Just bottled up my first hard cider last weekend, what a learning experience it has been. I found some great information on cider making by listening to Jamil's Cider episode, in which he interviews NHC gold medal cider maker Gary Awdey. Gary led me to Andrew Lea's page "The Scince of Cidermaking" Both the podcast and web site have some great information. Having several local apple orchards the area, that I knew sold preservative free cider, I excitedly rushed out and picked up 5 gallons of Wasem's apple cider.There is really nothing to making hard cider. If you buy preservative free cider from the orchard, it will typically already have wild yeast in it. Just set the jug on the self at room temperature, loosen the cap to let the gas escape, and in about a month... voilà you'll have an 8% alcohol beverage. It may not be drinkable but there will be alcohol in it.
I really didn't want to just let nature take its course. I had hoped to influence it a bit to have a chance at making something that actually tasted good. So I meticulously went about preparing my juice, according to the information I had gathered. I choose a champagne yeast EC-1118, which seemed like a popular choice for ciders. With hind sight EC-1118 may not have been the best choice to start with.
Around the 4th or 5th day in the fermentation fridge, I opened the door to a very unpleasant sulphury odor. I had been used to strong odors coming from beer yeast in the past, so I didn't think much of it. I assumed that it was normal and the smell was concentrated from being in the closed up fridge. I let the cider sit in the fermentor for 3 weeks before racking it to a keg. The smell from the yeast cake was strong enough to gag a maggot.
After taking a gravity reading, the lowest I had ever measured 1.000, we had our first taste. Wow I was not expecting that. It was extremely sour, and tart with a definite strong sulphur smell, not good! It was a bit like taking bite from a crab apple dipped in a vat of rotten eggs. I had read about people back sweetening their cider with fresh apple juice, in fact it sounded like most all commercially bought ciders like "Woodchuck" were all back sweetened. I immediately added a few drops of raspberry extract and a couple teaspoons of sugar. This made it drinkable but it was a bit like spraying some air freshener on a pile of dog poop, needless to say I was not pleased.
The next day I was determined to figure out what was going on. After a short amount of research I started coming across, people referring to “Rhino Farts”. Apparently the smell of large African herbivore flatulence in your cider is a common occurrence. Most people said don't worry; it will go away over time. I then came across the web site for a wine making store called Grapestompers. The site explains the smell is coming from Hydrogen sulfide (H2S) released by the yeast during fermentation. If the yeast do not get enough nutrients, specifically nitrogen they will produce an excessive amount of H2S. And if the H2S is left to linger in the cider for too long it will react with other carbon compounds to create mercaptans, and later into disulfides, which will be extremely difficult to remove.
I also learned about malolactic fermentation which is a process where tart-tasting malic acid, naturally present in fruit, is converted to softer-tasting lactic acid. Malic acid is what give apples and grapes there sourness. By contrast, lactic acid is richer and more buttery tasting. Malolactic fermentation tends to create a rounder, fuller mouthfeel. I then discover that the yeast I chose to use EC-1118 produces large quantities of SO2 and as a result can inhibit malolactic fermentation. This may explain why it was so damn sour.
Being too impatient for the wait and see method, I decide to explore Grapestomper recommended H2S treatments. The most drastic treatment involves using copper sulfate, which is poisonous. And after applied has to be removed with a fining agent and or filter. I figured before adding poison to it I would give the other suggestions a shot first. This involved racking the cider again through a carbon filter, while running it over a polished copper pipe which is supposed to have a similar effect as copper sulfate, but not as dangerous. I also mixed in 4oz of raspberry extract and 4 tablespoons of Truvia sweetener to counter the sourness. I figured if after all this and it still tasted like a rhino fart flavored sour patch kid, I would just stash it away and cross my fingers it would age out.
Hallelujah it worked! I'm not sure which part did it, but it worked! It's far more drinkable than it was before; I actually thought it was finally good enough that my family members might enjoy it. Most of my family are not beer drinkers but have been known to enjoy a mixed drink from time to time. This was the holiday treat I was looking for.
So I made up a couple labels the first was “Hard Core”, using the x-ray image of an apple containing baby embryos as seeds. I really liked both the name and the image, but thought something more grandma friendly would be more appropriate. So I came up with “Brian’s Hard Cider” in red font with an image of a green apple, kind of holidayish. I bottled it up in a champagne bottle complete with wire cage cork and foil wrapping, and finished the packaging off with a few nicely embroidered fabric holiday stockings.
Over all I’m very pleased with the final product. I have no Idea how well it will store. Who knows it could become a Rhino Fart bomb in a few months, I doubt it but you never know. I will probably suggest everyone drink their gifts earlier rather than later. My next batch, I’ll be sure to make several nitrogen additions during fermentation, and maybe try out another yeast strain. Learning and trying out new things is what I really love about this hobby.
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