OVHA CiderFest 2009

[Chris Norrick]

Well, even after knocking the temp down to around 66 for the last two days, the gravity was already down to 1.008 last night so I crash cooled to stop fermentation. I'll probably rack this evening. It's really tasting great! Still smells like sulphur...but I know that will go away soon.

[Dwayne_Delaney]

It's really tasting great!

No Iron??

[Chris Norrick]

I drank all three hydrometer samples and have not detected any iron. I liked the second sample best when it was around 1.012 and should have stopped the fermentation then. On the other hand, I'm sure the flavor will change with a little age.

[Dutch]

I've got ten gallons going [each on a different Lalvin yeast] and the fermentation is relatively cool calm and collected and steady - I plan on checking when I get back from a small trip south.
Glad to hear about the lack of IRON!

[john mills]

Well I finally got around to checking on the cider. I pitched the yeast 11/02, and kegged 12/02. All in primary.
I used the Wyeast Cider smack pack. I also added 4# of sugar to the 5 gallons to bring the OG to 1.085. I wasn't expecting full attenuation, but it did anyway. Way too far. FG was 0.992, making it 11.3% ABV!
Flavor of course is dry, and there is still an aroma of apples...and still some lingering sulfite that I'm hoping to gas out with carbonizing.
Should make for a decent champagne like beverage for New Years.

[Kenny Lucas]

I stopped my fermentation right at 1.000. Added some clarifier (glycerin) and a small bottle of peach flavoring.

I carbonated it and it tastes damn good. Couldn't detect the peach though.

[Chris Norrick]

I stopped mine much earlier, 1.010 or so, by crash cooling. I finally added in some sorbate and gelatin last weekend. It doesn't seem to be clearing much at 33 F so I bumped up the temp last night. I'm thinking the super cold temps might be interfering with the gelatin from doing it's thing, but that is pure speculation. I've not tasted it for a month or tested the SG. I'll mess with it this weekend if it looks any clearer.

[psfred]

Mine is finally clearing, I'll run it into secondaries this week and bottle whenever I get around to it.

Remember, this isn't beer, it's gonna take some time to mature. More like wine in that respect, including the slow final fermentation.

Peter

[Chris Alvey]

Mine turned out pretty nicely. I used English Cider Yeast and I am not 100% that it fully attenuated. As it turns out, that was a happy accident and it has some sweetness and retained that nice apple character.

I am pretty pleased.