As it is apple season in the Willamette Valley, we went and picked up 5 gallons of fresh pressed cider from a local apple farm.

Recipe

• 5 gallons fresh press, flash pasteurized cider
• Mangrove Jacks M02
• 1tsp Fermaid-O

Data

SG: 1.052
FG: 1.000
ABV: 6.89
Ferm Temp: 64F

Steps

A super simple cider process with this batch. Simply sanitized a 7 gallon fermenter and added the 5 gallons of cider.

The one catch on this batch was the yeast expired in 02/2020 so I decided to add 1tsp of Fermaid-O to encourage yeast growth.

The yeast and Fermaid-O were added directly to the fermenter and then I aerated the must.

Fermentation was visibly active at the 12 hour mark and continues to be active 24 hours later.

Oct 17 2025 - Tasted and it was found to be lacking in tannins. The flavor was a bit flabby and thing, which is indicative of too little tannin.

I will be adding a small amount of grape tannin and then oaking with a small amount of french oak until it reaches the flavor we want.

Oct 19th 2024 - Added 1/8th tsp of grape tannin

May 19 2025 - The cider has developed very nicely, while it has developed a bit of a pellicle the souring/wild bugs have definitely added a nice funky slightly tart note. I've added 2tsp of K-meta to stabilize.

This will be kegged in the next few days.