Making Hard Cider

[Russ Borner]

I have a question. I'm planning on buying one of these barrels from White Oak Barrels and was wondering if anyone has aged hard cider in them? If so what kind of a char would you suggest I order when ordering this barrel and how long did you leave it in the barrel?  I have brewed beer before (not in a barrel) thats next but I have a great orchard where I  buy organic apple cider from,  a farm that does not use any perservatives and use's light pasturization instead of heat to keep the natural flavor intact.

 

My last batch of hard cider I made last year came out great. I used a champagne yeast for the fermentation. My initial fermentation was for 1 month then I did a secondary fermenation for another month then transferred it to another fermentation vessel a food grade plastic fermenting bucket I got at the brew shop,airlocked it and put it down my cellar and let it sit for 6 months then I bottled it with some priming sugar and let sit for another 2 weeks and then refrigerated them.  The longer they stayed refrigerated the better they tasted the older ones came out looking like and tasting like champagne.  By the way these were 5 gallon batches.

 

The only problem I experienced was I wish the batch would have come out a little sweeter. I read you can't add any sugars to the batch to sweeten it because the sugar will just get eaten up by the remaining yeast and I didn't want to add any sugar substitutes for fear of an after taste.   I didn't want add apple juice to it because I didn't want to mess up the integrity of the original flavor which was nice but on the dry side.  Any suggestions?  I know my orginal question was about the barrel aging and now I'm getting into brewing but any suggestions from anyone who has made hard cider in these barrels would be greatly appreciated. 

 

Thanks,

Russ

[Clay Johnston]

Hi Russ, I have no experience with apple cider but several people buy my barrels for cider, I hope some of them see your message and respond. Thanks for using the group White Oak Barrels. Clay 

--
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "White Oak Barrels" group.
To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to white-oak-barr...@googlegroups.com.
To post to this group, send email to white-oa...@googlegroups.com.
Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/white-oak-barrels.
For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.

[Clay Johnston]

Hi Russ, I have no experience with apple cider but several people buy my barrels for cider, I hope some of them see your message and respond. Thanks for using the group White Oak Barrels. Clay 

[Malted]

On Monday, 28 October 2013 00:09:00 UTC+10:30, Russ Borner wrote:

use's light pasturization instead of heat to keep the natural flavor intact.

 

 

The only problem I experienced was I wish the batch would have come out a little sweeter. Any suggestions?

 

Thanks,

Russ

Pasteurisation IS a process of heating to a point where it kills harmful bacteria/natural or introduced yeasts. You could pasteurise your cider and then back sweeten with additional apple juice.

Though I have not made hard cider myself, I am led to believe that pear juice has a higher proportion of unfermentable sugars and might be able to be used for sweetening?

The other option is to use potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfate which will stop any active yeast cells from multiplying and refermenting when you add additional apple juice to back sweeten.
Natural carbonation of your product would then be near impossible if you pasteurise the cider, or add the potassium salts. Flat cider or force carbonate it with CO2.

Lactose or aspartame which are unfermentable sugars can be added for back sweetening. I don't much care for the taste of either.

You could try a yeast that has less attenuation, champagne yeast is known to be a beast that can ferment to high alcohol levels. Maybe try a yeast that does not ferment as high as champagne yeast? Googling 'sweet cider yeast' brings up a plethora of reading on the subject.

[Randi Philleo]

I'm with you, I hate the fake sweetener taste. I always backsweeten my cider with straight juice before I'm done. So if I'm doing a 5 gallon batch, I'll do 4 gallons of juice to ferment then save a gallon to add just before I'm ready to keg. I do this because I force carb with kegging. If you bottle your cider, you'll want to pasteurize the bottles once they hit the carbonation level you like. There's a nice tutorial here for Stove Top Pasteurizing: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/

Cheers!

[Karla Schiever]

I did not order a special char from Clay--just took the char he sent.  I used my own organic apple cider--turned out great!  I do not recall how long I left it in the barrel, but I did get concerned because I did not have an air-lock on the barrel.  I think I would create one out of the plug next time....get a cork and insert a pipette/balloon (or perhaps Clay could offer this option--listening Clay?)  The charred oak barrel made a huge difference--could really taste the difference.  Unfortunately, this was before my fastidious note taking, so I can't help too much.  But be sure to use it.  I did add sugar several months later because it was not sweet enough, had no real flavor--actually, I added maple syrup--made a huge difference, even though they said it would all be eaten up, the cider was sweeter (had to do the same with my sour cherry wine).  Back east in Appalachia, they make some great hard cider using old Jack Daniels barrels (so I did season my barrel with some whiskey before I poured in the cider).  Hope this helps!

On Sun, Oct 27, 2013 at 7:39 AM, Russ Borner <rbn...@msn.com> wrote:

--

[Clay Johnston]

So far I haven’t offered airlocks; haven’t found a good supplier; don’t have all the options to buy stuff like that here in Mexico. We do have a lot of micro-breweries that have started up and are doing a great job. Some stores have opened that sell brewing supplies but everything’s imported and more expensive, there are so many brew supply stores in the U.S. with good prices. I thought about trying to buy a lot of the airlocks from China but we have a very high importation fee here on stuff from China. If someone can direct me to a web site that teaches how to make them I’ll get someone here to make them for me. At your service Clay