Cider Fermenting
Originally uploaded by mikeysklar
There is something about winter that makes fermenting so much more appealing. I picked up a 1 gallon jug of apple cider from "Wally World" for $4 and decided to try and ferment it. I've had good luck with ciders in the past, but on this version I noticed a potential problem. There is a ingredient called "potassium sorbate" in the list which even says "to preserve flavor". The truth is that potassium sorbate prevents yeast colonies from multiplying. A clever work around was pointed out to me by this instructable. The solution is to start with a packet of champagne yeast in sugar water and get the yeast multiplying before adding it into the store bought apple cider. This just takes a few hours.
This cider has a few things going for it that my previous fermentation experiment did not. I am using a temperature strip, proper air lock, and documented the starting values for specific gravity/balling/potential alcohol.
1 comment:
I've never had luck getting cider with preservatives in it to ferment. But I did have remarkable luck getting the cheapest frozen apple juice concentrate (only ingredients listed - apples and water) to ferment into a very nice hard cider. The final cider did take much longer than I expected to really reach it's peak though, the first couple of months after bottling it was pretty much undrinkable. The next few months it was tolerable. A bit more than a year later and it was finally enjoyable - and well worth the wait!
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