This is my first attempt to make a dry-hopped cider, loosely following the recipe on p. 107 of Mary Izett's Speed Brewing. Batch 025 began life as simply Dry-Hopped Cider, but based on an extremely disappointing taste test at bottling, I renamed it Hopless Optimist. This, too, was brewed on Friday, 9/16, after a hell of a long week.

Ingredients in this batch

Yield: Hopefully about a gallon.

I started the yeast in a quarter cup of 102°F water and wound up splitting it between three 1-gallon batches: this one, Patrick's batch 024, and my own batch 023. I added nutrient and energizer and aerated the apple juice by pouring it back and forth several times between the carboy it came in and the dark green glass carboy I was using for brewing. Pitched the yeast and inserted the airlock.

The recipe calls for two days of dry-hopping below 40°F after only 4-7 days of fermentation. Based on our schedules, the cider wound up fermenting for nearly two weeks instead. I dry-hopped it in a cooler filled with ice for two days.

Original gravity: 1.050 at 71°F.

Observations

  • 2016-09-17T10:00:00: The batch is fermenting away without a hitch.
  • 2016-10-23T10:00:00: At bottling, this cider tasted unpleasant enough that I nearly poured it out. I stored the bottles in the fridge for several days, concerned about bottle bombs. When I tried a bottle two weeks later, it had improved some - it now has a bit of actual hop character, for one - but was still hopelessly yeasty and opaque. Patrick thought it was too dry; I'm happy with the sweetness level, although the much hoppier cider I was hoping to make would definitely benefit from more body. The result of this batch leaves me pessimistic about the speed brewing model, at least for ciders; it seems clear that this cider could have come out much better if it had time to ferment and clarify fully. It definitely also needs more hops for my tastes.