Batch 3 (Enter the Honey!)

After reading about a recipe online, I am trying a new batch of hard apple cider involving amber honey.

Here's the basic recipe:

4 Liters of Mott's Apple Juice
2 Pounds of Sugar
.75 Pounds of the amber honey
wild yeast that I have been cultivating.

This gave me an 8% alcohol potential. (Which, as an initial impression, seems very low).

I am really curious to see how this turns out! I have heard great things about this honey.

My yeast starters have so far been a dismal failure. It's been 4-5 days for most of them and so far I have gotten virtually nothing. There is but one exception. Look at the picture above, can you guess which one?

It is the far left one -- the only one with the tell-tale signs of fermentation (the white bubbles and the hazy color of the liquid). (The bottle was also the only one remotely firm when squeezing -- again, revealing that the fermentation process is alive and well.).

This is an "upclose" shot. Again, the bubbles and discoloration are obvious. Especially when you compare it to the other bottles . . . .

Ironically, my only success has been with a "clean" apple -- as you will recall the general rule when doing these yeast starters is that you don't want to wash the apples before hand. I tried one bottle with washed apples, the other with not. The fermentation only worked (so far at least) with a "clean" apple -- a pink lady apple for those curious.

With only one out of six bottles fermenting, that a an abysmal 16.6% "success rate." The good news is that when making a batch of hard cider, all you need is one. Still, it is frustrating.

I have no clue why the others are not fermenting at all.

Hard Apple Cider (Yeast Starters)

This was the view outside my house today. Needless to say my weekend was going to spent mostly at home.

Around about noon, the "Cabin Fever" was officially kicking in. So, I decided to try to ferment my own yeast.

I saw a video on the subject that was pretty interesting and I thought I would give it a go. (check it out here).


The ingredients are simple, an apple and some apple juice. You will need a knife of course to cut the apples and some kind of containers (preferably plastic bottles, with lids of course).

I actually bought a couple apples. The first one I tried was this "wine sap" apple -- one I never even heard of. It was a very unremarkable apple -- a little "grainy" with not much flavor involved. I am curious to see how it turns out.

I tried this Mott's apple juice -- careful to make sure there was no preservatives.


I then put a slice of apple in two empty (of course!) gatorade bottles.

I ended up doing two bottles -- conducting a little experiment. I have been told that you do not want to wash the applies before you do this. This seems odd to me -- and not very sanitary. I get the central idea -- that you want to utilize the natural yeasts and washing might kill them, but at the same time there are surely lots of nasties involved (I mean think of what the average apple goes through -- the boxing, the traveling, the handling -- before it hits the grocery store shelf).

So, I decided to have one bottle be the "natural" apple -- unwashed and unclean. And the other is the "clean" apple. One that I washed after cutting the pieces for the first apple.

I put both bottles in a dark, but relatively warm closet in the house. I will be keeping an eye on it for the next couple days and see how it progresses.

Day 11 (Batch 2) Racking Day

I racked Batch 2 today. I put it into the bucket below, cleaned out the carboy, and then put all the contents back in the carboy.

I used a non-food grade bucket, which is technically a "no-no." But it was literally in there for only 10 minutes. (My general rule is that if its in there less than a day, I don't really care about the plastic.).

I took a quick taste -- it was STRONG, but otherwise tasting good!

I am a little perturbed the color is still so dark, but apparently this is normal. I was also a little concerned because after 11 days it was still fermenting very heavily. (This was the batch where I put in two pounds of sugar for three gallons, so maybe this is alright).

Day 9 (Batch 1 and 2)

The color in both carboys is starting to turn a little bit -- emphasis on the little bit.

I am worried about the smaller batch (Batch 1). As you might recall, I think I might have "burnt" it.

Day 8 (Batch 1) Racking Day

I racked the first, smaller batch of cider today.

As such, this represents the first chance I had to really check things out -- and more importantly take a quick taste.

Even with only .75 pounds of sugar, I got the quick burning sensation of alcohol with my first swig. (Not 100% that is a good sign or not.).

Again, there was some rookie mistakes along the way.

First of all, I am struggling to keep everything sterile and clean. I am not rolling stuff around in the dirt or anything, but I am wondering if I am not taking enough precautions.

Second, I somehow screwed up the air-fermentation device (see picture from previous post). Some water leaked into the cider. It was clean water (I had just filled it), but it is annoys me.

Day 2 (Batches 1 and 2)

Batch 2 was still coming along slowly, so I shook it a little to redistribute the yeast accumulating at the top of the bottle. This seemed to work well and it is now chugging away in the fermentation process.

(Here's a picture of the "gurgling action at work!).