basic fermenting knowledge, to date

My friend Darin in Florida wanted me to pass along some info about fermenting. I couldn’t stop writing, so I thought I’d share this with the world. I have no allegiance to any web site below. However, I will say Leeners has a good price on that one gallon wine kit …

From what I’ve experienced and what others have told me, there are basically two ways to go about fermenting things like ciders, wines, etc. You either take the scientific approach and measure things out, keep track of the progress and know more or less what you are getting. Or, you take the more “artistic” approach and essentially throw things together, loosely follow some guidelines and see what you get. People are successful from both approaches, it is really just what fits your personality. It is certainly less expensive to just throw some stuff together and see what happens. But I like to know what’s going on. So, while I’ve got a fair amount of stuff, I could spend a lot more acquiring kit. It’s not high-science, it’s hardly even basic chemistry we’re talking about here! Observation is mostly what I’ve done. People have been making cider for hundreds of years, so the basics are easy to follow without doing all the nerdy stuff. The recipes are pretty straightforward and if something says it takes 3-5 days, if you wait 5 days you’re good to go to the next step.

The biggest concern, really, is finding good sweet apple cider to start with! Most of what is available in a grocery store is pasteurized and has preservatives added to keep the cider from fermenting and spoil while it is sitting on the shelf. Pasteurized is OK, but any unwanted additives are not. If the label doesn’t say simple “Ingredients: Apple Juice” and maybe water it’s probably got something you don’t want. You’ve definitely got to find good starting stock, good juice/sweet cider before any of this stuff below will matter! (You can, of course, buy expensive apple wine base from a web site and start with that.)

Here’s a link to a place that basically has the kit I bought with a bunch of other stuff included: http://www.leeners.com/cider.html
At this site, on the left side, half-way down the page – look for the 1 Gallon Winery. It’s $44.95. From what I can see it comes with just about everything you’ll want. And, you’ll be able to do lots of different things than just hard apple cider. There are a few more things you should get, though.

The kit above is pretty comprehensive (I wish I had bought it!). One more thing to get for sure: I’d grab 1 oz. Yeast Energizer. The energizer might not be essential, but some recipes I’ve seen call for it and I’ve used it in my latest batch. You could probably skip it, but it is cheap. Definitely get some sort of brush to clean the glass carboy and bottles (about $3) as well.

If you want to go the measuring route, pick up a hydrometer and the test jar that’s needed. Search the site above for a 14″ Plastic Test Jar and a dual purpose hydrometer. (Or click this.) These two optional things will tell you approximately how much alcohol you will end up with by measuring the specific gravity before and after fermentation. The hydrometer can tell you when fermenting is done, but it is pretty obvious when it is done – things stop happening! No more bubbling and no gas releasing through the air lock. And, as long as you follow the timeframes on the recipes, you don’t really need a hydrometer.

The last thing you’ll need is bottling equipment. Since bottling is probably 2 months away from the day you start cider, though, you can hold off on capping equipment. You’ll want some priming sugar (priming is what you do when you bottle to make the cider fizzy.) I bottled with the 2-gallon bucket that came with the kit, a funnel and a borrowed capper (and bottles!). A hand capper is $17.95 at the web site above. A 4 1/2″ funnel useful for bottling and other things is only like $2 (you may already own one that will work?). Caps are cheap (less than $4 for 144) and just ask friends to hold back bottles – although they have to be non-twist off. You need the bottles that require an opener… Or, over the two months you are fermenting, drink about 10-11 bottles of something and save them. If I had Grolsch beer bottles, I’d use them! By the end of fermenting and bottling, I have 10 bottles and about 8-9 ounces of cider left over. (This last 8-9 ounces has some sediment in it, I’m going to let it settle and then drink it! When I bottled I couldn’t siphon off this last bit, but I couldn’t let it go to waste.)

Minus the capping equipment, it would be about $74 with shipping to get started. It’s a little steep sounding, I know. When you compare it to what the $19.95 ciderup.com whizbang kit, $74 sounds like a lot. However, I think ciderup.com is really overcharging for what they are selling. There’s about $9 worth of equipment in the ciderup.com kit (based on prices at Leeners). Mainly, though, I think you need more than just a glass jug to make decent cider! I imagine it’s possible to do it that simply, but I don’t think you’d be happy with the results.

Here’s a list of stuff to get started. The number on the left is the web site part number:

One Gallon Winery $44.95
1 oz. Yeast Energizer $1.95
Wine Bottle Brush $2.95
Dual Purpose Hydrometer $5.95
14 inch Plastic Hydrometer Test Jar $3.95

This stuff would be $73.64 with shipping from the web site above.

One other thing I thought about – I have a baster, just one I bought from the grocery store. It helps getting stuff into the test jar in order to use the hydrometer. You and Tracy might already have one. It is not necessary unless you get a hydrometer and test jar.

There are a lot of little things I’ve learned in the three batches of fermenting I’ve done so far. I won’t write them all here! If you have questions along the way, either post them as comments here, email me or give me a call!