Decades ago, founders Steve + Colin, as boys, spent summer afternoons stealing apples from their neighbors’ trees. Their rebellious bond turned into a shared passion for apples + a combined 38+ years of cider-making.
Our taproom offers a true cider experience with up to 16 lines of distinctive ciders, made using centuries-old techniques and served in a relaxed, cozy atmosphere.
Why does this seem like a dick measuring contest with the old guy with the beard trying to out do the young guy while rolling his eyes and acting like he pissed and drunk?
Great videos guys. Thanks for taking the time to create! Here in North Carolina, our different styles of apples mature several weeks or months apart. For added depth and complexity, post fermentation blend seems to be the only option. is it necessary to use the same yeast strain for every batch?
Hi! I assume that the cider you are referring to is carbonated. How do you carbonate it? After fermentation in the first tank, do you pump the cider through filters to another tank? Then, in a pressure tank, do you mix it with non-fermented sugar? Finally, the bottling machine doesn't seem to be airtight. Could you make a video about your entire process? Not in too much detail, of course (to protect your recipe), but a general overview of the production line would be great.
Hi. That video shows a gravity bottle filling unit. For that product, we blend a priming sugar at the time of bottling and allow it to re-ferment (bottle condition) in the bottle. No filtration. For our canning line, we filter into a brite tank, chill and carbonate. Then we run it through our canning system.
Another thing some people do is they use priming sugar and "bottle condition" the keg and let it naturally carbonate. Then they just need to have the co2 to serve.
Yes - that is possible as well. Sediment does collect and pour out with the cider but it does work if the keg is kept at room temperature long enough and sealed well enough to create that pressure.
Hey guys, I had a cider made of feral apples from my cottage that went to 1.004 in primary and stayed there for over a month straight. Can't say it's stuck or not, but with champagne yeast I figured it might be. Racked to secondary yesterday and will leave it for a few months to mellow out and clear up in the glass carboy. I'd like to bottle prime, and get to champagne carbonation. My concern is that the yeast is stuck. I guess I could experiment and just do one bottle, and if it carbonates, I can confirm the yeast is still kicking. But if I add a tiny bit of yeast and sugar to my bottles, will it change the flavour profile? Thanks!
Definitely add a little yeast at bottling. You may want to be conservative on the priming sugar amount due to the existing sugar in the cider which will likely ferment on the addition of more yeast. Use the same kind of yeast and it should not materially change the quality of the cider but its flavor profile will change over time no matter what you do, but especially if you dry it out more, so if you love it now, you might consider kegging and force carbonating.
You should follow the instructions on the yeast packet - as they differ but in general - for a dry yeast, probably 1 or 2 grams per gallon. We use grams because most of the packages we get use grams :)
We assume you meant to say "bread" yeast. Yes, that will work but cider yeast is relatively cheap in the grand scheme of things and will likely make for a better product as it has been selected for its match with cider.
You will have to check out our back sweetening video. For shorter term or cooler stored product you can use a sorbate/sulfite combo, which theoretically can work for all purposes... For longer term or room temperature storage you will need to pasteurize.
Guys, great video. Love your vibe and interaction. One thing I wanted to mention - I've tried back-sweetening a very straight, simple cider with Stevia and had to discard the entire batch. While it adds non-fermentable sweetness, Stevia is not flavorless and adds a distinctly strange, almost metallic taste to the product. Everyone who tried the back-sweetened portion of that batch detested it and found the dry version very drinkable and far better although some wished for it to be sweeter. For the record, that batch was made with fresh-pressed, unpasteurized cider from a local mill, stilled with potassium metabisulphite to remove wild yeasts and bacteria, fermented with a Champagne yeast to a 6-7% ABV, half back-sweetened with Stevia and half not, then bottled with about 25 gm/gallon of fermentable priming sugar to develop carbonation. Haven't tried Monkfruit, but I've shifted instead to using Red Star's Premier Côte de Blancs yeast to bring up the fruit flavors that the champagne yeast neutralized. It still produces a dry cider but with more fruit flavors coming through, there's more joy. I may try the trick of adding a short measure of sweet cider before serving, or bringing a small pitcher of sweet cider to the table to allow guests to add sweetness to their liking in the future.
Sulfites are very strong and only a small dosage is used/needed. Further - the sulfite used dissipates largely by bottling to around 25ppm free so2. I am not aware of any authority for your thought but I would have no doubt that in sufficient dosage so2 would be very harmful.
Well, that was great! But I can see room for improvement. I would experiment with using vitamin C to prevent browning, and at bottling I would add Acerola Cherry to recharge to anti-oxidant level and add additional valuable phytos and trace elements. I'm doing that for very small batch of Orange/Lemon and it works great. I'm handling those by starting with the equivalent of about a quarter-gallon of sliced chunks, mash that, and add water to 1-1/2 gallons, and refrigerate. I then agitate and pour and re-top with water as needed. I pour 1.25 liters into recycled Pepsi bottles for my bike commutes and keep that refrigerated for drinking instead of plain water. There's a perfusion of the orange and lemon, peels and all, into the water, along with natural sized chewable bits. This is adjustable. Adding the Ascerola keeps it absolutely fresh tasting from pour to pour. I end up with about 2.5 gallons before it's exhausted. This is relatively low-cal, much healthier than commercial drinks and cheaper!
Yes - that would ferment the sugars and make alcohol. Flavors likely to be much different though as the yeast variety strongly influences character and aroma.
@@Number12Cider thanks for your reply. I actually tried it a month ago with some store bought juice and it worked great. I don’t have any thing to compare it to but I thought it tasted good.
Hi - when the ferment is active like that, the co2 that comes off the cider is fairly protective so we would recommend taking the airlock out, use a damp cloth to clean out the neck of your carboy or jug, clean up the airlock and put it back in. If the fermentation is subsided or stopped, best practice would be to put some co2, argon or other neutral gas in there before closing it up but I would not worry to much about that.
Very cool to see i grow all of these apple varieties, amd have a geneva crab that is very similar in appearance and red flesh. Hope to see more videos soon.
Should I let the nom fermentable sugar sit for a little bit before I bottle and carbonize? Also can I add the NF sugar straight to my carboy that has my cider?
I love how you guys keep it short sweet and too the point. I think I’m getting in my own head from all the research I’ve been doing. Do I pasteurize, do I add Campden tabs or k-sorbate, yada yada. At the end, I just want it to be on the sweeter side and carbonated.
Sorry for the late reply. For the sweeter side you will need to either (1) keep it in the fridge and drink it fast; (2) use a sorbate/sulfite blend to prevent re-fermentation; (3) pasteurize or; (4) sweeten it right before you drink it by the glass or bottle :) good luck!
So I guess i already messed up and killed my yeast before I remembered I was gonna add some sugar to carbonate.. Anybody got any ideas to remedy at this point?
I live in Australia and frozen juice concentrate is not a thing. I was thinking about using an apple cordial and then force carbonating. Given the cordial contains potassium sorbate, I wouldn't need to chemically stablise the dry cider first?
Hello - you can give it a try but I think you would need to add enough potassium metabisulfite or other SO2 product to kill any active yeast in your cider for that to be effective.
Excellent explanation to combine carbonation and back-sweetening. I am planning to prepare cider but with very low alcohol, about 3%, it is for family during christmas. Any recommendation?
