Apricot Cider from grocery store juice - Excellent Cider from cheap juice. 

Sorry for the late reply as I swore I replied to this but don't see it anywhere. I fully agree with you on the "Grain to Glass" as that use to and still drives me nuts when someone does a brew and never shows how it turned out as it is like watching a movie with no ending. I have a few brewing mottos that I've used from time to time and can only think of the two that apply here but one is of course life is too short to drink bad beer and my other one as I seem to have my fair share of bad brew days from massive thunderstorms (I never remember to check the weather), lose of power, or failed electronics issue with a brewing system is that "The Brew Must Go On!" Once I've committed to brewing something I do everything in my power to finish it even if I have to move things around or go buy something (not too expensive) to get it done.

Sounds interesting as I agree the racking canes aren't the best solution plus beyond the sediment they stir up a bit they pull a nice amount of air into them on the first priming or two (or even three) every time. I kind of follow you but how do you get the liquid to start flowing out? Old trusty mouth siphon to start the flow? If so you can use your fingers wrapped around the tip (as long as they are wet) to create a gap between your mouth and the tube and still get it to work to avoid any contamination in the end results. Let me know if that is what you mean and how you start the flow.

@@BitterRealityBrewing Yes, I use the mouth syphon method (with both hands), which is easier here as compared to the racking cane since you have both hands free and you have to lift the liquid less. In the beginning, I have the tube inserted just a little, which disturbs the sediments less, and then I lower it as the liquid level drops. You can also cut the end of the tubing at an angle, which helps with the sediments.

@@TheWolfyDaddy Sounds a lot easier compared to a while back before I got my transfer pump I was building a special lid for 1 gallons using Silly Putty as basis for my template. I was trying to design a simple airtight lid that would allow for a air in to help build pressure to force the liquid out through a racking cane that could be moved around a bit without losing very much pressure. I gave up as it was a pain in the backside.

It was easy although I liked it clear better as I enjoy the tart flavors a bit. I actually have a cider sitting in my fridge just waiting to be started.

Wow and I thought I loved numbers as I do these types of calculations all the time and usually when I'm doing projections to set goals. You are absolutely correct but it is currently the best form of measurement that is simple and cost effective. A great example is my Pumpkin Ale as I estimated the grams of sugars and not the total carbs as we both know those may or may not be fermentable and well...it would appear the majority were fermentable as my abv was much higher than expected. My OG was higher than expected and what was fermentable exceeded expectations. Next time I will only take the top half as the clearer part of the Apricot cider tasted a lot better in my opinion as it was extremely dry and a bit more tart which I enjoyed compared to when the foggy pulp got mixed back into the cider.

@@BitterRealityBrewing Yes, your nectar was pretty cloudy or foggy to start out with, which certainly contributed to the OG. Most clear fruit juices, probably with about the same sweetness as your nectar, contain 27 to 28 g of sugar per 8 oz serving. Assuming that that also is your sugar content and using 28 g sugar / 8 oz means a factor of 28 / 35 = 0.8 relative to the previous estimate, and an OG reduced by that fact of 1.040.

Sounds nice as I prefer dry any day over sweet. I have some Honey Crisp Apple Juice blend that I'm getting ready to ferment into cider. Sadly all this seltzer stuff is taking up shelf space from the dry ciders usually available locally but I haven't seen any this year so I guess we all have to make our own which I'm good with just wish I would have known sooner.

@@BitterRealityBrewing There is a cider from NY I get at Wegmans..Original Sin Black Widow but yeah I haven't even tried a seltzer yet. Currently, on batch two of a red ale recipe..added a pound of biscuit malt this time. Hope to fill it out some more.

@@davideclark5431 I'm in Florida but I have had some Sin Black Window. As for the Red Ale, got any rye in there? I'm a big fan of Irish Red (dry of course), or Red IPA or Pale Ale with rye as I am a big fan of rye plus the red ales always have a nice malty backbone.

It was pectic enzyme but I'll have to check the video as I think I said pectin but meant pectin enzyme. Thanks for the heads up as sometime I have what an old friend use to call brain farts.

@@BitterRealityBrewing no worries, it's hard when you are trying to talk about pectic enzyme with the purpose of breaking down pectin so both words are in your mind, easy to slip there.

@@JimmyJusa And sadly I'm only getting older so it will probably get worse but I'll make sure I enjoy every minute of it.

I love them dry but I've seen a long list of tricks but I'll avoid any that require fake sweeteners as they just don't taste right. I think if you had a Tilt Hydrometer you could monitor the fermentation a bit better then stop it where you want it. Either adding 1/4 tsp of potassium metabisulfite per 5 gallons and 1/2 tsp potassium sorbate per gallon to stop fermentation or you could heat it to I think 120F for about 20 minutes which might be difficult based on quantity, or just keg it early and crash the temps close to 32 F (I do a handful of flavored beers using Amoretti and once I drop the kegs to 32 to 34 F it never seems to start fermenting again).

I do have a Tilt I could use for that, good idea, but I'm a little bit worried about halting the fermentation before yeast finished its job, or do you think that's nothing to worry about?

@@irrlicht6997 I would be fine but I probably cold crash the container it is in (if possible) before transferring it to reduce the yeast and other things in suspension from being moved over to the final product.

I did some of my first ciders almost 6 years ago with US-05 and US-04 and they came out nice but I wasn't impressed that is why I am playing around now with cider and wine yeasts as I've read they allow for the fruit flavors to shine a bit more. the dry wine and cider yeasts are very cheap either locally if available or online if you buy more than 1 packet at a time usually and they store for a very long time in the fridge.

@@BitterRealityBrewing is the wine yeast more tolerant of the higher OG as well? I noticed you just pitched the dry yeast right into the jug (~1/2 packet)?

@@jongerenski1545 Actually I only used a 1/4 of the packet at most. The wine yeast is generally more tolerant of higher abv's but not by much as US-05 is 11% from what I am seeing and D47 is 14%. If I did this again I might actually water it down to get it close to 5% to be more sessionable but I didn't want to add extra steps and I had a gallon to use. I was just thinking and wondering if the US-05 would get the fruit juices down as low in regards to the FG but probably a lot lower compared to beer as beer has more unfermentables.

@@BitterRealityBrewing so I’m making two 1 gallon batches today, a mango apple peach and a mango pineapple passion fruit. Question, does the wine yeast take longer to ferment? I know you said yours went about a month, is that about what I should expect? It’ll be in my basement around 63 degrees.

@@jongerenski1545 Check the wine yeast temp range as lower temps usually do take longer but usually ferment cleaner for most yeasts. My fermentation only took just over a week but I prefer to give it some time to finish out (2 weeks is my general rule) and then if I am wanting to see if it will clear up I'll either let it sit for another week or so or move it to another carboy (jug) or keg and chill it to see if I can get the haze out. For the Apricot I should have moved it but never did but that crazy haze just sat half way down. Pectic enzyme added before fermentation is supposed to help but I haven't seen huge success with it yet as it helps to break down the pectin in the fruit. Gelatin usually works best for me but the Apricot simply didn't want to clear up like most beers do.

The apricot was like $2.89 BOGO at the time and I sprinkled a little bit of D47 ($1 when I purchased a few during a sale). So if you are doing things like this making cider, meads, wine, or a home brewer you probably have some of these items already. Plus I don't ever remember seeing Apricot Cider at my local liquor store. Plus I actually enjoy making things myself from scratch or at least half way from scratch as I really don't enjoy juicing sticky fruit like Apricots as that is expensive and time consuming.

Say a lot of words. Your method isn’t CHEAP. Add up everything you did and used. You say bogo $2.89 but you’re method in reality is over $50. Probably taste good and get you drunk. Just isn’t cheap.

@@grasshopper5353 I'm sorry you think this somehow adds up to $50 but I enjoyed making it as an experiment which came out great and for me it was very cheap. Many of us enjoy making things for ourselves and getting drunk far from any of the goals I have with brewing or making beverages that may contain alcohol. Personally I think this would have been better clear and around 5% +/- vs the 7.8% it came out at without being watered down.