caramelizing cider

I've heard not to boil your cider because it will caramelize the sugars. What happens with the taste? It would probably taste different, but would it taste good?

Well I can tell you that it'd set the pectins....never tried it but I am pretty sure that would be the result. I don't even use my cider to cool the wort with Graf because of the haze.

i have boiled it before with ginger in my ginger cider. , but just a short quick boil. it doesnt really do much haze-wise. nothing you cant get rid of by coolin it down a bit before you bottle. and its just clarity. if your making it for yourself, does it really matter?
it could also jelly up, but youll never know til you try

I've boiled cider a few times. I did it about three years ago, so I don't remember exactly what I did. I believe I added pectic enzyme prior to the boil. I made a cider by reducing the volume by about half. I had trouble getting it to ferment fully and I ended up with a sweet cider that had an intense cooked apple flavor. It wasn't crystal clear, but not overly cloudy either. It was an interesting experiment, but I've never felt the urge to do it again. If I did it again, I'd probably reduce it by a little less and add a little cinnamon, vanilla, and nutmeg.

If you boil cider long enough, you can make an apple version of maple syrup. I reduced some cider a little too much. Probably about 80%. I put it in the fridge to cool. It hardened as it cooled and ended up so thick that I couldn't even pour it. Apple taffy anyone?

I've boiled cider to make a sort of pre-mixed hard mulled cider. It tastes great. Really the flavor came from the additives and boiling wasn't enough to change the flavor. The main thing to remember is that atoms will vibrate faster at warmer temperatures, and for me the heat was mainly to extract, infuse, and spread flavor from other elements to the cider. The cider I used was already cloudy and boiling it didn't change the clarity at all so there were no problems when boiling. I would think you would have to reduce the cider a lot to get it to caramelize.

You will set in the naturally occurring pectins in the juice, increasing the overall cloudiness of the cider, and if you go too far you will get a jam-like product. It is possible to simmer the cider without doing this (from my experience), but not boil.

sashurlow said:

I've heard not to boil your cider because it will caramelize the sugars. What happens with the taste? It would probably taste different, but would it taste good?

Click to expand...

If you're wanting to add caramel flavour to your cider try making a cider or graf & using crystal 60, 120 or even special B. Also, you might find this thread useful:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/caramel-apple-cider-61257/
Boiling your juice will just set pectins & give you a "cooked" apple flavour.
Regards, GF.

I would give special B a try, it gives an almost carmel raisiny flavor that would work well with cider. I don't think you shouldn't boil cider ever.

I started a VERY small batch (only 3 L!) as an experiment.

I reduced 2 cups of sugar and half a cup of apple juice to a thick caramel-like syrup over a medium heat in a saucepan and poured the syrup directly into the apple juice I am using (I don't care about pectins in this batch, only a few litres) then shook the living hell out of it. Had a little taste before I added the yeast, tasted a fair bit like a toffee apple.

I'll probably let this ride out until dry, then backsweeten using the same method, which will probably give it a better caramel/toffee taste and pasteurise. For some reason I can't imagine a caramel apple cider being dry. Even if this comes out as a toffee apple cider - thing, then I am a happy man!

It will be interesting to see if you simply made the sugar easier to digest or did something to the flavor. Its gotta have a sky high SG. Keep us posted.
Scott

Didn't bother with taking an OG, it's such a small batch. Yeah, I doubt the flavour will stick around after fermentation which is why I am going to sweeten it up when bottling with the same caramelised sugar then pasteurise, leaving some residual caramelised sugar in solution.