Back in September I started my annual batch of Hard Cider. I wasn't sure if it would even happen this year due to the crop failure here in Ontario. Lucky Brantview Cider brought in apples for pressing.
This year I kept the recipe very simple. Just 20L of preservative free cider and a pack of EC 1118 champagne yeast.
Here it is two months later. I had issues getting the cider clear. I ended up adding gelatin twice and then resorted to Super-Kleer K.C. That finally cleared it out but there is still some pectin haze left. At that point I decided to just bottle it. My next batch I'll be using pectin enzyme from the start!
Very nice post on the cider, it looks lovely and clear. I'm coming round to bottle mine too. Have you used crown caps on standard champagne bottles? Did you have to buy a special type of bottle for this? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteOlly398 - Most champagne bottles including mine take 29mm crowns, beer bottles take 26mm. So in order to cap them you need a 29mm bell and 29mm caps, readily available online. Simple put the 29mm bell in place of the standard 26mm bell and cap away. Champagne bottles are really nice for cider, they take alot of pressure and are relatively cheap to buy at about a dollar per bottle.
ReplyDeleteAh, thanks for the info! Unfortunately I didn't know this when I bought my crown capper and it (made by Youngs; I'm in the UK) doesn't have interchangeable caps. :-/
ReplyDeleteHowever, I rummaged in my huge box of home-brew trinkets (which I once bought off an old timer who was selling up) and... a nice big bag of plastic champagne closures, meaning I just need to order some wire baskets. A local bar is saving champagne bottles for me and should have about twenty by next weekend.