I am gonna brew a apple ale extract kit from Midwest today. In the instructions, it says as soon as fermentation kicks off, 1 gallon of un-pasteurized/ no preservatives cider can be added in the primary. I think I want to do this, only issue is that I don't just have fruit stands and orchards everywhere in Alaska (-4 degrees F right now in fact) so my cider selection is very limited. Closest I could find was a no preservatives/ flash pasteurized cider for $7 per half gallon. Will this work?

Guess not?

Apples are out of season. As far as pasteurization goes, the reason you want unpasteurized cider is because heating the cider can change the flavor a bit. Some people notice it. Others don't. Also, some people want the wild germs in their cider.

$14/gallon seems crazy. I know things can be expensive in Alaska. I got my cider for $4/gallon.

I'm sure the pasteurized cider will work just fine in your brew; if you could get it fresh and unpasteurized, would I say that's better? Absolutely, but you have to work with what you got...and I agree 14 bucks per gallon is wicked expensive, but again you have to work with what you have available...

Even if you had some preservatives in the cider, it would probably be OK...I made a pyment (grape mead) once using muscadine juice that was preserved with sulfur dioxide and citric acid, as well as sorbic acid. It was added after primary started (in similar fashion to your kit's instructions) and fermented just fine. Overall, though, I'd advise you to add the juice after a few days after starting, when primary starts to slow down a bit. You will loose less fruit aromatics this way...

I brewed this kit and used the gallon of cider and it is the worst beer ive brewed to date. There is no maltiness present or apple flavor left after bottle conditioning. Use the apple extract that comes with the kit, ill bet youll get better results.

Good to hear. I already topped my 6 gallon carboy off to about 5.25 gallons, so I don't have any room left to add the cider. I will secondary in about 10 days and add the apple extract instead. You think it was the cider that ruined it, or is it just a **** kit?

A

And ya, everything is more exspensive in Alaska. Gas is 4.19 a gallon, down about .25 cents in the last month. And it was -15 degrees F this morning on my way to work.... +1 above now at lunch time. But hey, it keeps the city folks away and I love it!

I just thinks its a **** kit. It needs more maltiness and better body and should probably be made as a graff versus a traditional ale

Does this go for most of midwests extract kits as well? I ordered like 10 kits, an have brewed 5 in the last month. First ones just got kegged last night so they are still coming down the pipeline. Flat tire, old castle nut brown kegged last night. Power pack porter and Aussie light kegged next week. Brewed apple ale last night and gonna brew the Sierra pale ale later this week. I hope they are decent kits...