As I watched my first batch of cider for the year bubble away I realized that I would have issues repeating any delicious cider.  Most of this is due to the fact I have to use whatever random varieties of apples that I find that are ripe.  The flavors of the different varieties mixed together make for delicious drinking.  Just not a consistent flavor.  So to do some experimenting I am getting multiple bottles of a local organic cider that has no preservatives in it.  This will make for more consistency as I try different amounts of sugar, or honey, or brown sugar,  and experiment with different yeasts. And the nice thing is that the cider I am getting is in 1 gallon glass bottles so all I have to do is add the yeast and an air lock.

This first batch will be a simple batch with no added sugars or clarifiers

Hard cider ingredients:

• apple mix: organic unfiltered Cider.  (my first time use of pasteurized cider)
• yeast: Champagne

Measurements:

• Original Gravity (OG): 1.058
• Final Gravity (FG): pending
• estimated alcohol amount at FG of 1.0=8.0%

This is the sweetest cider I have seen with no added sugar.  Normally I have to add a lot of sugar to get to that high of reading.

I realized as I added the picture that I forgot a zero on the reading……It will still be good.  The cider is sweet but has a great flavor.  I think I will like this better than the batches that I made last year.  Sour apples make for a very sour cider.  Which is good for those that like sour apple vodka.  I prefer a nice dry smooth cider though.