Cider or Apple Beer?

BrewFrick · 09-22-2008, 05:10 AM

I saw that a guy on here was trying something with grain, honey, and apple juice. It got me thinking about a partial grain apple drink. Here is what I have come up with:

Partial Mash Apple Cider
2 lbs. 2 Row Malt
2 lbs. 6 Row Malt
1 lb. White Wheat Malt
½ lb. Crystal 40 Malt
½ lb. Rye Malt
4 Gallons Apple Juice or enough to top up to 5.5 to 6 gallons
Dry Hop with one-ounce Saaz pellet hops
1 Packet Rehydrated Nottingham Yeast

I would only collect the first runnings of these grains after a 60 minute mash at lower temps to make it more fermentable, around 148-146. So I would think this would be a sweeter maltier beer with apple flavor and a little bit of the Saaz taste in the background with the dry hopping. Or a flavorful cider that keeps a good head on it. Anyone ever try something like this?

jiffybrew · 09-23-2008, 08:52 PM

I was actually thinking of doing the same thing but minus the hops and keeping the grain to just basic 2 row. I'm wondering if it tastes like beer or cider. I recently had a Midas Touch Ale by Dogfish, and its a half mead half beer ale. If you try it, please let me know how it turns out.

BrewFrick · 09-23-2008, 11:15 PM

I will try this out for sure, just need to free up some carboy/ale pale space and get some grains this weekend. I may omit the hops for the first run and see if they are needed, or split the batch and try some with hops and some without. I am hoping for a very light bodied cider with some beer taste and color to it that will keep its head.

jiffybrew · 09-24-2008, 01:21 AM

Yea, my guess is that the hops will overpower the flavor. but then who knows until you try it.

BrewFrick · 09-27-2008, 11:03 PM

Ok, I brewed this up a while ago.

Partial Mash Apple Cider
2 lbs. 2 Row Malt
2 lbs. 6 Row Malt
1 lb. White Wheat Malt
½ lb. Crystal 40 Malt
½ lb. Rye Malt
3 Gallons Musselman's 100% Juice Apple Cider (Only in store due to season)
1 Packet Rehydrated Nottingham Yeast

I mashed at around 146 and then collected 2.5 gallons of wort. I did around four vourlafs each running becuase I knew I was not boiling so what I collected went in the fermenter. I did the first running and then did a small batch sparge with around one more gallon of 170 degree water. I added some yeast energizer and a bit of Irish moss to the hot wort, couldn't hurt. The mash went well and I was glad I found the Musselman's cider at Wal-Mart, they had a pallet right at the front with the pumpkins and cider spice packets. I know this stuff will be kinda cloudy due to the apple cider, wheat malt used, and no boil but you can't always have a clear cider or beer each time. I hope this turns out nice, I will keep you informed of the results.

BrewFrick · 09-28-2008, 03:58 PM

This is now bubbling along very nicely. There was enough malt sugar that a good thick krausen has formed and a little pushed up into the airlock. Happy with the progress so far.

BrewFrick · 10-11-2008, 04:27 AM

Ok, this stuff is a little bit different than anything I have fermented so far, and I have tried a lot of stuff let me assure you. I racked it today and had a bit of a surprise. It came out at the color that I wanted but the smell coming off of it is not like beer and not like cider. It smells like a sour grainy smell, and alcohol of course, no sulphur smell to it that I normally attribute to apple juice. The taste is not so remarkable but you can taste the apple notes and the beerish taste comes through after the apple flavor, it does not taste anything like it smells, it's wierd. It is in secondary now and when I gave the carboy a little shake after I moved it and put on the airlock it foamed and shot up lots of bubbles in the lock. I don't think it is quite done yet, I plan to give it three more in the secondary and then bottle when it has cleared more. I shall keep all interested posted on the progress.

gratus fermentatio · 10-11-2008, 03:54 PM

This sounds very interesting, I'll keep following the progress you post here, good luck, GF.

BrewFrick · 10-22-2008, 03:58 AM

Success! It is not fully carbed yet but I do like this stuff very well, very easy to drink. It is a little more tart and not as sweet as I would like. Not too much alcohol taste right now but the grains and the cider come through very nicely. All the overt grainy taste has subsided very well. I would change up the amount of crystal in it so that more unfermentable sugars remain in the wort, remove the wheat malt in favor of a dextrin malt instead, and then change the yeast to Windsor instead of the Nottingham beast. Here is my ammened recipe for this Appleer stuff:

Partial Mash Apple Cider

2 lbs. 2 Row Malt
2 lbs. 6 Row Malt
1/2 lb. Carafoam
1 lb. Crystal 40 Malt
1 lb. Crystal 20 Malt
3 Gallons Musselman's 100% Juice Apple Cider (Only in store due to season)
1 Packet Rehydrated Windsor Yeast

Lots of crystal should leave a nice sweet caramel taste to it, a caramel apple beverage, think of it. I am gonna go get more grain and apple cider, later.

andrewp · 03-17-2010, 04:43 PM

how did this turn out?

i have an idea and this is the closest thread i found to it and let me know if people have done this but what if you made a beer and mashed and sparged with apple juice/cider?

has anyone done this before?