I got interested to brew a hard cider to this midsummer. I found that someone had success to brew a cider on a specific store bought apple cider (Bravo äppel juice) available here in Sweden. So this is my go at that.
The docket on the juice package told me that there are 9.5g sugar per 100ml. This means 95g per liter and that would give me a cider with approximated ABV of 5.6% when fully fermented. I measured an OG of 1.050 for the juice.
This recipe is for 5 liter ciders follows:
- 2.5g Lalvin EC-1118 (Alcohol tolerance up to 18%)
- 3g Fermaid-K
- 5l Bravo apple juice
Recipe
Sanitize all of your equipment
Let the apple juice reach room temperature, max 25° celcius and fill up the carboy.
Measure and log the OG for of the mixture using your hydrometer.
Shake the carboy heavily to aeritate the must
Boil 50-80ml water and let it cool to 25° degrees.
Add 3g of Fermaid-K to the water and wait 10 minutes
Add 2.5g EC-1118 yeast to the solution
Do another aeritation shake of the carboy and then pitch the re-hydrated yeast into the carboy.
Fill and engage the airlock into the carboy and place it on a dark place with a temperature around 20° Celsius.
Bottling day
When the fermentation has stopped, eg. measuring an gravity of ~1.000 its time for bottling. I used 10g table sugar per liter for priming, which will give you an FG of ~1.010.
Measure 50g of sugar pour over 1dl hot water to dissolve the sugar
Add an additional 1dl cold water to drop down temperature
Measure a the sugar water to temperature of 25° Celsius befor pitching into the carboy
Stir gently and start filling up your bottles