Making Hard Cider in 1 Gallon or Other Canning Jars?

[Eric Jones]

I'm new to cider making so pardon my ignorance of anything that is obvious to more seasoned makers.

Is there any good reason other than the small quantity to not make small batches of cider in 1/2 gallon (like the Ball heavy glass sold commonly in stores) and 1 gallon (like the thin glass style sold on ULine for cheap) canning jars? I was thinking that these small batches would be a good way to try a lot of different approaches (e.g., sulfites, no sulfites, different apple types, etc.).

If anybody has successfully used these sizes can you recommend a good airlock system? I see lots of airlock lids for canning jars online for cheap, but they never say they are for cider, just pickles and such. Any reason they wouldn't work for cider?

Thanks for the suggestions,

Eric

[Francis Bonenfant]

I've done a bit of tests in those types of jars, mostly meads and fruit wines, but the lessons are applicable to cider.

0.5-1 gallon is just a very small volume. The loss you get when racking will make it so that you have very little left at bottling time. Your cider might also me more vulnerable to oxidation, because the ratio between air-contacting surface and total volume will be much larger, so the lessons and tests at the 0.5-1 gallon scale might not be very applicable to larger scale. Then, there's also the fact that when you're done and you've bottled your batch, you'll have too few bottles to put some away for aging tests.

Thus, I tend to avoid fermenting anything at less than 3 gallons. Under that, it's just an awful lot of work for 2-3 pints of overly oxidised cider. 

[Travis Storm]

I partially agree with Francis... and partially don't :)

I currently ferment in 120L Spiedel vessels, using recipes I crafted initially in 1 gallon carboys. I scaled it up from 1 gallon to 5, and then to 120L. I haven't noticed substantial differences in oxidation, though I admit I haven't done true side-by-side tasting. I still ferment test batches on a small scale (1-5 gallons) and would highly recommend it for playing around. Losses as a percent of yield are definitely larger, but if a batch goes south you haven't lost a significant amount. If I were to guess I'd say my loss from racking at 1 gallon is roughly 2 pints, so I still yield 6 or so pints.

Just my two cents, for what it's worth.

[Eric Jones]

Thanks for the insights, much appreciated. I went by my local fermentation shop and they had a 1 gallon jar with a plastic lid and a rubber gasket (the kind that pinches the lid on top and bottom after drilling) to hold the airlock. My take away is less risk, possibly lower quality from oxidation, less payoff, so I'll reserve the small gallon batches for testing only.

[Old Spot]

A friendly comment.  If you are new to cider making, it is much too early to be trying 'different approaches'.  Your inexperience and potential for error or lack of consistency will cloud the differences in approaches you are eager to test.  I would suggest at least 2 or 3 years of standard, no fancy stuff, cider making, in several 3-6 gal batches, until you are produce consistent and predictable results.  Once you have removed yourself as a variable, then get creative.

On Tuesday, August 22, 2017 at 5:59:52 PM UTC-7, Eric Jones wrote:

[Eric Jones]

That seems like good advice! Thanks

[Dana Glei]

I would like to cast my vote in favor of fermenting in small (1/2 or 1 gal) batches when you are first starting out.  That is what I did (I made 15 batches my 1st year of cider making; all but the last batch were 1/2 or 1 gal).  I wanted to experiment with different juices and different yeasts, changing only one variable at a time.  I learned with my very first batch to NEVER use a yeast nutrient.  When your first batch of cider tastes like battery acid because you fermented out all of the sugar at lightning fast speed (like I did), you will be glad you have only a 1/2 or 1 gal rather than 5 gallons of battery acid to drink!

Working in small batches also allowed me to do a side-by-side comparison of 5 different store-bought, pasteurized juices (with all treatments the same; only the juice differed).  Ideally, I would use fresh-pressed juice (preferably from true cider varieties rather than dessert fruit).  The reality is that I work with what I can get.  In January, all I have to work with is store-bought, pasteurized juice.  Nonetheless, I learned from my experiment that there is a BIG difference between juices (even among the store-bought juices).  Two of the five juices made a good cider (in our humble opinion), whereas two of the others were terrible.  The last one was somewhere in the middle.  Which ones were the "winners" was a surprise; one of the juices that I bought because I read in an on-line forum that it "made good cider" was a clear loser.

FYI:  I would NOT use wide-mouth canning jars (at least not during the secondary stage).  I use 1/2 or 1 gal glass jugs because the narrow neck gives less oxygen exposure.  A wider surface area is fine during primary fermentation, but you want a narrow neck carboy during secondary.   [Luckily enough, one of the "winners" in my side-by-side comparison of juices comes in a 5-gal glass jug.  So, I buy 1 gal of juice for less than $9 and get a free carboy (a $9 value).  I buy a #6 drilled stopper and airlock at my brew store, and it is good to go.  And of course, I thoroughly clean and sanitize everything before I start fermentation.] 

Cheers,

Dana Glei

Budding Cider Maker in Sonoma County, CA

On Tuesday, August 22, 2017 at 5:59:52 PM UTC-7, Eric Jones wrote:

[Eric Jones]

Very helpful, thank you. I ended up doing a combination of jars and carboys: 1 gallon, 3 gallon, 5 gallon. So far everything has worked pretty well. Very tasty, except the small batch we tried using sulphites in.