially starts adding CO2. Find this pressure in the temperature column that your refrigerator runs and follow it left to the CO2 volume. This will give you an idea of how much more CO2 you need to add to reach your target level.
Packaging
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I believe that most home cider makers will continue to use bottles for a while so my focus on packaging will be on bottles. You might be wondering what types of bottles you should use. I usually target the standard 12-ounce brown beer bottle, as you can buy a case of these relatively cheaply online or at your brew shop. What you should avoid is screw cap bottles as they can be hard to seal. Also, I don't recommend wine bottles unless they are a sparkling type that you can cap. Most wine is not pressured and requires a cork. Corking is not a preferred method if you have carbonation because you'd also have to put a retaining wire on it.
Tasting
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First, temperature has a big impact on taste. If something is so hot it burns, you won't taste much. If it's cold, it numbs your taste buds, limiting the nuances you can pick up. The colder a drink is—and for our particular purposes, the colder a cider is—the less you will taste the various elements of it. Don't get me wrong, we all like a nice cold one at times. But if we are tasting to taste and learn, we should really want a nice cool one. The exception is if the cider is sparkling. It is important to match the temperature of the drink to the level of carbonation. If you have a sparkling cider that you open and serve warm, watch out! Why do you think they put champagne on ice? You need the cold temperature, close to freezing, to keep the carbonation in the cider. This is because you want to use the carbonation to aid in your tasting. If a cider is lightly carbonated, you want it to be warmer to encourage the carbonation to come out. For a cider that is still, almost room temperature (60-65F) would be better than 50F.
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How does carbonation help with tasting? It goes back to the fourth element of the apple: aroma. Carbonation that is escaping carries aroma with it, which allows you to better pick up on flavors. Your ability to smell has a huge impact on your ability to taste. When drinking, the aroma that is released by the CO2 escaping will be picked up by your sense of smell, adding to the flavors that you perceive. A cider that is cold with low effervescence will retain its CO2 and it will be harder for you to pick up on any flavors. Add that to the cold causing a numbing effect and you can end up with a rather bland tasting cider. Drink it when it's warmed up to about 65F and you may have a completely different experience.
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Here is a guide for temperature based on the amount of carbonation.
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Wine glasses are good cider glasses because the shape helps to funnel the aroma to your nose. Also, the glass isn't as thick as a pint glass and a thinner glass is generally preferred. The other benefit is that you can exercise a little swirl with a wine glass that isn't as easy with a rocks or pint glass.
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Any glass is better than drinking from the bottle when it comes to tasting. The bottle doesn't release the aromatics as well.
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The pour can often tell you several things about a cider. The color can identify adjuncts that might be in the cider as well as if a juice has more or less tannins. Usually, apples with more tannins will produce a cider that is amber in color, while dessert apples will tend to produce a silvery to pale yellow cider.
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With wine or spirits, you might hear people say you should swirl it. This is because these aren't carbonated and they are using this action to evaporate some of the drink to make it aromatic. Carbonation in cider does that for us, which is why the temperature at which you serve it is important.
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As a side note, if you did swirl, you might or might not see “legs" on the side of the glass where the cider appears to stick. This is really a demonstration of how much alcohol is in the cider. The more alcohol a drink has, the more pronounced the "legs" will be. Most cider in the 5-6% ABV won't have a lot of legs.