Search results

Yes, the tea is a cheap and easy way to increase tannins to offset the fact that the recipe uses common culinary apple juice rather than juice from apples traditionally grown for cider. While culinary apple juice will have more sugar per ounce, it can be somewhat lacking in character- so I...

This.

The ginger in this recipe is pretty pronounced- it's to my liking but I think you could get away with using less.

Fluid ounces ☺️

My caramel cider is similar- I add just enough juice to a couple of pounds of brown sugar to make a heavy syrup- a little bit thinner than honey- which I then stir constantly over medium heat until the sugar begins to caramelize- the aroma is unmistakable. This goes into primary; the final...

You could try heating just the corn syrup and the FAJC, but I wouldn't recommend it. I feel that the high sugar content and thick viscosity of those two ingredients could lead to scorching or caramelization. If you try it this way and it works out, let us know- it's always good to learn new...

Because the corn syrup and apple juice concentrate are not pasteurized products. I want to control every single microbe in my must, and either one of these ingredients may carry unwanted yeasts or bacteria into the fermenter.

Glad you loved it, mate! I've got a 6 gallon batch in primary myself. Cheers!

I haven't taken a reading, but it definitely ferments out fully dry. The corn syrup boosts the taste to a hint above off-dry while improving viscosity, but if you like sweet ciders then you may want to experiment a bit.

I've yet to sample the results- they were used in an batch of cider made to be reminiscent of an IPA, using grapefruit juice and juniper instead of hops. The grapefruit juice in the cider has taken 5 months to clarify after being racked to secondary- it's probably ready to sample, but I've...

I am a bit of a bottling rogue, so you may want to get ideas elsewhere. My usual method is what every cider maker will tell you not to do- lightly carbing cider in 750 ml wine bottles and corking them, which I'm told can result in broken bottles, or more likely- a few popped corks. I've never...

I've never heard of adding tannin post-fermentation; if the idea is to try and replicate the tannin present in quality cider apples then I think you'll have a more comparable product if the added tannin undergoes the same fermentation processes as naturally tannin-rich juice does.

Yes, if you're making a cider it should be mostly apple juice. Cider = fermented apple juice. Doing all blackberries would be something else, a blackberry wine perhaps. In my experience, it's preferable to use prepared berry juice from a commercial supplier than to muck about with raw...

We'd really need a bit more info on your recipe and technique to hazard a guess. If you started with fresh, unfiltered apple juice and bottled it straight after fermentation stopped without racking it or setting it to clear and mature in secondary, than that stuff is likely dead yeast and...

This is my go-to yeast for most ciders. It leaves a great apple flavor, ferments super clean with compact lees. It does tend to produce sulfur during fermentation and is rather pricey, though, so Cote des Blancs is a solid second choice.

Whenever I'm making a cider recipe which uses granulated sugar I dissolve it in twice its volume of apple juice juice, which I gently heat over a low flame before adding it to the carboy- this ensures that the sugar is dispersed evenly in the must. In my experience 5 pounds of white sugar in a...

Awesome! Let us know how it comes out.

How did you treat the ginger? I made a ginger cyser recipe which took some fiddling to get right; it calls for 2 ounces of fresh ginger per gallon, peeled and finely grated. This came off as very "hot" upon bottling, but it aged out well to a perfectly snappy ginger flavor after 3 months.

Sorry it I was unclear- I brew the tea in the water for a good 2-3 minutes, and then discard the bag. The resulting liquid is added to the carboy. Malic acid can usually be found in wine-making shops, but I get mine at health-food stores for less $$$. It's worth the extra effort to get...

Stovetop pasteurization- I mix them all in a pot, and bring it up to 160 F and hold it there for a good ten minutes while monitoring the temp with a candy thermometer. After ten minutes I immediately add it to the sanitized carboy. Some people prefer using k-meta to sanitize their must because...