I've never made a cider

[Test_Engineer]

Just some quick reading and ideas leads me to this plan of attack:

-5 gallons of cider from the local orchard
-kill all the critters with .25 teaspoons potassium metabisulphite(then wait 24 hours)
-pitch a dry wine yeast(cort des blanc) or sweet mead yeast and some yeast nutrient
-add 1lb of brown sugar and 1lb of Honey after everything is going good in the primary

Rack to secondary on top of 2 lbs of Raspberries (steeped at 150F for 15min of course)

Rack to tertiary to let clear up

Wait till everything is DONE and prime with corn sugar and bottle at a light to medium carb vol. Might need to add some new yeast before bottling.

I know this isn't exactly a traditional cider, but it sounds fun. I'd like it to have a nice apple and raspberry taste. Finish of semi-dry. So, do I need more brown sugar and/or honey to retain "some" residual sugars or will it just add more alcohol? Which yeast would be preferable? What about adding yeast, and what kind before bottling? I know this whole process is gonna take a few months, so I'd like to try something a little crazy for the first trial.

[Test_Engineer]

slow forum section..................

nobody has any suggestions or insight to head me in the right direction.

[Brew Engineer]

The only time I tried to make a cider it smelled aweful, and tasted nasty.

I didn't have any luck in cider.

Sorry!

[Test_Engineer]

The only time I tried to make a cider it smelled aweful, and tasted nasty.

I didn't have any luck in cider.

Sorry!

How long did you let it go? From what I have read, you should expect a big sulfur smell during fermentation that is similar to lager fermentation. And depending on the OG, this could take some time to fully ferment out, and aging is also a big key to mellow all the flavors.

[meisterofpuppets]

how do you add the brown sugar and honey during the fermentation?

[iloman]

Sorry I don't have any experience to offer in this as my first ciders are fermenting in the basement right now. What I can say from what I've read here and in books is that if you want it to be sweeter and have more of an apple juice flavor than most dry ciders you'll need to stop the fermentation early, or once fermentation is complete kill the yeast and sweeten the cider with some additional juice to taste. Otherwise the sugars from the honey and the apple juice are pretty much going to ferment out. All of this will of course give you a still cider instead of a sparkling cider if you don't have the equipment to force carbonate.

Another option is to starve the yeast of nutrients in a French fashion either through the addition of stuff that a more experienced person could tell you about, or rack and rack and rack and rack that cider every time there's something on the bottom to rack off of until there's nothing left to settle out. I'm told this method will result in a sweeter cider with a lower alcohol content. Again you'll need to force carbonate if you want a sparkling cider

Here's what I have going right now:
1 gallon of local soft cider fermenting with 1 vial of wlp001
1 gallon of local soft cider fermenting with 1 pack of Red Star Cote des Blanc
1 gallon of two pounds honey topped off with local hard cider fermenting with 1 pack of Red Star Cote des Blanc (warmed up the honey on the stove so it would pour in the jug and dissolve well in the cider)

I kept it all simple for the first batch to see what flavor differences you get with the two different recommended yeasts as well as the honey addition. Personally I think the raspberry addition sounds like it might taste good, and if my memory serves me correctly a raspberry cider from the new york area was one of the firsts to sell out at a local cider festival we had here in Michigan last month.

Whatever you end up doing please post the results back. I'm very interested in hearing what you get.

[Madtown Brew]

I've made a couple batches of cider including 10 gallons I have going currently.

From my experience, unless you like dry cider then you will definitely need to back sweeten post fermentation (I find this much easier than trying to stop fermentation at the right time). Even with the sweet mead yeast, I haven't had one finish above 1.004 yet. I usually just hold back 1/2 gal of cider and freeze it then add it in when I keg and keep refrigerated. Additionally, the juice from a lemon or lime can give it that little extra kick. I like my ciders to say "POW, right in the kisser."

You might also want to hold back a bit of the raspberries to add fresh to the keg for additional aroma and flavor post fermentation.

[Test_Engineer]

Stopped by the orchard yesterday and picked up 5 gallons of fresh cider. I'm headed to the LHBS today for yeast, and other things.

Still on the fence if I should do the Honey and Brown sugar or not.

As far as back sweetening goes, that would be great if I could keg right now, but this will have to be bottled. So it seems I am going to have a dry sparkling cider. I might bottle half of the batch normal and try some splenda in the other half to see how that works.

Any comments?