Ginger Cider- relatively quick...

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roymullins

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Kind of threw this together one afternoon- pleasantly surprised at the results after only 2 weeks in the bottle this evening...

3 gal. cheal store-bought apple juice
3 C. light brown sugar
3 tea bags- soaked for a day in primary and then fished out at the recommendation of someone on this fine forum...
3 oz. grated ginger root
1 C. raisins
about 4 TBS of lime juice - added on secondary after reading Graham's English Cider recipe
a cider yeast that I cannot remember the name of- I threw away the little bag and failed to write it down...
primary for 3-4 days and secondary for about two weeks
backsweetened with 1/2 a bag or Truvia per bottle- about 30 bottles- I used 15 of the little bags
primed with 1/3 C. light brown sugar

again- I just kind of threw this together- a mix of ideas from Graham's and a gingered cider recipe from Paul Corrently's The Art of Cidermaking (Gingered Honey Cider pg. 54) I popped one tonight just to check it and expected it to be kind of "hot" from the young alcohol and ginger bite bit it was suprisingly smooth- not much carbonation yet but very drinkable and tasty...
 
it has been about three weeks now since bottling- mellowed a little- nice and gingery- I like it- I guess that is all that matters... will make it again but might try to kill off the yeast somehow- maybe with heat pastuerizing (haven't trued that yet) so I can add real sugar or juice concentrate to backsweeten...
 
i've just put this in my secondry. hoping all works , but i used white sugar and wine yeast !!, i'm a newbie so if i did wrong be gentle telling me so :{ definately smells the part, i'm pretty excited about the finished product.
 
its cool white surgar works fine, I use it alot, i pretty much only drink what I make, and I always try to "brew" as cheap as possible, so store brand white surgar is usualy my go to especialy with a cider, works as priming to but def not the best, corn syrup works well to and just about as cheap. Ive made Hard Tea, its just flavored surgar water fermented out. If you want you could just ferment whitesugar and water. Any yeast will work i've made apple wine just using a bottle of apple juice and a spoon full of bread yeast, didnt taste the best but got the job done, once you get a buzz goin you dont mind the taste or atleast i didnt. no air lock just opend the bottle poured out a cup n half added a cup white surgar n half cup warm water half spoon full surgar and yeast as starter, put the lid back on and left losse, it worked I got drunk,but it was a comeitment for sure! cigarets helped.
when using white/brown surgar making a simple syrup is a good way to go as oppsed to just adding to juice, better yet you could boil some juice and your surgar to better incorperate it into the solution.
 
cool, well i have it bottled at the moment but it's starteing to get cold here now so it's looking like the brewing will be slowing till next spring. i had a quick taste of it though and it ain't bad, maybe around 8 or 9 % :) i'll let ye know
 
I've never done this before. I wanted to make some cider for my wife (and me) and this recipe sounds pretty interesting. Do I do the following:
1. Mix apple juice, sugar, grated ginger root, and whole raisins together in fermenter (all room temp)
2. throw in tea bags
3. pitch yeast
4. after 1 day, remove tea bags
5. after 4-5 days move to secondary and add lime juice
6. after a few weeks bottle (i'm not sure about this step, whether or not to prime and then later pasteruize on the stove, or just add the sweetner like you said).

Does that seem right? Since you have tasted, is there anything you would do differently this time around?

I am a beer brewer so I am used to boiling and other things so this is foreign. Thanks!
 
well i had a bottle of this last night. i think my wine yeast was a bit much. it's very dry and not really to my liking , but her inside likes it so i'm in the good books :) i'll try it again next spring but i will have to track down some local suppliers over here. the home brew thing just hasn't kicked off here.
 
You dont need to pasturize it, the juice has already been pasturized from the bottling or canning factory.


Pasteurizing after carbing up in bottles is used to kill the yeast to avoid bottle bombs. Its a good way to create a sweet sparkling cider without worrying about exploding glass.
 
Thinking of substituting the brown sugar with some burnt honey. Backsweet with aj concentrate. Any thoughts on this? Any idea how much honey would equal the brown sugar?
 
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