[smitty]

Good afternoon, I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving.

I have a quick question regarding cider, if anyone can help.  There was an excellent article on it a few months ago in Zymurgy, however one step confused me.  The aeration with 100 percent oxygen.  Forgive my ignorance, but how the heck does one do this?  I will be deploying soon, so I thought sticking this in the closet for the duration would be a nice treat to come home to.  Thank you for your time.

Smitty

[corkybstewart]

You can make excellent cider without adding 100% oxygen, don't let that stop you.  I just pour the juice into the carboy and let it splash.  What kind of juice are you using?

[smitty]

There's some excellent organic commercial cider at the local market in one gallon jugs.  I've never made cider before.  It seems like pour 5 gallons into primary, add yeast, primary fermentation for a couple of weeks, rack to carboy, age for X months, then keg.  Is that kind of the gist?

Another article said adding brown sugar can add to the alcohol content.  Is this true?  If so, when should it be added and how much?  Thank you.

[corkybstewart]

I've never made a cider with extra sugar but it will absolutely  bring the ABV up.  Add the brown sugar near the end of the fermentation, or break it up to a couple of small additions as fermentation takes off.
I made a cider this summer with my own apples, crabapples and WalMart juice.  Then I made one with just WalMart Juice so I can turn it into vinegar.  When this one is done I'm thinking about a really strong one with honey or brown sugar and some spices aand fruit for something different.

[gordonstrong]

OP, to use pure oxygen, you need an oxygen tank (get from hardware store in welding supplies), an oxygen regulator, a filter, and a diffuser stone. You can buy everything but the tank as a kit from most good home brew shops (look online at morebeer or NB if you can't get it local).

But you don't need pure oxygen. Aerate it and you'll be fine. Shake it or use a mix-stir.

[smitty]

Thanks for the advice guys.

[rjharper]

I'll share my cider recipe.  It makes a strong dry cider thats a real crowd pleaser (except to me, I drank too much cider growing up in Scotland, I'm off it).  It's a house brew thats always on tap.  24 hrs on camden tablets then a packet of E118 champagne yeast does the rest. 1 month on primary, rack off sediment and raisins, 1 month secondary/bright tank, keg, carb, enjoy...

5 gal unpreserved cider (sediment and all)
4 cans of frozen apple juice concentrate
2.5 lbs honey
1 lb raisins (it helps to combine 1/2 gal cider, concentrate, honey & raisins in a pot and heat to ~120F to dissolve honey and swell fruit)
5 camden tablets, crushed
1 E118 yeast pack.
1.080 OG; 0.995 FG; 11% abv