Spiced Winter Cider

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RobWalker

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I'm making a 1 Gal batch of Spiced Winter Cider from Organic Apple Juice. I know I should use the following;

Cloves
Cinnamon
Allspice
Orange peel/Orange juice?
Nutmeg (maybe?)

Does it matter if I use Ground versions of the above spices, and how much should I add to the batch of each? Anyone with any experience here?

Cheers.
 
I have not experienced myself but I have read both here and other places that the Oranges citrus can kill the yeast. But your ingredients sound good.
 
Ground/powdered spices tend to make a mess. Whole/cracked spices are easier to work with & can easily be removed when the desired flavour level has been reached. Just use a hop bag & put your whole/cracked spices in it with a couple sanitized marbles to hold it down. You can tie a length of fishing line onto it & just let it hang over the lip of the carbouy & replace your stopper; the stopper will hold it in place. And the orange zest will work just fine. Regards, GF.
 
I've managed to find some ready-cracked spices in a mulling kit in my cupboard! So it's ready tied, i'll just add a little orange and hang it over the side like you say. that's a great idea...would you recommend just tasting to see when the desired level's there?
 
These are the basic ingredients in apple pie spice mix, as well as pumpkin pie spice minus the orange peel. I just bottled my winter spiced cider last Friday, back sweetened with molasses & brown sugar. I did use ground spices wrapped in a coffee filter, it worked fine for me. It was just what I was going for! However, I think mulling spices would be great too. Now I am just waiting for it to carb up, it is going a bit slow this time around due to the coolness of my house during the day. Popped the top on a tester last night and almost no fizz. During the summer months, 3 days is all it takes to carb up nice.
I'm making a 1 Gal batch of Spiced Winter Cider from Organic Apple Juice. I know I should use the following;

Cloves
Cinnamon
Allspice
Orange peel/Orange juice?
Nutmeg (maybe?)

Does it matter if I use Ground versions of the above spices, and how much should I add to the batch of each? Anyone with any experience here?

Cheers.
 
Yes, molasses has natural sugars in it and gives the cider a lovely, warm flavor. It also imparts a dark, smoky colour to the cider which is nice as well. I like blending different types of sweetners to give a bit more depth to my ciders (all 3 batches of them). LOL
Sounds lovely! Do mollasses ferment? They're very cheap here on account of our carribbean community :)
 
I'm making a 1 Gal batch of Spiced Winter Cider from Organic Apple Juice. I know I should use the following;

Cloves
Cinnamon
Allspice
Orange peel/Orange juice?
Nutmeg (maybe?)

Does it matter if I use Ground versions of the above spices, and how much should I add to the batch of each? Anyone with any experience here?

Cheers.

I don't know how many batches of cider you've made, but adding allot of spices may turn you off to cider making. I hope some of the regulars post in here as many have experimented with winter type spices and some have had good luck and others have thrown the stuff out.

I don't know if you've made plain hard cider before, but that is the best place to start. Then add slight amounts of the spices as they get magnified during maturation of the cider.

The biggest problem I have with cider batches is they are never enough. I blew through 3 gallons of regular hard cider passing it on to friends and having folks over to the house.

Most people you will have over during the holidays will have never had good plain hard cider before. Blow them away with good plain stuff if you've never done this before. Trust me....I just got started with this and with everyone I know, I'll have to be making 10's of gallons to keep up. :)
 
The thing about the spices is that you can add a little... nothing.... add a little more... nothing... add a little more.... BANG too much! It's a thin line, not much gray area, no generous comfort zone.... not for me anyway.

And clove will just make it smell and taste like Drakkar Noir. You may think you can get away with adding just 2 or 3 little cloves... and you'd be wrong. The alcohol content sucks the effervescence out of the cloves very quickly and makes it really pungent and medicinal. Just don't even bother with it. That's my opinion.
 
The thing about the spices is that you can add a little... nothing.... add a little more... nothing... add a little more.... BANG too much! It's a thin line, not much gray area, no generous comfort zone.... not for me anyway.

And clove will just make it smell and taste like Drakkar Noir. You may think you can get away with adding just 2 or 3 little cloves... and you'd be wrong. The alcohol content sucks the effervescence out of the cloves very quickly and makes it really pungent and medicinal. Just don't even bother with it. That's my opinion.

I'm hoping the one clove I steeped for about 20 minutes in a gallon of water with other spices for a 5 gallon batch isn't too strong. We'll see. It's the Christmas Brew in my signature line.
 
would you recommend just tasting to see when the desired level's there?

Yes, definately. BTW, molasses goes with apple like butter & jam go with toast, but a little bit goes a long way, I'd keep it at 1 oz/gal or less, but use what YOU think tastes best to YOU. Maybe start with 2 oz in 5 gallons & see if it needs more, you can always add more, but once added you can't take it out. Molasses isn't 100% fermentable, but it's pretty close. It will darken your cider though, if that's of any concern to you, it's not for me. There are different types/grades of molasses, I used Grandma's brand of unsulphured molasses. Hope that info helps. Regards, GF.
 
I don't know if you've made plain hard cider before, but that is the best place to start. Then add slight amounts of the spices as they get magnified during maturation of the cider.

The biggest problem I have with cider batches is they are never enough. I blew through 3 gallons of regular hard cider passing it on to friends and having folks over to the house.

Most people you will have over during the holidays will have never had good plain hard cider before. Blow them away with good plain stuff if you've never done this before. Trust me....I just got started with this and with everyone I know, I'll have to be making 10's of gallons to keep up. :)


Hear, Hear!!
 
I don't know how many batches of cider you've made, but adding allot of spices may turn you off to cider making. I hope some of the regulars post in here as many have experimented with winter type spices and some have had good luck and others have thrown the stuff out.

I don't know if you've made plain hard cider before, but that is the best place to start. Then add slight amounts of the spices as they get magnified during maturation of the cider.

The biggest problem I have with cider batches is they are never enough. I blew through 3 gallons of regular hard cider passing it on to friends and having folks over to the house.

Most people you will have over during the holidays will have never had good plain hard cider before. Blow them away with good plain stuff if you've never done this before. Trust me....I just got started with this and with everyone I know, I'll have to be making 10's of gallons to keep up. :)

I made 10 gallons last year. 25 gallons this year. Maybe 50 next?
 
Broke open the spiced winter cider at a party last night and was fairly disappointed in it Compared to my first cider, under "Cider House Rules, this was not even close to good. When I bottled it, it tasted good, the molasses was barely peaking thru the apple. Not so last night, the molasses bloomed and over took the apple taste completely. Lesson learned, molasses can be overpowering just like cloves.
 
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