Hard Apple Cider Take II

This will be my second attempt at a hard apple cider after first brewing one in September 2015.  I made a 5 gal batch which I split into a dry half and a backsweetened half.  I backsweetend with cider and then pasteurized the bottles in a pot of hot water once they were carbonated nice.  I still have a few bottles left and it's held up well.

I preferred the sweetened half of the batch.  The plain was nice but seemed a bit more like a white wine than a cider.  For this batch I'll be doing 10 gal with half aged on 12 lbs of homegrown raspberries and then I will backsweeten both halves with 1 gal of cider each.

Last time I used a cider yeast.  The plain half ended up developing a significant sulfur aroma after bottle conditioning which took a few months to fade.  With the idea of maybe avoiding that this time I have opted to use an English Ale yeast - I went with Danstar Windsor dry ale yeast.  I'll be fermenting at basement temps (low 60s) which I would think would limit the amount of ester that the yeast would create.

I plan to let both of these ferment for a few weeks and then I'll cold crash and fine both.  I'll then bottle the plain half.  The raspberry half will get some campden tablets to knock out the yeast prior to the raspberries to try to preserve more of the raspberry sweetness.  I'll age this for a few more weeks at a cold temperature prior to backsweetening and bottling.

Like last time I'll be using a Cider from Weaver's Orchard which is an hr East from me in Morgantown PA.  Their Cider has a nice tartness which balances the sweetness well when unfermented and which gives the hard cider nice complexity.  Their cider is pasteurized using UV light rather than any chemical which is nice for fermentation.  You also get a good discount when buying in bulk.

Recipe Details:

• Apples/Juice:
• 12 gal of Weaver's Orchard Sweet Apple Cider
• Yeast:
• Danstar Windsor Ale Yeast
• Extras:
• 1 tsp Yeast Nutrient
• 5 tsp Pectic Enzime
• 12 lbs of Raspberry

Process Details:

• Batch Size:
• 12 gal
• Fermentation Temperature:
• Ambient Basement Temps (low 60s)
• Primary Duration:
• 4 Weeks
• Secondary Duration:
• 3-4 Weeks for Raspberry half

Results:

• OG:
• 1.040
• FG:
• 0.992
• Apparent Attenuation:
• 100%
• ABV:
• 6.3%

Brewday Notes:

• 12/2/18 - Brewday
• Put the Pectic Enzyme and yeast nutrient into the brew buckets

• Added 1 gal of cider to each and swirled to blend in
• Added remaining 4 gal of juice to each.  Poured it from a  couple feet up to aerate
• Let this sit for 30 min to let the pectic enzyme to take action

• Rehydrated dry yeast in a cup of 105 F spring water
• Pitched half the yeast in each bucket

• Froze 2 gal of cider to be used for back sweetening
• Left to ferment at basement temperature (low 60s)
• 12/3/18 - No airlock activity yet
• 12/4/18 - Airlock is bubbling vigorously
• 12/5/18 - Airlock still bubbling and fermenting cider putting off a sulfur aroma
• 3/17/19 - Bottled the plain half today with 1 gal of Cider to backsweeten.  Measured gravity of the fermented portion as 0.992.  The cider has a slight surfer aroma and had a mild apple flavor.  I got 21 16 oz bottles and 29 12 oz bottles out of the ~6 gal of cider.  I'll open one every few days to gauge the carbonation development.  They'll condition in my ~60 F basement.  Once ready I'll bottle pasteurize.

• 3/29/19 - Blended the other half with 12 lbs of raspberries.  Added two campden tablets to try to stop any further fermentation.  Moved this to the chest freezer at 40 F to mix.

• 4/7/19 - Pasteurized the bottles of plain cider in a 150 F water bath for 20 min.  They were only lightly carbonated but I was worried that I'd lose the small amount of remaining sweetness if I let them go any longer.  I think 2 gal of fresh cider rather than 1 gal would have been a better call.
• 4/23/19 - Bottled the Raspberry half with 1 gal of unfermented cider and a packet of the Red Wine version of Red Star yeast.  The gravity with the Fermented Cider and Raspberries (but not unfermented cider) was 1.006.  This is a good 14 points higher than the plain cider which makes me happy (cold crashing and hitting it with campden tablets seem to have halted fermentation as desired).  The cider is fairly mild flavored which allows the raspberries to come through very nicely in flavor and aroma.  Ended up with 6 gal which netted me 60 bottles.  I will check on these over the next week and cold crash when carbonation levels are right.
• 4/27/19 - The raspberry cider is still sweet but getting to be nicely carbonated.  I pasteurized today in a 150 F water bath for 20 min.  I walked away withe heat on and came back a few minutes later to exploding bottles.  I lost 6-8 bottles - now have 49 of the original 60 (I think I had 5 or 6 samples this week to test the carbonation
• 11/8/19 - Tasting Notes:
• Plain:  A light and refreshing drink - pretty easy to consume a few of these as dry as they came out.  The flavors are pretty mild overall and it isn't as apply or as complex as I would have liked.
• Raspberry:  I think the raspberries are a really nice addition.  They don't overwhelm the cider at this level of usage certainly but they add another dimension which increases the interest in drinking it a bit.  Still a pretty mild drink overall though