Recent content by cidersage

Both will add color and some fermentable sugars, but besides that they are pretty different creatures. Molasses has some unfermentable sugars in it, and its flavor is powerful, distinct, and--in my experience--persists after fermentation is complete. I've had sulfery notes in ciders that I've...

It's likely to re-start fermentation and cloud up the cider with pectin and suspended yeast, then still eventually end up bone dry since the sugars in apples are completely fermentable. If it's sweetness you're looking for, you could stabilize with potassium sorbate after fermentation has...

Can you share your overall process with us? Cider will be yeasty and cloudy right after fermentation, and won't taste great. It just needs some time to settle out. Siphoning the cider (while leaving the junk at the bottom of the fermenter--the 'lees') to another vessel after primary...

You may or may not encounter the same brown sugar issues I did--I used a lot of very dark, organic sugars (like, 5 lbs in a 5 gallon batch) and I think that was rather extreme. Not sure re: the bitterness aspect. I have noticed that, when using yeasts that add flavor characteristics (e.g...

I'll echo madscientist451's statements about it depending a lot on factors such as: kind of apples type of yeast used whether sugar was added and how much temperature of fermentation aging And then I'll add my two cents... Apples: As far as apples go, there's a ton of...

In regard to sourcing decent apples or juice--I agree that this is key, but it can often be a challenge depending on location. Here in the front range of Colorado, we get primarily culinary apples from outside the region with very little tannin or post-fermentation character. Luckily, there...