Newbie Hard Cider

So I just recently discovered this forum, and it's the best thing ever!

I have been brewing beer for aabout 6 months now, and am doing real well there.

A buddy of mine brewed cider with his beer equipment, so I asked him for his recipie. After reading a few recipies in this forum, I think this might have been a crappy recipie:

13 cans Apple Juice concentrate
1 can Lime Juice concentrate
4 bags black tea
1 packet champagne yeast
5 gallons water

2-4 weeks in primary
2 weeks in secondary
Keg and force carb

OG was 1.050, which would put this around 6.7% alchohol if I let it ride to 1.000.

How do you think this is going to turn out? I did not taste my friend's result yet (his is still in secondary), and I just put this in the primary on Sunday. He instructed me that pasteurized juice would kill yeast, which is why he suggested unpastuerized concentrate, but I have since figured out that this is not tree, and that pastuerized juice with no perservatives would probably have been better choice than concentrate and water.

Any suggestions to this batch? I thought adding about a gallon of fresh juice when kegging might improve the final product. I'm afraid with the concentrate that I'm going to have a very thin cider lacking in apple flavor. Thoughts?

I feel that the lime juice is a horrible idea. But that is just my tastes telling me so, and I could be completely wrong.


If you want somthing simple, and proven, I would go with this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/sammys-simple-cider-203224/

I have made 10 gallons of this so far, and all have turned out great. (you can adjust the sugar to the abv you want).

Thanks for the reply, BH.

My buddy said that the lime flavor does not exactly appear in the final product, but the acidic qualities of the lime juice will provide a natural tart flavor that would disappear from the original apple profile otherwise. I've read this in a few places on the forum as well.

A great website for beginning cider makers is www.makinghardcider.com

I would ferment without the lime juice. Once you have fermented your cider you should then draw a sample of known volume (eg. 250ml) then add lime juice until you reach the flavour you want so you are able to scale an exact volume for your entire batch.

(P.s. 400th post.)

I've made many ciders before, but I have never considered putting black tea in it. That sounds like it would be delicious! I got my next cider planned out (minus the lime, I like my ciders dry, but not too acidic)

Do a search on this forum for Graham's English Cider. Its pretty close to this recipe and there will be a lot in the thread regarding the addition of limes and black tea.