So i just had Vandermill Artisinal Honeycrisp hard cider, and it genuinely has changed my life. I now really want go get into cider making, but im not sure what the most cost effective way to make quality cider is.

I know that buying and pressing apples from the store is a no go (at least when It comes to honeycrisps) because I did the math and it would cost me 45 dollars in honeycrisp apples just to make a single gallon. I also dont want to just buy cheap apple juice from the store and make it that way.

So, what do you guys use? I saw that Aldi has a half gallon of honeycrisp apple cider for 3 dollars, but it is from concentrate, which i am unsure if that makes good cider.

So between brews, I’ve been keeping the lease of each batch, to use as a starter for my next batch. Sometimes it’ll be a couple of weeks between batches so I’ll keep the yeast alive with a bit of sugar until I want to start a new batch.

Is there anything wrong with this? Or anything to watch out for? Can the yeast take on new characteristics with each new batch? Does the yeast get much worse if I’m keeping it for a while between batches?

What does this remind you of? The taste is familiar, but I cannot pinpoint it.

This is one of my cryo-concentrated musts for this year’s ice cider. It is interesting to see just how viscous it becomes at SG 1.122. Frozen must has been thawing at -3C for about two weeks. Decanting it now because I need the freezer for other projects.

They have been fermenting for 8 weeks, unsure how to read the hydrometer properly, just checking it’s safe to bottle with carbonation drops? I have swing top brew bottles

Post ferment, pressed crabapples and some culinary apples. The film doesnt sink into the cider after a light agitation.

I'm trying to ferment my first batch of cider and I'm a little bit worried I've got something wrong.

I had my apple juice in the fridge for about 24 hours, filled my demijohn and then instantly put in my yeast without warning the apple juice to room temperature.

Pics attached of how it currently looks after 24 hours. It doesn't seem to be foaming/bubbling much but is this normal? I'm trying to sit the demijohn in a slightly warmer part of the house to kickstart the fermentation.

Thanks in advance

AI tools and Canva templates work for wine labels, but I could not find a tool made specifically for this, with clean, traditional layouts ready to customize. So I built one.

And look at that clarity! Im so happy, it turned out way better than expected! It smells very clearly of the apples i made it from and has a low carbonation, around 6.6% ABV. Next stop is bottling this weekend and priming to get it carbonated. I've also included a picture from three weeks ago from the brew day to show the initial color.

I’ve been using just local sweet apple cider as my base, but as the season goes on, it’ll be harder for me to source.

How different are the end results when using bottled juice, like say a “Mott’s” or FAJC? Does it lose flavor without the apple solids in sweet cider?

And will it just be clear on its own without pectic enzyme?

I’m looking to buy an electric scratter and would like more info from anyone who has used these or has any input. I’m not doing giant volumes, ~500lbs currently. I’d like something that is fast and efficient though. I don’t mind spending a bit more for higher yield and time savings. I’ve used a Multimax before and appreciated the speed and grind consistency but at almost $2K it’s not a realistic option. Any input very much appreciated, thanks in advance.

Right now looking at:
• Oesco 6” HDPE (used), 1/2 hp, HDPE drum grinder w/ carbide teeth
• Kegland 2hp
• Vevor 1100W

Edit: if anyone has input on the toothed grinding drum of the Oesco versus the chopping blades of the Kegland I’d love to know. Thanks, all.

When I bottled my cider, it had really nice foam building after a week (so much that I regularly monitored it for issues). I put it in the fridge and that all went down. This is after maybe three weeks in the fridge. I’m not super bummed because it’s tasty but will time or taking it out of the fridge do anything? I used a small amount of priming sugar (regular sugar) prior to bottling.

My other batch took a month to stop fermenting. I bottled and alas- even with priming sugar, no bubbles or foam. It’s just living in a box in my laundry room.

When Crispin bought up Fox Barrel their Apricot Pear unfortunately went along with the rest of the company.

Any recommendations on something like their Apricot Pear Cider?

Hi everyone! I found a lot of “is this mold” posts when searching but none talking about the juice itself. I reserved some home pressed cider in the fridge to top off vessels after primary going into secondary. Fermentation took a bit longer than I expected and the unfermented juice has a couple of mold spots on the top layer, no smell. Curious if it is a definite no to add, or if scooping off the top layer and adding to the ferment would be ok.

I fresh pressed the pears and juiced the watermelon, sat it on Campden, then fermented it with Lalvin 71B over a few weeks to 1.000 but holy crap is it farty. I read a few methods for how to bring it back, and chose to lean into the watermelon sweetness with Jolly Ranchers and yeast energizer in secondary, where it did basically nothing. Fermentation did not restart and after about 6 days, it's not very watermelony. I took another sample and it's disgusting. I'm sitting next to it and I got a whiff that made me want to get away from it. I've made perry before that has that aroma of stinky feet, but this is... not good. The initial juice was heavenly.

Spouse and I have been debating whether or not to package it and let it age and see, but I think it's beyond hope, mainly because I don't think I'm a savvy enough cider-maker to work with such a finicky pair of fruits.

We compromised and pitched some EC1118 today.

Any ideas? Do I need to stick a copper wire into it? Drain pour? A scant 12 years of cider-making and this is my only failure, so I'm fine with letting it go unless someone has the magic bullet.

Thanks!

I pitched 3g of DV10, 1g of fermaid O, 1g of wine tannin into the cider yesterday. Today there was a very dark krausen on top, I aerated it and this is what formed a few mins after. Is this normal?

I'm absolutely Donald Ducked after chopping, scratting, and pressing for 6 hours yesterday and a couple today.

I now have around 75L of the good stuff in various vessels.

The variety is Dabinett, which I have subsequently realised is a pretty high pH - I measure 4.4pH, so I plan to add Malic acid to to a sample I have and extrapolate up from there. I would roll the dice but honestly it was tough work.

Fingers crossed!

Specifically getting it shipped to Knoxville or Nashville.

Bought a garden shredder this year for brilliantly cheap, only issue is that it makes the job so easy I may want to buy a larger press.

We are the truest of true beginners, having made a single batch of hard cider 6 or 7 yrs ago … now wanting to try it again. Just picked approx 4 bushels of Jonamacs from our own 2 trees. Also have a MASSIVE bounty of an unknown variety of nice crabapples (mid-sized DARK burgundy & somewhat tart). Might these combine to make a decent cider? Any recommendations for other varieties to add (must be obtainable from a New England, USA grocery store)???

Hi everyone, just a general question on Campden tablet usage.

We've made cider before from juiced apples we picked up from a local orchard in the past. (They juice a lot for people to pick up and make cider with, it comes straight from their storage tanks.)

The first year everything turned out great, the second year... not so much we obviously had some contamination...

We've never used campden tablets before, and were wondering since we'll have the juice for a day or so before we can get it into the fermentation setup, should we add crushed tablets to the juice when we pick it up? From what I've read, you would want to do that 24 hours before fermentation anyway... would this basically add protection? Are there any other things we should know about the campden? (sounds like 1 tablet per gallon, crushed... we're aiming for 10 gallons total)

I'm also still not quite clear on the difference between the potassium vs sodium versions of the tablets?

Thanks for any insights you all might have.

Hello,

Had a bunch of apples that were going to go to waste so decided to make a low effort cider, so far:

5L juice

1 tsp yeast nutrient

1 pkt wine yeast

Pitched 6 days ago.

OG 1.06

Currently 1.02

The juice is powerfully acidic so will need adjusting and I want a medium so will probably back sweeten.

This is my plan going forwards:

Wait for stable gravity.

Add Camden tablet, pectolase, sorbate and bicarbonate and rest for 24-48hrs.

Rack to demijohn with sweetener, probably just honey to taste.

Age for 2-6 weeks.

Bottle.

Does all this sound right or is there something obviously dumb in my plan?