First time cider

[clay5769]

Hi all
First attempt at hard cider, I've done a bit of beer, I sanitized everything with the no rinse sanitizer it came with


I bought a kit from brewdemon it was for hard apple cider I didn't the use the apple juice it came with, I substituted a can of strawberry pie filling. I just bottled it today added 1 teaspoon of sugar for 16 0z bottles
It smells like beer I tasted a bit seems ok but had floaters I believe it was the little black thing in the strawberry.

My main question is can you get sick from home-made hard cider.

I boiled 4 cups of water per instructions, I took it off the stove and stirred the mix into the pot.
I added the mixture to the fermenter that already had 1 gallon water in it, then added I can of strawberry pie filling in place of apple juice. Then I added the enclosed pack.of yeast. It was in fermentation for 7 days per instructions.

Any thoughts? Thanks Clayton

[mashani]

My main question is can you get sick from home-made hard cider.

The act of fermentation lowers the PH and adds alcohol. As long as you reach a proper PH (~4.5 or <) and at least 2% alcohol, in beer/wine/cider, then bacteria that would be considered human pathogens are suppressed / destroyed. So basically as long as it ferments fully it's not likely going to harm you unless you fermented it in a container that has toxic properties, or the water itself was actually toxic not due to a pathogen, but something that is a poison / heavy metal, etc.

There are many types of bacteria and yeast that won't be destroyed by this, but none of them will harm you. They could however make your beverage ferment out much more and become thin in body and more alcoholic (or blow up your bottles or cause gushers) or become very sour, or goopy/stringy, or taste like baby puke, or sweaty horse blankets or various other things (some people actually like the sweaty horse blanket taste and you can find that in some Belgian beers brewed with certain yeasts). None the less you could still drink any of those things if you wanted to and not get sick in the sense of it being dangerous as long as you could stomach it.

In a very high alcohol beverage, some of the souring bugs (specifically acetobacter) could eat all of the alcohol and lower the PH enough that it becomes so acidic it could give you blisters in your mouth if you didn't dilute it. But it would smell and taste like ultra strong vinegar if this happened, you would know as soon as you smelled it that it was vinegar not beer or cider.

So really it's not a matter of can it make you sick unless you are fermenting in a dangerous vessel, it's more of a matter of do you want to actually drink the results.

In any case, next time I would suggest using the cider mix that came with the kit, and then adding other fruit mixes to it, vs. simply substituting other fruit mixes. That said, the pie filling likely had plenty of sugar to ferment I guess, hopefully enough to get you to that 2%.

(it's not that it's totally unsafe if it didn't get there, especially if your PH is 4 or 3.5 or even lower, it's just that 2% is a more or less for sure safe target for something that you might like drinking that you don't want to seem "sour". Something that is 3.5 or < is going to be sour tasting for sure).

[clay5769]

Hi
Thanks for your reply.

The fruit that came with the kit was just a can of tart cherries, all their cider kits have the same base just a different can of fruit. The only thing they had was tart cherries so I figured just adding a different filling wouldn't be a big deal. I have filtered well water so I don't know how that affects the cider or beer.

I sanitized the blender per instructions and pureed it and added to fermenter. I just ordered a Hydrometer to test so I'll know when it gets here if it's got enough alcohol.


I tasted it before I bottled it it tasted ok not sweet kind of like flat strawberry soda It smells like beer, I sanitized all the bottles and swing tops for over 10 minutes in the no rinse sanitizer that it came with.

It looks cloudy like store bought cider not juice

I added the sugar for carbonation then put them in the dark cool area waiting 7 days per instructions.

[clay5769]

Hi here a bottle it was last bottle that I filled and I was tipping the fermenter to get ever drop I marked the bottle so I know that's why some of the floaters but does this look right? It's s 7 days fermentation 1 day carbonation..
The little black things are from the strawberry



Thanks

[mashani]

In the OP, you said you didn't use the apple juice, but in your post I think it sounds like you did, and just swapped out a different can of fruit? If so then you should be good. BUT.

7 days is likely not long enough to fully ferment that unless you used yeast nutrients. I don't care what they tell you they are full of it.

I think you said you were going to get a hydrometer right? If you get one, take a sample out of one of the bottles. If it is not 1.000 or < or very close (if you added bottling sugar it may be slightly higher temporarily) it wasn't / still isn't done fermenting. If you didn't add bottling sugar and were going for a flat cider, then for sure that stuff is still fermenting on it's own.

The little dots are strawberry seeds, but all of that bottle trub and all of the krausen that goes way up to the top of the bottle suggests to me you may have a very vigorous bottle fermentation going on and are potentially looking at bottle bombs soon because it wasn't done fermenting before you bottled it.

[berryman]

It's 7 days fermentation 1 day carbonation

No matter what the direction say and especially if changing the recipe, it probably won't be done in 7 days. Maybe a low gravity like 1.040 ish would be done with the amount of yeast provided. I can give you a proven Apple cider recipe and less money then a kit you can try. Get 2 gals of cheap apple juice, make sure it's 100% juice, a 11.5 pack of s-04 yeast. if want to kick it up a bit could add a 1/2 lb white or brown sugar. let it ferment for a min of 14 day but better 21 @ 68-70 degs. then bottle as normal.
Edit: this may taste too dry for your liking, I back sweeten but that is a whole another subject....

[clay5769]

Hi
Your right my bad I said I didn't use apple juice what I meant was I didn't use the can of tart cherries, I used their cider mix which I believe was apple juice in the can.

I just substituted the pie filling for tart cherries can


The recipe called for 1 1/2 cups of sugar and yeast and approximately 7 day fermentation.

Instructions that came with it below

Should I dump it?

Thanks

[mashani]

No, never "dump it" unless you know it's bad. If you saw some of the gnarly looking things I've bottled and drank you would be much calmer

It is not likely not "bad", but it might not be really done fermenting.

You didn't say if you added bottling sugar to carb it. If you did not, then for certain it was not done fermenting based on how it looks.

In any case check one SOON and see if it's over carbonated, and then if so vent all of them and then re-cap. You don't want bottle bombs. Better flat cider then blown up cider.

Really listen to us - ignore any directions that say to bottle in 7 days. Just don't do it right now. Always wait 2 whole weeks. It won't hurt anything to do so and is more likely to not cause trouble.

Later if you start making your own stuff from scratch or extract with boils or bottled apple juice or what not, and are pitching a lot more yeast then come with the kits, then you can possibly get away with less time, but really those kits don't come with enough yeast and you don't know how it was stored before you got it, how old it really is, etc... it's just not a good idea at all to follow the 7 day directions.

[clay5769]

Hi
I put 1 1/2 cups of sugar in the recipe when I was making it and when I bottled them I did add 1 teaspoon of sugar for carbonation .

This is a picture after 2 days carbonation

[garciatalex]

Hello all,
I have my first cider fermenting and today is day 15. Fermentation is still active (slow, but moving), is this normal?
I think I'll wait one more week or days until it finishes but I wanted to check with others. Any advice would be appreciated.

Alex


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[mashani]

I would say normal with the little packets of yeast they give you, especially if your temperatures are on the low side of what the yeast likes.

I'd just wait a bit longer. It will get done.

[Dodsfall]

Allowing more time in the fermenter will also settle particulates out of the brew and result in a clearer bottled product. A hydrometer will let you know for sure if the fermentation is complete.