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Tree Top x2
Kegged on July 4, 2010.
I used unpasteurized juice to make my first batch of cider because I had found several places online that recommended using unpasteurized juice instead of pasteurized. Because of how hard it was to find unpasteurized juice and its higher cost, I was hesitant to make a second batch. Eventually I found another site that said using pasteurized juice would make the final product taste different. Not good different, not bad different, just different. I decided my next batch would use pasteurized juice.
I bought 2.5 gallons of Tree Top 3 Apple Blend juice and 2.5 gallons of Tree Top Apple Cider. I decided to use Wyeast American Ale (1056) yeast in an attempt to keep the cider from turning out too dry. The image below shows all of the ingredients I used.
I poured each type of juice into a three gallon carboy using a funnel. I added the yeast, and that was it. The image below shows each type of juice fermenting in the carboys.
After just over a week I transferred each cider to a secondary container. The image below shows how much the cider cleared up just before kegging.
The original gravity of the blend was 1.053 and for the cider was 1.051. Each variety was in the primary container for eight days, and then in the secondary an additional seven days, for a total of 15 days. The final gravity for each was 1.005. The alcohol content for the blend was 6.3% and the cider was 6.0%.
They both turned out much better than the first batch of cider I made. I was surprised how clear the final product was; they both looked about the same as the original juice. They were a little dry; if I was going to remake these ciders I would probably aim for a final alcohol content of around 5%. From what I can remember there was a noticeable difference in taste between the two, but most of my friends didn't have a preference.