Daze

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I am wanting to make a sweet caramel apple cider with homemade caramel syrup (just caramelized sugar and water), and am wondering what has been more effective for people to get a good caramel flavor. The way I see it is I have to options:


1. Add the caramel to the cider before fermenting and then back-sweeten with normal sugar.

2. Add normal sugar to the cider before fermenting and then back-sweeten with caramel syrup.


I guess my real questions are how does the fermenting effect the caramel syrups flavor since the caramel it self is a fermentable??? And how does back-sweetening with caramel syrup effect the ability to carbonate the cider in the bottles prior to pasteurization???

Daze

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no one has any experience with caramel syrup in their cider???

Pickled_Pepper

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I've tried making caramel and it ends up tasting more burnt than like the stuff you put on apples. So I haven't used it in cider. (This is just my experience with my caramel)

Have you considered Dark Brown or Demarara Sugars? You might get the same flavors.

If you are going to pasteurize, I'd say add it at the end in case your yeast gets all freaky with the flavors.

Pickled_Pepper

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After my post I was looking at the "similar threads" section at the bottom of this page and there's been similar discussions on this before.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/anyone-ever-use-caramel-cider-156046/

gratus fermentatio

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Or this one:
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/caramel-apple-cider-61257/
Regards, GF.

roadymi

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Some of the convenience stores around here offer an array of sugar free syrups at their
coffee bar. One of the offerings is caramel. I've never paid attention to brand name. I'll try and get more info and post back. I use it in my coffee and find it tasty. Never thought about adding to my cider until now.

They have many flavors including cinammon, hazlenut, ammaretto, etc

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Daze

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Thanks but I am trying to avoid artificial anything. I don't even use camden tablets or stabilizers because I want my brews to be "natural" The caramel I will be using will be nothing more than caramelized sugar water and a little bit of natural vanilla extract. The whole reason for my post was to decide weather to add my homemade caramel syrup before or after fermenting but I think I will do it after.