Simple Raspberry Cider

Hey guys. So ive made 2 batches of cider using other peoples recipes so I decided to experiment and make my own. Its a pretty simply raspberry cider that I started yesterday. Heres my process: (I will be posting throughout the process to update on how its going and the taste at bottling, 1 month, 2 month...)

Ingrediants:
1 Gallon Wegmans 100% apple juice
Nottingham yeast (made a starter with it)
1 Cup brown sugar
1 cup frozen raspberry's
1 Cup tea (Earls Breakfast Tea)
Secondary:
1 Cup frozen raspberrys

Process:
1) Make yeast starter 2 days before (Used nottingham yeast that I had washed from a previous cider batch
2)Make 1 Cup of tea(For extra tannins) and let cool
3)Sanitize everything
4) Take out raspberrys and let them thaw a bit
5) Mix in enough dark brown sugar with apple juice to get a SG of 1.065...ended up being a heaping cup for me
6) Put raspberrys into gallon jug
7) Pour in half of sugar/juice mixture
8) Pour in yeast starter
9) Pour in 1 cup of tea
10) Pour in the rest of sugar/juice mixture
11) Shake around (to aerate the mixture for the yeast) and put airlock on


The first picture is right after I pitched the yeast and the second is less than 12 hours later and cider has an amazing color to it

In about 2 weeks im going to cold crash and transfer into the secondary with another cup of raspberrys. Im hoping to bottle when FG is at about 1.01. Not sure if I want to back sweeten yet, I guess we'll see.

Heres to experimenting

Sounds like a good recipe. I might try this in a 5 or 6 gallon batch.

A word of advice, when the raspberries start turning white, you will want to rack to secondary. Otherwise, the cider will start getting a bitter taste from the raspberry seeds.

HopHeaven said:

1 Cup tea (Earls Breakfast Tea)

Click to expand...

I'm guessing this is to be made in advance, and used when it is at room temperature, right?

UpstateMike said:

Sounds like a good recipe. I might try this in a 5 or 6 gallon batch.

A word of advice, when the raspberries start turning white, you will want to rack to secondary. Otherwise, the cider will start getting a bitter taste from the raspberry seeds.

Click to expand...

Really? Cause after almost 24 a lot of the color has been stripped off the berrys. If I rack off after 48 hours(estimation when they will be white) is there going to be any raspberry taste? Granted, I was going to rack on top of another cup once I transferred into secondary.

UpstateMike said:

I'm guessing this is to be made in advance, and used when it is at room temperature, right?

Click to expand...

Yup, made the tea at the start of the process. Between the mixing of the juice and the still chilled berries, I'm sure the yeast were happy with the temp.

Any thoughts on back sweetening? I want some of that apple flavor after I bottle. I made your caramel cider mike and it came out great with 2 cans so I'm thinking if I back sweeten at all it will be with about 1/4 can of concentrate.

HopHeaven said:

Really? Cause after almost 24 a lot of the color has been stripped off the berrys. If I rack off after 48 hours(estimation when they will be white) is there going to be any raspberry taste? Granted, I was going to rack on top of another cup once I transferred into secondary.

Click to expand...

When I made a batch with raspberrys, it took about a week - 10 days before I really considered them to be stripped of the red color. You will probably be fine. Also, racking onto more berries in secondary is a good idea.

HopHeaven said:

Any thoughts on back sweetening? I want some of that apple flavor after I bottle.

Click to expand...

Try this, available at your local Walmart...
Old Orchard 100% Juice: Apple Raspberry Concentrate Frozen, 12 Oz

Ingredients: Apple Juice Concentrate, Filtered Water (Only Sufficient To Reconstitute Juice Concentrates), Pear Juice Concentrate, Natural Flavors, Aronia Berry Juice Concentrate, Raspberry Juice Concentrate, Citric Acid, Ascorbic Acid (Vitamin C).

So just a heads up, bottled this the other day. Ended up not back sweetening due to every supermarket being closed cause of the hurricane (glad I had something to do with no power). So far I really like it, strong raspberry nose and flavor with a hint of apple at the end before the alcohol. Bottled it with 2 tablespoons dextrose to carb up and it's almost at the perfect carb level to pasteurize. I'm thinking after a month of aging, this will turn out amazing! Once raspberries are in season an cheaper, I'll be makin a 5 gallon batch. This came out great!

Ps: final gravity at bottling was 1.01 before the dextrose was added