Quick Cider for kegging

[D_Rabbit]

I got this recipe from a guy in my Home Brew Club and plan on trying soon.

4-5 gallons of Kirkland Apple Juice (Costco Brand). It has no preservatives.
US-05 or WLP002 for yeast

Ferment and than Keg.

Use a frozen concentrate of apple juice and add to the keg to backsweaten. Pour fermented apple juice on to concentrate. Shake like hell to mix it up and put right in to the kegerator to chill and stop any fermentation. Carb and enjoy. You can do 1-2 cans of the concentrate, depending on how sweet you want.

I may just kill the yeast with potassium or sodium metabisulfite just to be safe.

Thoughts? Anyone ever use Kirkland apple juice?

[Kealia]

Seems easy enough and you answered the first question I had about killing the yeast to stop it from eating the concentrate. I've not used it but if there are be preservatives and it tastes good, I say go for it.

Now about the shaking....is there issue with oxidizing cider?

[D_Rabbit]

I don't think it is an issue. I probably wouldn't really "shake" it around vigerously. Probably more of a rolling thing like you woud do to carb the keg faster. I would think it wouldn't need too much shaking or rolling since you are transferring on top of the concentrate. That should mix it well for the most part.

[Dawg LB Steve]

Gonna try my hand at an Apple Cider with 3 gallons pasteurized 100% juice, have a can of frozen organic to back sweeten with, but want to use cinnamon stick. Been looking around the web and finding that it should be added after primary fermentation is completed. Question is do you just drop the stick in, add in a hop sack or steep it in some juice at pasteurizing temp then add? As far a stopping the yeast after back sweetening, a crushed Campden tablet is what I have seen.
Any thoughts?

[mashani]

If using an ale yeast you can just back sweeten with lactose and not use campden.

RE: Cinnamon, I'd personally soak it in vodka, and then toss it all in there (vodka and all, it becomes an extract of cinnamon, if you soak it for a week or so you could even not bother tossing the stick).

[Dawg LB Steve]

Yep keep forgetting about making tinctures. Im not sure yet on the yeast. Also bought 3 gallons Organic Lemonade and have a can of frozen Limeade concentrate, thinking of making a Sparkling Hard Lemon/Limeade. LHBS had Sparkling Limeade on their seasonal tap, very tasty.

[D_Rabbit]

Well, this is still fermenting! Made it on Sunday and it didn't show any signs of life until Tuesday. Been slowly bubbling ever since. Feels like this is taking forever!! Was hoping to keg it this weekend but it appears it will go another week since the family is in town for the first time since moving to VA.

[Jon]

I do a similar cider with 4-4.5 gallons of fermented juice that I backsweeten with 1 gallon of juice in the keg.

Since you're kegging, don't worry about campden or sorbate or anything. Cold crash if you can, but if you can't, just put it in the kegerator as soon as you add the backsweetening concentrate and mix it in. It miiiight ferment a tiny bit more, but not much (assuming you're using an ale yeast).

If you want to add spice, I like to add the spices to the fermenting bucket after primary fermentation has made some progress (but before it's completed). I like nutmeg, cinnamon and maybe some allspice or cloves, but primarily cinnamon and nutmeg (though that is 100% personal preference). Some citrus peel doesn't go amiss, but that I'll usually stovetop pasteurize with a small amount of juice (I just bring it to a quick boil and let it go).

I let the juice take its sweet old time, usually 3-4 weeks (up to 6 weeks, depending on temps and if I add any sugar to the fermenting juice) so it can drop fully clear. I like to either cold crash it, or let it settle for a day or so at siphoning height before I keg it (though it's not a big deal if you get some trub in the keg).

My kegerator is a converted full-sized fridge, so I try to put it in the back where it's coldest, put it on gas and use the set it and forget it method to carb. With my lines, that's usually around 9-12 PSI...cider doesn't hold head like beer, and people tend to like it a little higher, so I usually lean towards 12 PSI.

So usually, it's about a 5-6 week turn around time, including 3-4 weeks in the fermentor.

And it's AWESOME. Not as sweet as a lot of commercial ciders (Woodchuck), which is how I prefer it.

[LagerPMP]

Add some cinnamon dolce syrup in the keg, or in your glass for some extra nice flavor. Or a shot of Fireball whiskey. Great stuff especially come autumn, sitting around an outdoor fire pit.

[swenocha]

I do simple one gallon ciders with one gallon glass jugs of cider from Whole Foods that IMHO come out quite good. I just ferment it right in the jug, and obv keep the jug for one-gallon test batches, ciders, lemonades, meads, etc, which I usually have one or two of going at any given time. I do variations of the recipe based on this 5 gallon recipe from BYO (obv scaling down to my one gallon size):

Cidre Normande

Ingredients:

5 gals. fresh-pressed sweet cider, blend emphasis on sweeter and more aromatic apples, less on acidic apples.
2 cups honey
1/2 tsp. acid blend
1/2 tsp. yeast nutrient
5 grams champagne yeast
2/3 cup corn sugar
Step by Step:

Add honey, acid, and nutrient to the cider and ferment with the yeast. Rack after three weeks. Bottle in champagne bottles at approximately 12 weeks, priming with corn sugar. Bottle condition for six weeks.

I tend to pour off a bit of the cider, add the honey/acid/yeast, bring to a quick boil and cool, and then add it back to the jug before pitching.

The one I'm doing currently was secondaried with a mixed berry and apple puree. I guess I should think about bottling at some point... it's been in fermenters since March.

[Whamolagan]

You can also put cinnamon sticks in while it ferments. I usually put some in during the ferment and then put some fresh ones with some vanilla extract in when I keg. The wife loves it. there is a fine line between too much and too little