I'm not a brewer, never brewed a thing in my life. I watch this channel religiously though. You guys are just fun to watch and to see how the stuff you're making turns out. But Friday, on a whim, I bought my first lot of brewing kit and I'm going to give it shot. No matter how my first try turns out (not started yet) I just wanted to say thanks for the motivation.
You should, my first two meads were garbage and I just over flavored my most recent with orange peels and destroyed the flavor. But, I have learned a ton and only wasted about $100 in the last two years. I am learning and there’s nothing better than taking a drink from your aged bottle and it being delicious.
My dad made wine for as long as I can remember. I'm 55, and until now, I've never thought about trying to make anything like that. Something just struck me to try my hand at it. After watching a bunch of videos and visiting some local wineries, we stumbled across a brewery/bar that specialized in ciders. We tried several flavors and really liked it. So from there, I started searching for "how to" cider videos and found your channel. I just bottled my first batch of hard apple cider. I tasted it before bottling and it had very much a wine flavor. We'll see how it turns out after aging a couple more weeks. Thanks for all the info you guys share on here!
Y'all I just took a hydrometer reading and tasted my first cider (fresh pressed apple) and it's almost done fermenting! Thanks for being so inspirational and making it approachable.
I recently picked 40lbs of apples and cooked then down to a concentrate to ensure that the only yeast would be the yeast I use. 5lbs honey and a bit of white sugar to adjust sg. Also 1lb bochet honey. Starting gravity of 1.111. It's been very active for two weeks showing no signs of slowing yet. It smells so good at the airlock. By next Xmas it should be nicely aged
Minnesotan here and have 6 apple trees and 2 pear trees in the yard. My apple choices would have been way different and also the preparation of the apples. Macerate and heat the apples with a small amount of liquid to get the most flavor out of them. I did this with the pears and created juice with the thought of making cider. Unfortunately we discovered bourbon and fresh pear juice over ice. For two people that don't drink much, this has become the nectar of the gods. So, no pear cider this year. I think though that the apple trees can provide something to Thanksgiving with the help of this video. Thanks.
We have carbonation Well done, 1st racking always works a treat When its beer or cider Cant wait for the next brew You should revisit the Braggot,but use a stout base And also try a german beer that uses salt to flavour called Gose Then theres the Graff, half beer Half cider I think you would be excellent tutors for the 3 brews i just mentioned, i love your professionalism and step by step methods Sending love from the Uk ❤
Just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you! I've watched and learned a ton from you. You explicitly saying - time and time again - to put the fermentor on a tray with lips really saved me from a big mess and damage with my first (accidentally) wild fermentering apple wine. The long and in-depth format with your videos, along with sprinkles of humor, is just great. And I really appreciate that you don't oversimplify the process - except when you purposely do it as an experiment. Thanks again ❤
Last year I used store bought apple cider added white sugar and fermented. Then i added the apple pie moonshine flavor tin thats is available on Amazon. I let it steep with the spuces that were in the tin. Then bottled. I still have a few bottles and they still taste great. I did make 3gals at one time.
Hello Brian and Ms. Derica, Thank you, thank you, thank you!! Why am I thanking you? Because after watching several of your videos, I had assembled a list for a Homebrew Starter Kit: Well, the final bit of kit arrived today. The wait was agonising... LOL Here's What I put on the list based on your videos: 1 32oz Star San ( 5.9g per 1 US gallon. Although, before I acquired the jeweler's scale, I went with 6g per US gallon. ) 1 3785ml/1 gallon ( US ) pitcher ( This thing is da bom!! I used it the day it got here to make Split pea milk ) 1 hydrometer ( I need to re-watch your Hydrometer video ) 1 100ml graduated cylinder 1 PH meter 1 Auto-Siphon ( I'm debating on cutting the hose into two equal lengths ) 1 Bottle filling wand ( With spring valve ) 1 Turkey Master Baster 1 Jeweler's Scale ( I already had a digital kitchen scale that can handle up to 4990g/11 lbs, but only goes down to a gram ). 1 TBBOS ( The Black Bucket Of Sanitisation a cousin to your TRBOS) 4 Carboys: 3785ml/1 gallon ( US ) + lids, bungs, and airlocks To the above I added: 4 Bottle brushes. 12 500ml/17oz swing top dark amber beer bottles ( I'd ordered these before I discovered your channel. May lay in a dozen 1l swingtop bottles, depends on how this experiment turns out ) 1 24 bottle air drying rack ( Safest way I know to airdry bottles without them being knocked over by my resident felinoids. i.e. Miss Reba, and Miss Cookie ) 4 Stainless steel fine mesh sieves ( 4, assorted sizes. I'll be honest, I bought these to aid in straining the plant base milks that I make every week. ) 1 Bomb shelter ( I didn't have to buy this, I have had it in my garage for a few years ). I started really getting into baking again in 2022. That's what led to me buying the kitchen scale and to use metric in my Domestic Culinary Laboratory aka the kitchen. Metric, is more precise and just makes a lot of sense. The hardest part is converting the measuring spoon size measurementgs to grams. LOL . So that is why you see the metric ahead of the imperial measurements in the list above. My first homebrew project is going to be Ginger beer. I'm going to attempt a head to head comparison between a Ginger Bug ( that I've started ) and Fleischmann's active dry bread yeast ( Three packet sleeve ) ( I have some Red Star active dry yeast in an unopened jar that I've kept in my refrigerator for a couple of years. So that may be used at some time ). I have some Red Star Active Dry yeast packets that I'll turn into yeast hulls as they've been sitting on my table for a couple of years so I'd rather not risk them in a brew for fear of failure.. Although, I may just use yeast now, and wiat until spring to restart the Ginger Bug project when it's warmer. As I generally during heating season I keep my house between 14.44C/58F and 18.88C/66F. During cooling season I keep it between 24.44C/76F and 26.66/80F. Project Ginger Bug UPDATE: We have FIZZ!! Looks like I'll be brewing tomorrow!! The head-to-head is on like Donkey Kong!! To prove that I've been paying attention, I know that your favourite yeast may not work so well here in the Midwest ( Hello from the Land of Lincoln! ) based on the temperature range that I maintian in my home. Which leads to my open question to my fellow viewers: Any community members from the Midwest, and/or Illinois: What Ale, or wine yeast has been your best producer, at cooler temps, at higher temps? I plan to bottle carbonate, then pasteurise. I think I've figured out a way to get around not being able to directly read the hydrometer. I'll snap a photo with my mobile then zoom it. A trick I use when grocery shopping to read those teeny-tiny ingredient's lists, or scope out prices on items too high up for me to see. This cider recipe looks doable. A quick side story on how TBBOS came to be. I'd ordered 2 white five gallon buckets with lids from Amazon to put cat food in. I received 3 black five gallon buckets without lids. Amazon did make it right with me, but they basically told me to keep the black buckets that I'd received by mistake. Being a former farmboy, I'm not going to turn my nose up at free buckets... LOL So TBBOS was born... Brian, and Ms. Derica, Thank you so very much for freely sharing this knowledge with all of us. As you can tell, I'm excited to begin this series of experiments.
Just so y'all know how engaging you are. I started this while pasturising mead. I then forgot while being interested in the video. Thank god you mentioned it and I ran back to my stove to check. Thankfully no damage was done
I want to thank you for your videos, I love watching the two of you chit chatting about brewing. You both bring a fun and laid-back element to your videos and brewing style. So the last gallon batch I made I used McCutcheons apple cider from Fresh market (and I got a nice fermenter out of it). Started it Aug 13th, bottled it Sep 16th. back sweetened it with sugar to taste, then added a bit more for the natural carbonation (and per your tip I added a tiny bit of yeast and mixed it all before bottling). Pasteurized them about 5 days later. The brew came out so good. Very good carbonation (maybe a bit on the high side) but just the right amount of sweetness. Now I have a mix of apple juice and tart cherry juice which fermented for almost 4 weeks and I just racked, I'll be back sweetening and bottling it next weekend. I have high hopes for this one. I tasted a little when I racked it and can definitely taste the tartness of the cherry but have the sweet hint of apple. I have a feeling it will be really good once sweetened more. I also started another plain apple cider from Publix apple juice, but this one I am trying a different yeast that i got from a friend, I've been using the Red Star champagne yeast in the yellow package but I made a trade with him for a Red Star blue package and I'll be curious how it will affect the taste. My first one I made with a Publix apple juice last year.
Found it Brian disregard pointer request in other vid. Weve got a prolific Fuji tree and finally made our frst batch of regular cider recently. Enjoying you two's channel immensely thanks
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have just finished brewing this Cider, a little over 7 days. Stopped bubbling, and took readings, which stayed the same over 3 days. Approx 9.4% Alc. Back sweetened to my taste then forced carbonated in my mini keg. Drinking it whilst i type. Thanks again
As a beer brewer, I was amazed by two things: how you care little about open containers (things dropping in, oxidation etc.) and mysterious carbonation issues. Glad you got some fizz finally!
First batch of our raw cider from Fujis (water boiled) was great with 5 cinnamon sticks and a couple shakes of ground cloves (was out of raw cloves). Sweetened just a tad with raw local sage honey after 1st straining. So good it was gone before even getting close to fermentating. Finished new batch must prep last night and getting ready to sanitize everything. Goal is having it fermenting in bubbler by this evening. Should be great!
When you were talking about a different amount per different size bottle to carbonate, I immediately thought of a spreadsheet and do the math once and add it to the spreadsheet.
I am as i was told at a very young age,100 percent German, my ancesters would do sorta kinda what you are doing and let it freeze outside in the winter and have a small spicket type valve at the bottom of the wooden vessel it was stored in and the beverage they poured into there grog was awsome.
Scrumpy is rustic, basic, punchy, and/or rough cider. Often made for the farm hands. Often from windfalls. Scrump (noun) is anything undersized or withered, especially apples. Scrumping (verb) is stealing in general; especially sneaking in and taking scrumps (originally limited to windfall). A practice that only has any "roguish charm" when left to children in Enid Blyton books 😆
So guessing the word undersized did not exist at the time. Then use similar word to mean something not even related, English at its finest complicating things.
When choosing mixed apples for selection i totally agree with your choices Brian, one type of apple i would add to that selection as well though is Pink Lady. Pink Lady apples have a distinct, balanced sweet-tart flavour with subtle and complex notes of sweet honey offset with a hint of citrus and spice. They have floral aromatics reminiscent of vanilla and rose when perfectly ripe. Absolutely amazing for home brewed Cider
Everytime I have watched one of your videos I hear the lecture about headspace to avoid overflow. i had never experienced that issue until i tried fermenting cherry juice... I have since been humbled and will start allowing more headspace for my brews.
Cracked open my first bottle today and it carbonated! Three weeks start to finish; SG 1.040 FG 0.990. It tastes like cider. Back sweetned with erythritol and I made it a touch more sweet than I would have liked but very drinkable. This was my first one and I will def do it again.
Umm.... those could possibly explode. Sugar will continue to carbonate past the point of too much pressure for the bottle. That is unless you stopped it in some way.
Thank You so much - I learned so much and got a lot a lot of ideas for small batch brewing from You guys! I currently have to batches going - a cider and a ginger beer - doing much better than ever. I have a professional background in industrial brewing and fermentation but they never teach you the tricks and what to look out for in the home batches but You do! Looks like the professors don't have a real interest in the students getting there own brews party ready :). FYI: "Insurance Yeast" is a common procedure in industrial bottle fermentation. Often a different yeast to the main fermentation is used. So it would be interesting in small batch to use the backing yeast as insurance yeast after using another yeast for main fermentation. Thank You again!
A week into a 5 gallon cider with trees from our yard, and two half gallons with Serrano pepper and ghost pepper(mixers). Hoping to put the 5 gallons on tap and bottle the pepper ciders. Love your videos.
I grew up in the finger lakes, apple country. In high school we took a bus over to Cornell University’s apple orchard to make cider. They taught us about the 3 flavor types of apples you need to blend to get a round profile. No joke they had a tree with apples that weighed over 5 lbs. they were each supported in nets so they could stay on the tree. We were allowed to pick any combination of apples for our cider. Mine won the “competition” we set up, to see who’s tasted best.
Hey small world! I grew up in Watkins Glen. I never took a trip to Cornell as a cider trip, but I have been to their gardens a few times. I love the Finger Lakes area at this time of the year. The foliage is amazingly vibrant and beautiful. I really do miss living there sometimes. Anyway, I tried a similar method as they did here, but I used a variety of juices instead of a variety of apples. I also used a little bit of frozen concentrate to add a more concentrated apple flavor. I did this because some of the juice was from concentrate. I also added some lemon juice to balance the acids. Anyway, happy brewing!
I'm form new York too!! Hudson valley. in high school we used to get money from our parents to go " apple picking "lol... lets just say it was not with innocent intent that we made those trips haha. i don't think we ever ate one of those apples. i dont think we had ever gotten anything over 5% lol but the memories are priceless.
...I am just gonna use black tea. LOL! Thank you Awesome channel, guys. My new favorite youtube channel AND reasonable data source for home brewing. 💪❤
You two are so inspiring but both my fermentation vats are "busy." I was wondering, when I use whole fruit in my brews I tend to chop it much finer, almost a mince feeling flavor and sugar are more fully extracted. Am I just wrong? It does make clarification significantly more difficult. Please educate my brain fat. Oh, always thank you.
Okay, yeah. I use mostly frozen fruit to break those cell walls. Cooking is something I haven't tried yet. Thank you and have a wonderful day.@@CitySteadingBrews
I am on day 4. I degassed my mead and accidentally swirled my cider…did I screw this up? I’m sure I have to wait for all to settle down now. Live and learn! Thanks for getting me into this hobby!
Thanks for sharing your experience, thoughts & story’s behind all your Brews. Amazing & I’m definitely going to try repeating your recipes. I just need to adjust for the conversions from Imperial to Metric as we do in Australia. In addition to driving on the wrong side of the road ~ Cheers
Super glad UA-cam recommend your channel, I'm loving you guys and your videos, and this video is convincing me to take the plunge into making cider. I've got one question since you didn't mention it in the video and I can't find anyone asking it in the comments, do you know if it's fine to eat the apples after the fermentation is over? I would assume the only issue would be something like an off flavor from the yeast, rather than anything harmful, but you never know. Thanks!
I did something similar but from a local orchard. Guy was growing a whole bunch of apple varieties, I just grabbed 1 or 2 of each, sliced 'em up and added sugar and made apple wine with them. Literally just finished racking it off the fruit 10 minutes ago.
This has to be the best video for beginners ciders!! Thank you, im will definitely try this recipe. Caould you strain with a super fine mesh instead of siphoning? Could I use honey instead of table sugar for carbonation? Thanks in advance advance
No, mesh will not remove lees. Please siphon. You can use honey for carbonation but... why? It's not going to alter the flavor and it's much more expensive.
I started brewing a not long ago without any equipment so I had no idea what the SG of my first cider was. I was curious what the alcohol content of my first cider was so I found a neat little tool called a vinometer. It shows the ABV of whatever liquid you put in it. It's a handy little tool to have in the kit and it's cheap. I was wondering if you've ever seen or used one.
The family and I went apple picking this week, so i thought its time to make an apple wine. 1 gal apple juice, 5 diced picked apples, montrachet red star yeast, yeast nutrient, 2.5 cups sugar, and a cinnamon stick. It was 1.100ish starting gravity. It bubbled good for 3-4 days but now activity seemes to have stopped. It must have stalled right? All my other meads and wines would still be bubbling. Think i should toss some fermade o in there? Oh yeah, i did rinse, soak in starsan, and rinse again the apples. Its curious when a brew stalls. 🤔
@CitySteadingBrews when you're right, you're right. And you, you're always right! apple wine definitely went dry! 1.000. Tossed another cup of sugar in and the yeast are having a party! And since I had everything out I started a grape cherry wine. Why not!
Hi city steading brews, I love watching your videos. Just made my first mead and currently brewing a pear cider. I wanted to bottle it in a couple of days. I want to carbonate it. I tought by putting fermentable sugers and pasteurizing it with a sous vide. So also using fermantable sugers for taste and stop the natural fermentation by pasteurizing it. But sindse you've used non fermentable sugers I'm not sure if my method is good. Does the carbonation go flat when pasteurizing? Also is it better to use an x amount of sugers and not pasteurizing it? How to calculate the amount of sugers per liter/ gallon? Kind regard, Robin
You can use fermentable sugars to carbonate and sweeten but... you have some risks involved. You have to guess when carbonation is done and when to pasteurize. People will say to use a soda bottle to test when it's ready but honestly it hardly works. It's safer to use non-fermentable sugars for sweetening and sugar for priming and be done. Super easy.
@CitySteadingBrews oke recap on what I've done. So I listened to your advice. I used erythritol for sweetening and then used cane sugar as prime sugar. I've filled a plastic bottle just in case, and I had a barometer so I could see the pressure in the bottle. After bottling I found out I miscalculated the sugar amount... oops. I've put in a little bit too much. I didn't know if I had to be worried. So today I pastaurized it just to be sure. I've seen the pressure in the bottle go up to 1 bar or 15 psi from the fermentation in the bottle, temperature was at 19 or 20 degrees Celsius or 66 to 68 Fahrenheit. From that moment I couldn't dent the plastic bottle and went to pastaurizing. I warmed the bottles till 60 degrees Celsius or 140 Fahrenheit. The pressure in the bottle almost went to 4 bar (3,9 bar or 56 psi). After 15 minutes I removed the bottles. I had no explosions. I wanted to share the numbers because maybe it gives some insight in the proces. I don't know if these numbers are concerning. Thanks for the advice and making the video's 👍🏻
Hi Brian and Derica! Love the videos, thank you for sharing all your brewing adventures with us. I have been watching all your videos and decided to try this recipe after getting a starter kit for my birthday at the beginning of the month. Can you provide more details on the process of ensuring the apples stay hydrated during fermentation? You mention in the video pushing the fruit down each day, is that really just as it is? Just open the fermentation vessel and with a sanitized spoon or something and gently push the apples down a little bit and then recap and repeat each day? Should I do this every day after the start of fermentation until complete? Thanks again!
Hi Derica & Brian. Not new to your channel but still new to brewing. I've made a couple of your recipes, including this one and they came out great. TYSM!! I have a question. I would like to make a double batch of this cider. What adjustments do you recommend for the ingredients? Thanks again for your recipes. I love watching them. 🤗
Hello :-) Thank you for all the videos. I tried this recipe (different types of apples + apple juice + yeast), and after it fermented I got a vinegar-like taste. I haven't sweetened it yet, as I don't know if the result is vinegar or just the taste is not pleasant because I haven't sweetened it yet. I appreciate your feedback and advice if this gallon can be saved or not: maybe add honey/sugar and restart fermentation? Note that I am not planning to carbonate it. Cheers and thank you in advance!
First timer here and i have a few questions. I used a 5 gallon, plastic fermentor bucket and airlock that a friend gave me but only put 1.5 gallons of juice in. Other than the pain of cleaning it, is there any issues with using an over-sized container? Is it possible to have too much head space? I only have screw top wine bottles on hand. Is there any problem with using those? I'm not going to carbonate this first batch. I'm not ready for that! Ha! You guys are awesome and i have enjoyed every video. Keep up the good work!
OK first comment but been watching for a while. Great content thanks. Got the supplies. Sanitizer, Air Lock, gallon jug, Hydrometer, Cider yeast etc. In youth (am 64 now) we wod buy raw cider from local orchard, Dad let it sit in frdge and it would naturally ferment after a month or two. Trying to replicate that wonderful not carbonated beverage. We have a prolific Fuji tree and Costco nearby. Tips?
Hello there! I know you've probably had this question along so sorry in advance, I making my first mead and dont have a way to get a gravity reading 😅. So this has me Concerned for the future bottling phase and having them explode. Should I pasteurize just to be safe?
I have a question. I have a cyser in secondary and decided to clean, freeze, thaw and add two apple that were sliced thin. One reason was for flavor and other was to take up head room but I did not remove the seeds. Do I need to worry about the seeds being in the brew?
Hey guys, You are fantastic!. I just started watching your videos. I'm going to start my first batch of cider. I have fermented grains before using bakers yeast. I have a heater in my fermenter and always kept the wash at 90F. I noticed you never mentioned maintaining a certain temperature. Does it effect the taste?
I’m making my first attempt at using actual apples 😊 But instead of on the hob I’m using a freezer to breakdown them down for juicing. Freeze, thaw, freeze repeat 😂 Quite fun. Could you guys give that ago on a future vid maybe?
Yup understand that 👍 I belong to a few FB groups that go for natural ferments, and on the whole very few have an issue. I usually go for “from concentrate” but this’ll be an experiment using locally collected apples. There again I might chicken out considering the amount of bloody effort it’s taken so far 😂
I love your videos and have tried some of your recipes. I'm in upstate New York and it's apple season. We're making cider today ( that's what we call the fresh pressed apple juice here). Because it isn't pasteurized should I add Camden tablets or pectic enzymes when I'm making wine or mead or hard cider?
My understanding of the term Scrumpy is that it refers to cider made with any random apples while true cider is made with selected apples. Orchard owners would pick cider apples when ripe. As apple varieties reach maturity at different times, different cider batches would use a selection of varieties to anticipate the desired balance of tartness and sweetness. As a commercial product those ciders, would be the premium. Cider made from the leftover apples, windfalls etc would vary in taste and quality and consequently would be less "processed". That was scrumpy and was originally sold from the barrel / tank at the cider houses. Scrumping is the petty theft of apples and presumably refers to the indiscriminate nature of the theft. Scrumpy now seems to refer to a type of cloudy and typically flat cider. I suspect "real" scrumpy might still be available in the cider making regions of Somerset and Herefordshire.
I think you're on to something about scrumpy there. The one's I've had in the Black Country were flat, cloudy and pumped from a barrel at room temperature. And presumably quite fresh/young. While the local farm ciders I've tried in Kent, were barrel aged and clear.
We have a glass bottle that has a pour plug towards the bottom. It's like a gallon and a half. Do you think if I sanitized the whole thing I could use that for something like this?
I do a similar…But, I peel and chop the apples and slow stew with some cider to break down the apple chunks. Then mash and add into my primary. It seems to give more fermentable sugars and flavor. I also drop in a few apple zinger tea bags. Never a disappointment :)
@@CitySteadingBrews I guess I’m just speeding up the fermentation process then. My other way is using my juicer to separate the juice to fine pulp. All goes into the primary and done fast ! Usually @1.70 starting. So, about 7.88 finish abv before priming. That’s with 1lb honey and 4 oz of brown sugar. Splendid brew for sure :)
The was recently a study done in Michigan where they basically cataloged several hundred varieties of apples and categorized them for the purpose of cider production. They indicated that the preferred apples for cider/ hard cider production fell in the bitter-sweet category and would be of the sort you would spot out if eaten. They also have names you'll probably never see in a grocery store (granny smith might be the closest grocery store variety to this category).
I am currently making a cider(no fruit just juice from Aldi). Can I use the method of back sweetening with erythritol and the 42 grams of sugar for carbonation? My beginning gravity was 1.06 and currently 1.004. I was going to try to match you 1.010 once I add the erythritol.
Thanks to your videos I have been making mead dating back to May of this year and now about to try a Cider. I think I'm 7 batches of mead in so far. (Edit for typos)
I am working on a store bought juice batch right now. I like the idea of mixing up flavors by adding different kind of apples. Start with my prison wine and move on to more fancy ciders. Thanks for the videos.
Yeah. This is my first batch. On day 3 5. It seems very active. I followed all the sanitizing steps for the equipment. Basically what I have learned from your videos. Store bought juice and safeale yeast. I do have some froth at the top and don't know what to do with that. Used vodka in the airlock. Everything seems tight so I hope it isn't the wrong kind of bacteria and end up with acv.
Hey guys, great video! I want to brew some Cider myself...I noticed that you always have and ABV between 7-10%. Is there any technique to get a lower ABV? Thanks You :)
Love the idea of adding fresh apples to store bought juice! I came here to say regarding varieties, my first and best cider was half honeycrisp apple juice. Looks like target has it in season, so I’ll be giving that another try. It was leaps better than my attempt with regular apple juice
I recently started watching your channel. I have always been interested in brewing, ever since I was in my teens, but never really did it. After recently finding your channel I had some American Cider (AKA Cloudy Juice) start to turn in my fridge on it's own. So since mother nature decided to start it for me, I figured why not, and I bought an airlock and bung and just whacked it into the plastic jug that the cider came in. After two weeks I just racked it. So I bought another jug of cider from the grocery store and tried it again, this time on purpose, using bread yeast, still in the plastic jug though. The first full jug I tried wasn't starting though, and I checked the ingredients and found that they had put in Glycolipids. Which upon investigation is a preservative! So I went to a local farm (Western NY) and got some of theirs, which was just exposed to UV light for sanitization, and it started up a right treat. Thoughts on using the plastic jug and the Glycolipids?
I found this channel and I am hooked. Best channel by far.i am also attempting your mead recipes. I have organic apple juice that ingredients read: water, apple juice concentrate. Will that be ok? You 2 are great!
Watch this channel more than any other thing. Just started my first mead using what I've learned. When taking the top off to push down the apples did you have to de gas first?
a couple questions how long do you keep your star-san solution, I heard the if the ph is below 3 it is still good. and why do you never use corks, would they work with natural fermentation ? made concord grape working on rhubarb want to try your hard cider. keep the vids, coming. Mr. Arthur
We make a new batch of star san solution every brew day. The hassle and possible risk of storing it just is not worth the pennies it costs to make a batch. Why no corks? Swing tops have zero waste. You can carb with corks but you need the cages.
I'm a soon to be new brewer. I have all my basic equipment on order from Amazon with the exception of "The TRBOS". Any idea of where I can purchase one. The shape of the TRBOS in your photos, just makes so much sense, verses a straight sided bucket.
Just got most of my hardware supplies (starsan, pump, yeast), just need to get my fruit product & fermenting jar, & I'll be starting my first brew! 😁 Gonna practice with 3 simple brews first, hard apple cider, honey mead, & strawberry wine, just to get the hang of things. Wish me luck!
As someone who reaches first and foremost for a cider, I have tried every version of a cider you can possibly imagine. That being said, I believe that Angry orchard is by far the best cider you can find off the shelf. I don't know if you guys have tried Angry Orchard, although it's homebased here in the lovely upstate NY, but it is generally available throughout the US. If you have any insight as to how it stands up against this, their website reads their indication on apples choice as such: "It is a perfect balance of sweetness and bright acidity from culinary apples and dryness of traditional cider making apples, resulting in a complex, yet refreshing, hard cider." We've brewed cider a few times now in our household, including from straight juice. You articulated well as to the difference between previous apple brews and this brew, but I'd love to know how it compares to my favorite off the shelf cider. If I had the ability to emulate Angry Orchard at home, it would make me a happy brewer.
It's been several years since I had Angry Orchard, but I agree, it's good stuff. I'd have to say this is in the same theme as that cider since that's what I mostly model things after when I make cider.
This is a great episode! I am only making apple cider for the most part. Just perfecting the process, thanks for your time and energy to give us more knowledge. One production note - did something change in your audio recording? I have watched most of your videos and this one seems a bit muffled. Just from an audio for video nerd. Made videos for most of my life.
@@CitySteadingBrews Sometimes that little difference can be just a battery in the mic getting weaker, that is how I would know when to change them out on a commercial shoot. Another question based on your previous fruit fermentation videos, would there have been any advantage to freezing the apples after cutting? I have been using the dried apples in secondary method I learned here, to good effect.
Well, you can but then carbonation becomes risky as you have to stop carbonation at the right point but keep sweetness. We have done it with pasteurizing but it is a guessing game and guessing wrong means wither no carbonation or possible exploding bottles.
@@CitySteadingBrews thanks! Not sure if I'll use it long term, but i wanted to do a "taste differences" test to see if cloudy adds/takes away from the flavors. Honestly I'm a "less complex the better" kinda guy, but... Science. 🤘
Looking for some education here with two combo questions. 1. Can you use/why didn't you use apple cider? 2. Several times you said you used apple cider not juice, was that a mistake or is cider not available in your area? At this point apple cider is around 8 bucks a gallon around my north east pa location so it seems a less expensive alternative than the fancy apple juice.
I am carbonating for the first time on a couple batches. I followed your formula for natural carbonation with sugar, my plan is to leave the bottles for two weeks in our 'bomb shelter' then 48 hours in the fridge before trying. Can I leave some of those bottles out of the fridge indefinitely? Or is there a chance the carbonation will be lost over time?
I've been enjoying your videos for some time now, and you've inspired me to try making wine as well. I have a bunch of bagged frozen fruit roommates have left in the freezer over the years, have you tried a frozen fruit brew yet? I'm thinking it would be a similar process to what you did in this apple cider, but frozen fruit instead of fresh apples? Thanks~
I have 2 gallons of honey crisp cider that I bought with some dry bread yeast would like to try making some cider. Could you advise me on where I could pick up a proper cleaning solution and what type of solution I should get my recommend or remember Used mentioning Stardust or something like that also do you have a how to clean your gear video?
Not sure if I missed it, but what is the purpose of cooking the apples? Was it to clean them or another purpose? Also, if I make this in a 1g fermenter rather than the 1.4 of the Little Big Mouth, would you recommend reducing the carbing sugar, since the total volume would be less?
Looking to get bulk honey in my area, and finding "creamed" honey. I'm not familiar with it, but could I still use it for mead? Just not sure if the add anything to make it creamy or if it's just sorta crystalized.
I steam juiced apples to get a gallon of pure apple juice to make hard cider. (I just started the fermentation today). After watching a video on your blueberry cider did I need to add the campden tablets to that? I have also made 2 batches of wine from the wild plums we had an abundance of this summer using the same method of steam juicing. I used it as it is was a concentrate and used 15 oz of juice then filled with water. It all seems to taste pretty spectacular. I am thinking that was correct since it was pure and concentrated, can you give any feedback on your opinion on that? I am having a really hard time finding a video to guide me, so my scientific self is going on a whim and some UA-cam browsing.
Never used a steam juicer. I hate campden tabs though. If the juice is heated to 160f or higher for at least 69 seconds, it's pasteurized. No need fir further treatment. A quick look on Google seems like steam juicing is enough.
@@CitySteadingBrews excellent, thank you. You should try a steam juicer. It's amazing! I prefer not to put anything extra in my food/drinks so will give this first few batches a try without it. We'll probably drink it too quickly for anything to be an issue. ALso, thank you for the great videos.
Would you consider pressing the apples after frementation to get extra juice? That's often done with wine grapes. Or possibly using those apples in a pie? Just curious. I have your fine wine from store bought juice working right now, and will likely make this once i get a carboy free. Thanks!
I recently had some craft sour kraut (VT, Von Trapp) and am considering making my own. I see the vinegar in the background that includes the mother, Which I will be using for my kraut.
You should try (Tree Top Pure Pressed 3 Apple Blend) as the liquid. I took this recipe and made 5 - 1gal Jars and going to experiment by adding different ingredients to them. Thanks for everything yall do.
I'm not a brewer, never brewed a thing in my life. I watch this channel religiously though. You guys are just fun to watch and to see how the stuff you're making turns out. But Friday, on a whim, I bought my first lot of brewing kit and I'm going to give it shot. No matter how my first try turns out (not started yet) I just wanted to say thanks for the motivation.
Awesome! Enjoy!
You should, my first two meads were garbage and I just over flavored my most recent with orange peels and destroyed the flavor. But, I have learned a ton and only wasted about $100 in the last two years. I am learning and there’s nothing better than taking a drink from your aged bottle and it being delicious.
In reference to your comment od mixed apple type ... I think that "colonial" (1600-1700s) apple cider was made with crab apples. Please research it
@poeticlouise I have. Yes, cider is often made with crabapples.
@@Zach-h2lI think the most positive way I can answer that is: My first brew was a "learning experience".
My dad made wine for as long as I can remember. I'm 55, and until now, I've never thought about trying to make anything like that. Something just struck me to try my hand at it. After watching a bunch of videos and visiting some local wineries, we stumbled across a brewery/bar that specialized in ciders. We tried several flavors and really liked it. So from there, I started searching for "how to" cider videos and found your channel. I just bottled my first batch of hard apple cider. I tasted it before bottling and it had very much a wine flavor. We'll see how it turns out after aging a couple more weeks. Thanks for all the info you guys share on here!
Awesome! Happy to help!
Y'all I just took a hydrometer reading and tasted my first cider (fresh pressed apple) and it's almost done fermenting! Thanks for being so inspirational and making it approachable.
I recently picked 40lbs of apples and cooked then down to a concentrate to ensure that the only yeast would be the yeast I use. 5lbs honey and a bit of white sugar to adjust sg. Also 1lb bochet honey. Starting gravity of 1.111. It's been very active for two weeks showing no signs of slowing yet. It smells so good at the airlock. By next Xmas it should be nicely aged
Minnesotan here and have 6 apple trees and 2 pear trees in the yard. My apple choices would have been way different and also the preparation of the apples. Macerate and heat the apples with a small amount of liquid to get the most flavor out of them. I did this with the pears and created juice with the thought of making cider. Unfortunately we discovered bourbon and fresh pear juice over ice. For two people that don't drink much, this has become the nectar of the gods. So, no pear cider this year. I think though that the apple trees can provide something to Thanksgiving with the help of this video. Thanks.
May I ask?
What yeast are you using?
@@caninedrill_instructor5861 Bread yeast, just like this video.
@ThomasWilliams-ee6li Thanks Sir.
Just made this. My god this was delicious. Making one more, but with cinnamon and some christmassy spices. Thanks guys
Awesome!
We have carbonation
Well done,
1st racking always works a treat
When its beer or cider
Cant wait for the next brew
You should revisit the Braggot,but use a stout base
And also try a german beer that uses salt to flavour called Gose
Then theres the Graff, half beer
Half cider
I think you would be excellent tutors for the 3 brews i just mentioned, i love your professionalism and step by step methods
Sending love from the Uk
❤
Just want to say thank you, thank you, thank you! I've watched and learned a ton from you. You explicitly saying - time and time again - to put the fermentor on a tray with lips really saved me from a big mess and damage with my first (accidentally) wild fermentering apple wine. The long and in-depth format with your videos, along with sprinkles of humor, is just great. And I really appreciate that you don't oversimplify the process - except when you purposely do it as an experiment. Thanks again ❤
Happy to help :)
Last year I used store bought apple cider added white sugar and fermented. Then i added the apple pie moonshine flavor tin thats is available on Amazon. I let it steep with the spuces that were in the tin. Then bottled. I still have a few bottles and they still taste great. I did make 3gals at one time.
Hello Brian and Ms. Derica,
Thank you, thank you, thank you!!
Why am I thanking you?
Because after watching several of your videos, I had assembled a list for a Homebrew Starter Kit:
Well, the final bit of kit arrived today. The wait was agonising... LOL
Here's What I put on the list based on your videos:
1 32oz Star San ( 5.9g per 1 US gallon. Although, before I acquired the jeweler's scale, I went with 6g per US gallon. )
1 3785ml/1 gallon ( US ) pitcher ( This thing is da bom!! I used it the day it got here to make Split pea milk )
1 hydrometer ( I need to re-watch your Hydrometer video )
1 100ml graduated cylinder
1 PH meter
1 Auto-Siphon ( I'm debating on cutting the hose into two equal lengths )
1 Bottle filling wand ( With spring valve )
1 Turkey Master Baster
1 Jeweler's Scale ( I already had a digital kitchen scale that can handle up to 4990g/11 lbs, but only goes down to a gram ).
1 TBBOS ( The Black Bucket Of Sanitisation a cousin to your TRBOS)
4 Carboys: 3785ml/1 gallon ( US ) + lids, bungs, and airlocks
To the above I added:
4 Bottle brushes.
12 500ml/17oz swing top dark amber beer bottles ( I'd ordered these before I discovered your channel. May lay in a dozen 1l swingtop bottles, depends on how this experiment turns out )
1 24 bottle air drying rack ( Safest way I know to airdry bottles without them being knocked over by my resident felinoids. i.e. Miss Reba, and Miss Cookie )
4 Stainless steel fine mesh sieves ( 4, assorted sizes. I'll be honest, I bought these to aid in straining the plant base milks that I make every week. )
1 Bomb shelter ( I didn't have to buy this, I have had it in my garage for a few years ).
I started really getting into baking again in 2022. That's what led to me buying the kitchen scale and to use metric in my Domestic Culinary Laboratory aka the kitchen. Metric, is more precise and just makes a lot of sense. The hardest part is converting the measuring spoon size measurementgs to grams. LOL . So that is why you see the metric ahead of the imperial measurements in the list above.
My first homebrew project is going to be Ginger beer. I'm going to attempt a head to head comparison between a Ginger Bug ( that I've started ) and Fleischmann's active dry bread yeast ( Three packet sleeve ) ( I have some Red Star active dry yeast in an unopened jar that I've kept in my refrigerator for a couple of years. So that may be used at some time ). I have some Red Star Active Dry yeast packets that I'll turn into yeast hulls as they've been sitting on my table for a couple of years so I'd rather not risk them in a brew for fear of failure.. Although, I may just use yeast now, and wiat until spring to restart the Ginger Bug project when it's warmer. As I generally during heating season I keep my house between 14.44C/58F and 18.88C/66F. During cooling season I keep it between 24.44C/76F and 26.66/80F. Project Ginger Bug UPDATE: We have FIZZ!! Looks like I'll be brewing tomorrow!! The head-to-head is on like Donkey Kong!!
To prove that I've been paying attention, I know that your favourite yeast may not work so well here in the Midwest ( Hello from the Land of Lincoln! ) based on the temperature range that I maintian in my home. Which leads to my open question to my fellow viewers: Any community members from the Midwest, and/or Illinois: What Ale, or wine yeast has been your best producer, at cooler temps, at higher temps?
I plan to bottle carbonate, then pasteurise. I think I've figured out a way to get around not being able to directly read the hydrometer. I'll snap a photo with my mobile then zoom it. A trick I use when grocery shopping to read those teeny-tiny ingredient's lists, or scope out prices on items too high up for me to see.
This cider recipe looks doable.
A quick side story on how TBBOS came to be. I'd ordered 2 white five gallon buckets with lids from Amazon to put cat food in. I received 3 black five gallon buckets without lids. Amazon did make it right with me, but they basically told me to keep the black buckets that I'd received by mistake. Being a former farmboy, I'm not going to turn my nose up at free buckets... LOL So TBBOS was born...
Brian, and Ms. Derica,
Thank you so very much for freely sharing this knowledge with all of us.
As you can tell, I'm excited to begin this series of experiments.
Just so y'all know how engaging you are. I started this while pasturising mead. I then forgot while being interested in the video. Thank god you mentioned it and I ran back to my stove to check. Thankfully no damage was done
Whew! Glad nothing went wrong. I use timers because... Squirrel!
@@CitySteadingBrews that would be wise. Sadly I am not a wise man
I want to thank you for your videos, I love watching the two of you chit chatting about brewing. You both bring a fun and laid-back element to your videos and brewing style. So the last gallon batch I made I used McCutcheons apple cider from Fresh market (and I got a nice fermenter out of it). Started it Aug 13th, bottled it Sep 16th. back sweetened it with sugar to taste, then added a bit more for the natural carbonation (and per your tip I added a tiny bit of yeast and mixed it all before bottling). Pasteurized them about 5 days later. The brew came out so good. Very good carbonation (maybe a bit on the high side) but just the right amount of sweetness. Now I have a mix of apple juice and tart cherry juice which fermented for almost 4 weeks and I just racked, I'll be back sweetening and bottling it next weekend. I have high hopes for this one. I tasted a little when I racked it and can definitely taste the tartness of the cherry but have the sweet hint of apple. I have a feeling it will be really good once sweetened more. I also started another plain apple cider from Publix apple juice, but this one I am trying a different yeast that i got from a friend, I've been using the Red Star champagne yeast in the yellow package but I made a trade with him for a Red Star blue package and I'll be curious how it will affect the taste. My first one I made with a Publix apple juice last year.
Thanks for watching :)
Just bottled first cider. Made with pears from my gfs parents and apples from her aunt. Fingers crossed it turns out well.
Found it Brian disregard pointer request in other vid. Weve got a prolific Fuji tree and finally made our frst batch of regular cider recently. Enjoying you two's channel immensely thanks
Thank you, thank you, thank you. I have just finished brewing this Cider, a little over 7 days. Stopped bubbling, and took readings, which stayed the same over 3 days. Approx 9.4% Alc. Back sweetened to my taste then forced carbonated in my mini keg. Drinking it whilst i type. Thanks again
Awesome!
As a beer brewer, I was amazed by two things: how you care little about open containers (things dropping in, oxidation etc.) and mysterious carbonation issues.
Glad you got some fizz finally!
I have yet to have an infection in any brew after hundreds of batches and years of doing it :)
@@CitySteadingBrews guess brewing gods love you.
Not so much with me, so the fermenter lid will stay in place till I'm bottling)
You guys are the greatest! All the way through I was thinking how about a couple of cloves in there? Cider is my jam, you got me going on this one.
First batch of our raw cider from Fujis (water boiled) was great with 5 cinnamon sticks and a couple shakes of ground cloves (was out of raw cloves). Sweetened just a tad with raw local sage honey after 1st straining. So good it was gone before even getting close to fermentating. Finished new batch must prep last night and getting ready to sanitize everything. Goal is having it fermenting in bubbler by this evening. Should be great!
When you were talking about a different amount per different size bottle to carbonate, I immediately thought of a spreadsheet and do the math once and add it to the spreadsheet.
Why not just mix the amount into the full batch and not have to do any math?
I love the channel you guys. Thanks for all your hard work
I am as i was told at a very young age,100 percent German, my ancesters would do sorta kinda what you are doing and let it freeze outside in the winter and have a small spicket type valve at the bottom of the wooden vessel it was stored in and the beverage they poured into there grog was awsome.
Scrumpy is rustic, basic, punchy, and/or rough cider. Often made for the farm hands. Often from windfalls.
Scrump (noun) is anything undersized or withered, especially apples.
Scrumping (verb) is stealing in general; especially sneaking in and taking scrumps (originally limited to windfall).
A practice that only has any "roguish charm" when left to children in Enid Blyton books 😆
So guessing the word undersized did not exist at the time. Then use similar word to mean something not even related, English at its finest complicating things.
When choosing mixed apples for selection i totally agree with your choices Brian, one type of apple i would add to that selection as well though is Pink Lady. Pink Lady apples have a distinct, balanced sweet-tart flavour with subtle and complex notes of sweet honey offset with a hint of citrus and spice. They have floral aromatics reminiscent of vanilla and rose when perfectly ripe. Absolutely amazing for home brewed Cider
Everytime I have watched one of your videos I hear the lecture about headspace to avoid overflow. i had never experienced that issue until i tried fermenting cherry juice... I have since been humbled and will start allowing more headspace for my brews.
It happens!
Cracked open my first bottle today and it carbonated! Three weeks start to finish; SG 1.040 FG 0.990.
It tastes like cider.
Back sweetned with erythritol and I made it a touch more sweet than I would have liked but very drinkable.
This was my first one and I will def do it again.
Congrats!
I made this and followed your recipe, except I used sugar to back sweeten. Then carbonated......10 of 10. Absolutely delicious
Umm.... those could possibly explode. Sugar will continue to carbonate past the point of too much pressure for the bottle. That is unless you stopped it in some way.
@CitySteadingBrews I pasteurized at 140 degrees for 20, after it read 20 psi on the tap regulator.
@@user-brownie_bear_1974 ahh gotcha, well done.
@CitySteadingBrews thank you, I have learned so much watching you and your beautiful wife. Please keep up all the good work! 👍
This looks great. I’d imagine adding cranberry’s to this and some spices and you’d have an amazing Yule cider. Cheers guys.
Careful, those things can affect fermentation :)
Thank You so much - I learned so much and got a lot a lot of ideas for small batch brewing from You guys! I currently have to batches going - a cider and a ginger beer - doing much better than ever. I have a professional background in industrial brewing and fermentation but they never teach you the tricks and what to look out for in the home batches but You do! Looks like the professors don't have a real interest in the students getting there own brews party ready :). FYI: "Insurance Yeast" is a common procedure in industrial bottle fermentation. Often a different yeast to the main fermentation is used. So it would be interesting in small batch to use the backing yeast as insurance yeast after using another yeast for main fermentation. Thank You again!
Thanks!
A week into a 5 gallon cider with trees from our yard, and two half gallons with Serrano pepper and ghost pepper(mixers). Hoping to put the 5 gallons on tap and bottle the pepper ciders. Love your videos.
Great video! Congrats! I noticed there was no talk at ALL here about degassing. What, in this example, got rid of the early fermentation gas funk?
Well... we are learning there's no reason to :)
I grew up in the finger lakes, apple country. In high school we took a bus over to Cornell University’s apple orchard to make cider. They taught us about the 3 flavor types of apples you need to blend to get a round profile. No joke they had a tree with apples that weighed over 5 lbs. they were each supported in nets so they could stay on the tree. We were allowed to pick any combination of apples for our cider. Mine won the “competition” we set up, to see who’s tasted best.
I'm not far away from the finger lakes, and I love this time of year. The apples and the smell of the fall leaves.
Hey small world! I grew up in Watkins Glen. I never took a trip to Cornell as a cider trip, but I have been to their gardens a few times. I love the Finger Lakes area at this time of the year. The foliage is amazingly vibrant and beautiful. I really do miss living there sometimes. Anyway, I tried a similar method as they did here, but I used a variety of juices instead of a variety of apples. I also used a little bit of frozen concentrate to add a more concentrated apple flavor. I did this because some of the juice was from concentrate. I also added some lemon juice to balance the acids. Anyway, happy brewing!
I'm form new York too!! Hudson valley. in high school we used to get money from our parents to go " apple picking "lol... lets just say it was not with innocent intent that we made those trips haha. i don't think we ever ate one of those apples. i dont think we had ever gotten anything over 5% lol but the memories are priceless.
...I am just gonna use black tea. LOL! Thank you
Awesome channel, guys. My new favorite youtube channel AND reasonable data source for home brewing. 💪❤
Question: you added yeast for carbonation and it seemed to work very well, So what is the hurry to bottle, if one forces fermentation for carbonation?
Covering all the bases.
You two are so inspiring but both my fermentation vats are "busy." I was wondering, when I use whole fruit in my brews I tend to chop it much finer, almost a mince feeling flavor and sugar are more fully extracted. Am I just wrong? It does make clarification significantly more difficult. Please educate my brain fat. Oh, always thank you.
If you freeze or cook the fruit, it's overkill to cut that tiny :)
Okay, yeah. I use mostly frozen fruit to break those cell walls. Cooking is something I haven't tried yet. Thank you and have a wonderful day.@@CitySteadingBrews
Super cool. Can you use a 750Ml wine bottle and cork it!? Eill the cork hold the carbonation !?
Yes!
I am on day 4. I degassed my mead and accidentally swirled my cider…did I screw this up? I’m sure I have to wait for all to settle down now.
Live and learn! Thanks for getting me into this hobby!
Nope, it's fine. Degassing isn't a bad thing during fermentation as long as you don't introduce more oxygen.
As a type 1 diabetic, do the non fermentable sugars affect blood sugar?
They don't.
Thanks for sharing your experience, thoughts & story’s behind all your Brews. Amazing & I’m definitely going to try repeating your recipes. I just need to adjust for the conversions from Imperial to Metric as we do in Australia. In addition to driving on the wrong side of the road ~ Cheers
I loved seeing the cat appearances in this video. Thank you!
My "Dad's Hard Cider" (honeycrisp apple wine) is still bubbling in secondary.
I always put some strong black tea in my batches of cider, and normally some raisins as well, it makes a massive difference.
Super glad UA-cam recommend your channel, I'm loving you guys and your videos, and this video is convincing me to take the plunge into making cider.
I've got one question since you didn't mention it in the video and I can't find anyone asking it in the comments, do you know if it's fine to eat the apples after the fermentation is over? I would assume the only issue would be something like an off flavor from the yeast, rather than anything harmful, but you never know. Thanks!
You can... much of the sugars are gone though and they are covered in yeast... some bake them into things.
Great video and excellent Douglas Adams reference.
I did something similar but from a local orchard. Guy was growing a whole bunch of apple varieties, I just grabbed 1 or 2 of each, sliced 'em up and added sugar and made apple wine with them. Literally just finished racking it off the fruit 10 minutes ago.
This has to be the best video for beginners ciders!! Thank you, im will definitely try this recipe. Caould you strain with a super fine mesh instead of siphoning? Could I use honey instead of table sugar for carbonation? Thanks in advance advance
No, mesh will not remove lees. Please siphon. You can use honey for carbonation but... why? It's not going to alter the flavor and it's much more expensive.
I started brewing a not long ago without any equipment so I had no idea what the SG of my first cider was. I was curious what the alcohol content of my first cider was so I found a neat little tool called a vinometer. It shows the ABV of whatever liquid you put in it. It's a handy little tool to have in the kit and it's cheap. I was wondering if you've ever seen or used one.
They are very inaccurate. Like could be +/- 3-4 points.
The family and I went apple picking this week, so i thought its time to make an apple wine. 1 gal apple juice, 5 diced picked apples, montrachet red star yeast, yeast nutrient, 2.5 cups sugar, and a cinnamon stick. It was 1.100ish starting gravity. It bubbled good for 3-4 days but now activity seemes to have stopped. It must have stalled right? All my other meads and wines would still be bubbling. Think i should toss some fermade o in there? Oh yeah, i did rinse, soak in starsan, and rinse again the apples. Its curious when a brew stalls. 🤔
Take a reading. :)
@@CitySteadingBrewsright you are! The answers are always so simple.😅
@CitySteadingBrews when you're right, you're right. And you, you're always right! apple wine definitely went dry! 1.000. Tossed another cup of sugar in and the yeast are having a party! And since I had everything out I started a grape cherry wine. Why not!
Hi city steading brews, I love watching your videos. Just made my first mead and currently brewing a pear cider. I wanted to bottle it in a couple of days. I want to carbonate it. I tought by putting fermentable sugers and pasteurizing it with a sous vide. So also using fermantable sugers for taste and stop the natural fermentation by pasteurizing it. But sindse you've used non fermentable sugers I'm not sure if my method is good. Does the carbonation go flat when pasteurizing? Also is it better to use an x amount of sugers and not pasteurizing it? How to calculate the amount of sugers per liter/ gallon? Kind regard, Robin
You can use fermentable sugars to carbonate and sweeten but... you have some risks involved. You have to guess when carbonation is done and when to pasteurize. People will say to use a soda bottle to test when it's ready but honestly it hardly works. It's safer to use non-fermentable sugars for sweetening and sugar for priming and be done. Super easy.
@CitySteadingBrews oke recap on what I've done. So I listened to your advice. I used erythritol for sweetening and then used cane sugar as prime sugar. I've filled a plastic bottle just in case, and I had a barometer so I could see the pressure in the bottle. After bottling I found out I miscalculated the sugar amount... oops. I've put in a little bit too much. I didn't know if I had to be worried. So today I pastaurized it just to be sure. I've seen the pressure in the bottle go up to 1 bar or 15 psi from the fermentation in the bottle, temperature was at 19 or 20 degrees Celsius or 66 to 68 Fahrenheit. From that moment I couldn't dent the plastic bottle and went to pastaurizing. I warmed the bottles till 60 degrees Celsius or 140 Fahrenheit. The pressure in the bottle almost went to 4 bar (3,9 bar or 56 psi). After 15 minutes I removed the bottles. I had no explosions. I wanted to share the numbers because maybe it gives some insight in the proces. I don't know if these numbers are concerning. Thanks for the advice and making the video's 👍🏻
Brian have you tried the sharpie s-gel pens? They're great.
I have... they wore out really quick!
@@CitySteadingBrews well dang it, I must not use a pen as much lol
Quick question: would it make sense to crush the apples once they've been 'cooked'? That way, you would get more out (and it's cloudy anyway).
No need, it's broken down already.
@@CitySteadingBrews ok, thanks
Hi Brian and Derica! Love the videos, thank you for sharing all your brewing adventures with us. I have been watching all your videos and decided to try this recipe after getting a starter kit for my birthday at the beginning of the month.
Can you provide more details on the process of ensuring the apples stay hydrated during fermentation? You mention in the video pushing the fruit down each day, is that really just as it is? Just open the fermentation vessel and with a sanitized spoon or something and gently push the apples down a little bit and then recap and repeat each day? Should I do this every day after the start of fermentation until complete? Thanks again!
Yes, that's all there is to it.
@@CitySteadingBrews thanks for the reply! I appreciate the information.
Hi Derica & Brian. Not new to your channel but still new to brewing. I've made a couple of your recipes, including this one and they came out great. TYSM!! I have a question. I would like to make a double batch of this cider. What adjustments do you recommend for the ingredients? Thanks again for your recipes. I love watching them. 🤗
Just double everything but yeast.
@@CitySteadingBrews Thanks!!!
Hello :-)
Thank you for all the videos.
I tried this recipe (different types of apples + apple juice + yeast), and after it fermented I got a vinegar-like taste.
I haven't sweetened it yet, as I don't know if the result is vinegar or just the taste is not pleasant because I haven't sweetened it yet.
I appreciate your feedback and advice if this gallon can be saved or not: maybe add honey/sugar and restart fermentation?
Note that I am not planning to carbonate it.
Cheers and thank you in advance!
Many people describe a vinegar like taste to young, dry brews. It likely isn't vinegar as that takes weeks to create.
Your guys brews are hands down the best after sliced bread.
LOL, thanks, I think? I have yet to try sliced bread wine though....
@@CitySteadingBrews hahaha, and the added sense of humor is priceless. It was a compliment btw...
:)
First timer here and i have a few questions.
I used a 5 gallon, plastic fermentor bucket and airlock that a friend gave me but only put 1.5 gallons of juice in. Other than the pain of cleaning it, is there any issues with using an over-sized container?
Is it possible to have too much head space?
I only have screw top wine bottles on hand. Is there any problem with using those?
I'm not going to carbonate this first batch. I'm not ready for that! Ha!
You guys are awesome and i have enjoyed every video.
Keep up the good work!
It's not a problem until fermentation is done. You don't want that headspace at that point.
OK first comment but been watching for a while. Great content thanks. Got the supplies. Sanitizer, Air Lock, gallon jug, Hydrometer, Cider yeast etc. In youth (am 64 now) we wod buy raw cider from local orchard, Dad let it sit in frdge and it would naturally ferment after a month or two. Trying to replicate that wonderful not carbonated beverage. We have a prolific Fuji tree and Costco nearby. Tips?
Make a cider and let it degas :)
@@CitySteadingBrews The key!!! 🤣 got it thx
Hello there! I know you've probably had this question along so sorry in advance, I making my first mead and dont have a way to get a gravity reading 😅. So this has me Concerned for the future bottling phase and having them explode. Should I pasteurize just to be safe?
Yes. Or get a hydrometer.
I have a question. I have a cyser in secondary and decided to clean, freeze, thaw and add two apple that were sliced thin. One reason was for flavor and other was to take up head room but I did not remove the seeds. Do I need to worry about the seeds being in the brew?
Two apples? Nope.
Thank you!
You'd have to eat the seeds from 10+ apples at one sitting to start to have negative effects from the cyanide.
If making a 5 gal batch would you use 5 black tea bags?
Yes.
Looks great 👍 , im definitely gonna try to make something like this
Hey guys, You are fantastic!. I just started watching your videos. I'm going to start my first batch of cider. I have fermented grains before using bakers yeast. I have a heater in my fermenter and always kept the wash at 90F. I noticed you never mentioned maintaining a certain temperature. Does it effect the taste?
It does. 90f fermentation temp is really high except for kveik strains and may produce off flavors.
I’m making my first attempt at using actual apples 😊 But instead of on the hob I’m using a freezer to breakdown them down for juicing. Freeze, thaw, freeze repeat 😂 Quite fun. Could you guys give that ago on a future vid maybe?
You can freeze them if you like. That doesn't sanitize though.
Yup understand that 👍 I belong to a few FB groups that go for natural ferments, and on the whole very few have an issue. I usually go for “from concentrate” but this’ll be an experiment using locally collected apples. There again I might chicken out considering the amount of bloody effort it’s taken so far 😂
I love your videos and have tried some of your recipes. I'm in upstate New York and it's apple season. We're making cider today ( that's what we call the fresh pressed apple juice here). Because it isn't pasteurized should I add Camden tablets or pectic enzymes when I'm making wine or mead or hard cider?
Many will say you should. It's dependent on whether you want a wild ferment or you are adding yeast, how close to "bad" the apples were, etc.
@@CitySteadingBrews thank you.
My understanding of the term Scrumpy is that it refers to cider made with any random apples while true cider is made with selected apples. Orchard owners would pick cider apples when ripe. As apple varieties reach maturity at different times, different cider batches would use a selection of varieties to anticipate the desired balance of tartness and sweetness. As a commercial product those ciders, would be the premium. Cider made from the leftover apples, windfalls etc would vary in taste and quality and consequently would be less "processed". That was scrumpy and was originally sold from the barrel / tank at the cider houses. Scrumping is the petty theft of apples and presumably refers to the indiscriminate nature of the theft. Scrumpy now seems to refer to a type of cloudy and typically flat cider. I suspect "real" scrumpy might still be available in the cider making regions of Somerset and Herefordshire.
I think you're on to something about scrumpy there. The one's I've had in the Black Country were flat, cloudy and pumped from a barrel at room temperature. And presumably quite fresh/young. While the local farm ciders I've tried in Kent, were barrel aged and clear.
Hello Brian and Ms. Derica!
The final bit of kit has arrived. Completing my Starter Homebrewing Kit!!
I assembled the list from watching your videos.
We have a glass bottle that has a pour plug towards the bottom. It's like a gallon and a half. Do you think if I sanitized the whole thing I could use that for something like this?
Sure. Long as you can attach an airlock to it too.
I do a similar…But, I peel and chop the apples and slow stew with some cider to break down the apple chunks. Then mash and add into my primary. It seems to give more fermentable sugars and flavor. I also drop in a few apple zinger tea bags. Never a disappointment :)
You are likely concentrating the sugars a bit like we did in concentrated wine, but other than that... yeast will get to the sugars :)
@@CitySteadingBrews I guess I’m just speeding up the fermentation process then.
My other way is using my juicer to separate the juice to fine pulp.
All goes into the primary and done fast ! Usually @1.70 starting. So, about 7.88 finish abv before priming.
That’s with 1lb honey and 4 oz of brown sugar.
Splendid brew for sure :)
The was recently a study done in Michigan where they basically cataloged several hundred varieties of apples and categorized them for the purpose of cider production. They indicated that the preferred apples for cider/ hard cider production fell in the bitter-sweet category and would be of the sort you would spot out if eaten. They also have names you'll probably never see in a grocery store (granny smith might be the closest grocery store variety to this category).
I am currently making a cider(no fruit just juice from Aldi). Can I use the method of back sweetening with erythritol and the 42 grams of sugar for carbonation? My beginning gravity was 1.06 and currently 1.004. I was going to try to match you 1.010 once I add the erythritol.
Yes you can 👍
@@CitySteadingBrews Thank you so much. You guys are always so helpful.
Thanks to your videos I have been making mead dating back to May of this year and now about to try a Cider. I think I'm 7 batches of mead in so far. (Edit for typos)
I am working on a store bought juice batch right now. I like the idea of mixing up flavors by adding different kind of apples. Start with my prison wine and move on to more fancy ciders. Thanks for the videos.
Prison wine is dangerous...
Yeah. This is my first batch. On day 3 5. It seems very active. I followed all the sanitizing steps for the equipment. Basically what I have learned from your videos. Store bought juice and safeale yeast. I do have some froth at the top and don't know what to do with that. Used vodka in the airlock. Everything seems tight so I hope it isn't the wrong kind of bacteria and end up with acv.
If you sanitized and added yeast it should be fine. That's not prison wine :)
Just curious, did your pasteurization step obviate the need for campden tablets , before ferment?
Yes :)
Hey guys, great video! I want to brew some Cider myself...I noticed that you always have and ABV between 7-10%. Is there any technique to get a lower ABV? Thanks You :)
You can dilute the juice with water to lower the abv.
Love the idea of adding fresh apples to store bought juice! I came here to say regarding varieties, my first and best cider was half honeycrisp apple juice. Looks like target has it in season, so I’ll be giving that another try. It was leaps better than my attempt with regular apple juice
Can I use any black tea?😉
;)
I recently started watching your channel. I have always been interested in brewing, ever since I was in my teens, but never really did it. After recently finding your channel I had some American Cider (AKA Cloudy Juice) start to turn in my fridge on it's own. So since mother nature decided to start it for me, I figured why not, and I bought an airlock and bung and just whacked it into the plastic jug that the cider came in. After two weeks I just racked it. So I bought another jug of cider from the grocery store and tried it again, this time on purpose, using bread yeast, still in the plastic jug though. The first full jug I tried wasn't starting though, and I checked the ingredients and found that they had put in Glycolipids. Which upon investigation is a preservative! So I went to a local farm (Western NY) and got some of theirs, which was just exposed to UV light for sanitization, and it started up a right treat. Thoughts on using the plastic jug and the Glycolipids?
I am not a fan of plastic... works in a pinch. Glycolipids I have not researched, sorry.
I found this channel and I am hooked.
Best channel by far.i am also attempting your mead recipes.
I have organic apple juice that ingredients read: water, apple juice concentrate.
Will that be ok? You 2 are great!
Seems fine.
Watch this channel more than any other thing. Just started my first mead using what I've learned. When taking the top off to push down the apples did you have to de gas first?
I generally don't, and I don't even remove the lid. Just give it a swirl.
a couple questions how long do you keep your star-san solution, I heard the if the ph is below 3 it is still good. and why do you never use corks, would they work with natural fermentation ? made concord grape working on rhubarb want to try your hard cider. keep the vids, coming.
Mr. Arthur
We make a new batch of star san solution every brew day. The hassle and possible risk of storing it just is not worth the pennies it costs to make a batch. Why no corks? Swing tops have zero waste. You can carb with corks but you need the cages.
I'm a soon to be new brewer. I have all my basic equipment on order from Amazon with the exception of "The TRBOS". Any idea of where I can purchase one. The shape of the TRBOS in your photos, just makes so much sense, verses a straight sided bucket.
Try Lowes or Home Depot maybe? Amazon has been sold out for a while.
Just got most of my hardware supplies (starsan, pump, yeast), just need to get my fruit product & fermenting jar, & I'll be starting my first brew! 😁 Gonna practice with 3 simple brews first, hard apple cider, honey mead, & strawberry wine, just to get the hang of things. Wish me luck!
Woohoo!
Best of luck!
As someone who reaches first and foremost for a cider, I have tried every version of a cider you can possibly imagine. That being said, I believe that Angry orchard is by far the best cider you can find off the shelf. I don't know if you guys have tried Angry Orchard, although it's homebased here in the lovely upstate NY, but it is generally available throughout the US. If you have any insight as to how it stands up against this, their website reads their indication on apples choice as such:
"It is a perfect balance of sweetness and bright acidity from culinary apples and dryness of traditional cider making apples, resulting in a complex, yet refreshing, hard cider."
We've brewed cider a few times now in our household, including from straight juice. You articulated well as to the difference between previous apple brews and this brew, but I'd love to know how it compares to my favorite off the shelf cider. If I had the ability to emulate Angry Orchard at home, it would make me a happy brewer.
It's been several years since I had Angry Orchard, but I agree, it's good stuff. I'd have to say this is in the same theme as that cider since that's what I mostly model things after when I make cider.
This is a great episode! I am only making apple cider for the most part. Just perfecting the process, thanks for your time and energy to give us more knowledge. One production note - did something change in your audio recording? I have watched most of your videos and this one seems a bit muffled. Just from an audio for video nerd. Made videos for most of my life.
We didn't change anything, but I noticed something too. Could just be angles of our faces to the mics.
@@CitySteadingBrews Sometimes that little difference can be just a battery in the mic getting weaker, that is how I would know when to change them out on a commercial shoot. Another question based on your previous fruit fermentation videos, would there have been any advantage to freezing the apples after cutting? I have been using the dried apples in secondary method I learned here, to good effect.
Freezing is fine if you're not going to cook them.
Quick question, on pasteurizing the apples by heating them up, would cutting them in cubes, and then dunking in Star San work as well?
Nope. That only gets the outside. Just heat them, trust me, it works.
apfelwine is one of the better homeade drinks we can make. this video should have more likes.
Hello! Beginner here. Could you back-sweeten with Honey instead of Erythritol or variant?
Well, you can but then carbonation becomes risky as you have to stop carbonation at the right point but keep sweetness. We have done it with pasteurizing but it is a guessing game and guessing wrong means wither no carbonation or possible exploding bottles.
When it comes to cider, is it best to use pectic enzyme in primary, or secondary?
Thanks for all the help, and videos! 🤘
It works best in primary but we don't always use it.
@@CitySteadingBrews thanks! Not sure if I'll use it long term, but i wanted to do a "taste differences" test to see if cloudy adds/takes away from the flavors. Honestly I'm a "less complex the better" kinda guy, but... Science. 🤘
I doubt there will be any noticable difference.
Looking for some education here with two combo questions.
1. Can you use/why didn't you use apple cider?
2. Several times you said you used apple cider not juice, was that a mistake or is cider not available in your area?
At this point apple cider is around 8 bucks a gallon around my north east pa location so it seems a less expensive alternative than the fancy apple juice.
Cider or juice, same thing really when it cones to fermenting.
I am carbonating for the first time on a couple batches. I followed your formula for natural carbonation with sugar, my plan is to leave the bottles for two weeks in our 'bomb shelter' then 48 hours in the fridge before trying. Can I leave some of those bottles out of the fridge indefinitely? Or is there a chance the carbonation will be lost over time?
No need to leave them in the fridge but you can.
Not sure if this was said in the video but did you guys pasteurize the cider at all?
Nope. We used non fermentable sugars to sweeten.
I've been enjoying your videos for some time now, and you've inspired me to try making wine as well.
I have a bunch of bagged frozen fruit roommates have left in the freezer over the years, have you tried a frozen fruit brew yet? I'm thinking it would be a similar process to what you did in this apple cider, but frozen fruit instead of fresh apples?
Thanks~
We have many brews with frozen fruit. As in dozens :)
I have 2 gallons of honey crisp cider that I bought with some dry bread yeast would like to try making some cider. Could you advise me on where I could pick up a proper cleaning solution and what type of solution I should get my recommend or remember Used mentioning Stardust or something like that also do you have a how to clean your gear video?
We use Star San. Should be linked in the description.
THANK YOU!!!! Have you ever thought of offering a certificate program??? Lol😂😂😂😂 you two are AWESOME 😎😎😎😎😎
Certificate program?
Pilot G2 user here. Nice to see there is another aficionado out there. ✌🏼
G2 users unite!
My cat Loki came over to torment me when he heard about your cat Thor.
Not sure if I missed it, but what is the purpose of cooking the apples? Was it to clean them or another purpose? Also, if I make this in a 1g fermenter rather than the 1.4 of the Little Big Mouth, would you recommend reducing the carbing sugar, since the total volume would be less?
The carbing sugar is for 1 gallon. So adjust accordingly. Cooking the apples was to make sure they were free of anything that might infect the brew.
@@CitySteadingBrews thank you!
This video would have been most helpful to me yesterday. 😅
Looking to get bulk honey in my area, and finding "creamed" honey. I'm not familiar with it, but could I still use it for mead? Just not sure if the add anything to make it creamy or if it's just sorta crystalized.
It's mostly just whipped. You can ferment it :)
Perfect, thanks!@@CitySteadingBrews
I steam juiced apples to get a gallon of pure apple juice to make hard cider. (I just started the fermentation today). After watching a video on your blueberry cider did I need to add the campden tablets to that? I have also made 2 batches of wine from the wild plums we had an abundance of this summer using the same method of steam juicing. I used it as it is was a concentrate and used 15 oz of juice then filled with water. It all seems to taste pretty spectacular. I am thinking that was correct since it was pure and concentrated, can you give any feedback on your opinion on that? I am having a really hard time finding a video to guide me, so my scientific self is going on a whim and some UA-cam browsing.
Never used a steam juicer. I hate campden tabs though. If the juice is heated to 160f or higher for at least 69 seconds, it's pasteurized. No need fir further treatment. A quick look on Google seems like steam juicing is enough.
@@CitySteadingBrews excellent, thank you. You should try a steam juicer. It's amazing! I prefer not to put anything extra in my food/drinks so will give this first few batches a try without it. We'll probably drink it too quickly for anything to be an issue. ALso, thank you for the great videos.
Would you consider pressing the apples after frementation to get extra juice? That's often done with wine grapes. Or possibly using those apples in a pie? Just curious. I have your fine wine from store bought juice working right now, and will likely make this once i get a carboy free. Thanks!
You can. There's some in there but it might be hard to separate from the lees.
Would it be a good idea to blend the apples up to get more or the sugars and moisture out of the apples
No need. The partial cook breaks them down and yeast are microscopic.
I recently had some craft sour kraut (VT, Von Trapp) and am considering making my own. I see the vinegar in the background that includes the mother, Which I will be using for my kraut.
Sauerkraut isn't made with vinegar though...
Sourkraut is just cabbage and water
@@TallnerdyguyAnd salt right?
You should try (Tree Top Pure Pressed 3 Apple Blend) as the liquid. I took this recipe and made 5 - 1gal Jars and going to experiment by adding different ingredients to them. Thanks for everything yall do.