Cider #1

My wife and I went apple picking last weekend and brought home a bunch of apples, some apple cider donuts, an apple pie, and a 1 gallon jug of fresh pressed apple cider, which fortunately had been stored at refrigerator temperatures. The orchard store also had some hard cider for sale, but since I like to ferment stuff at home, I figured, why not see what I can do with a $7 jug of fresh, unpasteurized cider.

9/5/13 - Bought cider, and stored it in the fridge.

9/7/13 - Put 1 tablet of campden in the cider to kill any wild yeasts and reduce / kill the bacteria in the cider, let sit in the 65F basement. Measured the gravity of the cider using my new refractomer. I don't have distilled water for use in calibrating the tool, but my tap water measured 0 Brix. The water is pretty light in mineral content, so I think that's about right. The reading was 11.25 Brix or 1.0452 OG. 

9/9/13, 6:45pm - Transferred cider with a funnel into a sanitized 1-gallon jug. Dissolved some yeast nutrient and 2 Tbsp honey in very hot water, and added it to cider. Pitched 1/3 packet of Red Star dry champagne yeast, and swirled the jug around to mix with the yeast into the cider. Placed the jug in the 65F ambient air in my parents' basement. Since I don't have any peptic enzyme, I will just add it later as it can be added after fermentation is complete without causing a problem.

Now I need to wait... a long time. Cider is apparently best after a long, cool fermentation. But at least the process of brewing cider is much easier than all-grain beer brewing.

9/10/13, 6pm
Cider was slowly bubbling. A small krausen had formed on top. The fermentation does not seem to be as vigorous as most of my beers.

11/11/13
Cider is now very clear, at least at 65F. The yeast appears to have all settled to the bottom. I transferred it off of the yeast cake into another jug, leaving most of the yeast behind. A tiny bit remained. It tasted OK, but had kind of a sulfury smell.

12/3/13
Bottled with table sugar, going for about 2.25 volumes. I didn't add any yeast, but stirred up some of the yeast that was at the bottom of the growled. The temps down in the basement are around 60F, which I hope is not too cold for the yeasties to eat the sugar and produce some carbonation over the course of a couple of weeks.