Caramel Apple Hard Cider

CornyKegs 728
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pwortiz said:
Ah, sorry. Didn't explain that well. I go from primary to bottling bucket with my syrupy goodness.
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Ah. OK. I figured it was something like that. :) I'll probably cold-crash mine just to help with the sediment, then transfer to a 5 Gallon Better Bottle for a couple days and add the syrup mid-week.
 
Quite a good recipe. It's quite sweet even with only 2 cups brown sugar. I used the stove top pasteurization for the first time and it was fantastic.
 
I over-carbed a bit, tried to stovetop pasteurize, and had a bottle explode in my hand. This led me to serious reflection on how I could deal with these mini-bombs, so I decided to try pasteurizing in the dishwasher. Set all the bottles in there, ran through a high heat sani rinse cycle. Two exploded, but the dishwasher contained it nicely, and all I had to do was shop-vac out the glass after I had emptied the bottles. It worked great, and now I always heat pasteurize in the dishwasher.
 
I decided to force-carb. Any suggestions on what pressure to carb at? I don't want it REALLY carbed, just slightly carbed enough to be "petilent" and have a few bubbles. I was thinking about carbing about 5 PSI. Do you guys think that would work?
 
Started this today with my girlfriend as our first brewing experience. I scaled the recipe down to one gallon also pitched wlp775 instead of the Nottingham. I'll update more as things develop. I'm pretty anxious and excited about the whole process. I feel like a first time parent must feel. That gallon jug is like my child and I get to watch it grow and develop! :)

As much as it's been said, it can't be said enough, thank you to UpstateMike for sharing.
 
This may have already been asked and answered on this thread but...

If you want a sparkling cider and want to keg, won't this work (and avoid adding cost and chemicals to your cider)

After primary and desired fg, rack to keg and chill a couple days. Then add your caramel syrup and frozen juice concentrate as desired right into the keg. Stir well. Hook up the gas and get to desired carb level.

I guess my question is if you are kegging and keeping at 50F or below, and using ale yeast, why bother with campdens and sorbates? Won't the temp halt the ferm process?
 
bd2xu said:
I guess my question is if you are kegging and keeping at 50F or below, and using ale yeast, why bother with campdens and sorbates? Won't the temp halt the ferm process?
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Not necessarily. It just really slows it down. I've made rice wine and put it in a bottle in the fridge and come back a few days later and removed the screw-on top (put it in a growler) and heard the "hiss" of escaping CO2.
 
I'm using S-04 in this batch of cider, I'd think it will stop fermenting at 40F where I keep my Keezer. S-04 is only supposed to ferment at 59+ I think.
 
bd2xu said:
This may have already been asked and answered on this thread but...

If you want a sparkling cider and want to keg, won't this work (and avoid adding cost and chemicals to your cider)

After primary and desired fg, rack to keg and chill a couple days. Then add your caramel syrup and frozen juice concentrate as desired right into the keg. Stir well. Hook up the gas and get to desired carb level.

I guess my question is if you are kegging and keeping at 50F or below, and using ale yeast, why bother with campdens and sorbates? Won't the temp halt the ferm process?
Click to expand...


That's what I did and I didn't have any problems.
 
bd2xu said:
I guess my question is if you are kegging and keeping at 50F or below, and using ale yeast, why bother with campdens and sorbates? Won't the temp halt the ferm process?
Click to expand...

It's really not much more effort to make sure the yeasties have gone to sleep.
 
bd2xu said:
Ok thanks, this seems so simple and obvious to me but I don't really see a lot about this method anywhere on forums so I thought I was missing something.
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I keg as well. After 2 weeks of fermentation I rack to a keg and add the syrup. I immediately drop it into a 38 degree keezer and gas it up. I have done this three times without issue. The sweet spot for me in regards to the syrup is 2 cups of brown sugar and one can of apple juice concentrate which is simmered with a few cinnamon sticks.
 
The sugar didn't get mixed in very good, most of it was left at the bottom of the bucket, But it was good anyhow. My wife's friends all want to buy some. I'll be making it again soon. Thank you sir
 
Well my 5 gallon batch is at 1.004 after two and half weeks. I let it go too far and I am thinking about adding potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate and racking it off to a secondary now. But from what I am reading, that really won't stop all fermentation it will only stop he's from producing. I am betting that even if Iraq over to a carboy with these chemicals, I will still drop down to near zero. So I think I will just let it ferment all the way out and clear, it is still very cloudy, and then back sweeten with the right amount of caramel sauce and apple juice concentrate. It is going to be closer to an 8% cider now, I really wanted 6%, but next time I think I might do the recipe and just omit the 2 pounds of dextrose
 
I should have mentioned I plan on kegging. So what I think I will do is rack to secondary after it clears and add the stabilizing chems, let it sit a couple days, rack to another container to backsweeten then keg.
 
I've not kegged anything before but couldn't you just do the backsweetening directly in the keg after stabilizing it?
 
Roger76s said:
I keg as well. After 2 weeks of fermentation I rack to a keg and add the syrup. I immediately drop it into a 38 degree keezer and gas it up. I have done this three times without issue. The sweet spot for me in regards to the syrup is 2 cups of brown sugar and one can of apple juice concentrate which is simmered with a few cinnamon sticks.
Click to expand...

This is more or less what I do. I don't have the syrup/Apple juice amounts dialed in quite right yet, and I also use ground cinnamon. It's pretty good, I just have to get the juice/syrup amounts to my liking. I've made it 2 times so far.

One of the nice things about this recipe is it is equally good still. You can bottle extras in just about anything, as it makes about 6 gallons.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Home Brew mobile app
 
DougK said:
This is more or less what I do. I don't have the syrup/Apple juice amounts dialed in quite right yet, and I also use ground cinnamon. It's pretty good, I just have to get the juice/syrup amounts to my liking. I've made it 2 times so far.

One of the nice things about this recipe is it is equally good still. You can bottle extras in just about anything, as it makes about 6 gallons.

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Home Brew mobile app
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When you transfer it to the keg at roughly 1.010, is it cleared yet or still cloudy? Does it clear up in the keg after chilling and back sweetening?
 
bd2xu said:
When you transfer it to the keg at roughly 1.010, is it cleared yet or still cloudy? Does it clear up in the keg after chilling and back sweetening?
Click to expand...

It's usually pretty clear

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Home Brew mobile app
 
Mine was still pretty cloudy at 1.004 so I didn't want to add the chems at that point because I read a lot of yeast still in suspension. I used pectin enzyme too. I'm just going to let it bottom out and clear, stabilize, backsweeten and keg.
 
bd2xu said:
Mine was still pretty cloudy at 1.004 so I didn't want to add the chems at that point because I read a lot of yeast still in suspension. I used pectin enzyme too. I'm just going to let it bottom out and clear, stabilize, backsweeten and keg.
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Cold crash. Trust me. :)
 
I actually didn't have to cold crash mine. I just left it alone in the fermenter for 4 weeks total before bottling. At that point it was perfectly clear.
 
WesleyS said:
I actually didn't have to cold crash mine. I just left it alone in the fermenter for 4 weeks total before bottling. At that point it was perfectly clear.
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But also at 1.000 or close right? I was planning on stopping ferm at 1.010 or close then back sweetening. Problem is I didn't have an empty keg or room in my kegerator for a carboy so I couldn't cold crash (bad planning). Now I will have a bigger abv as I'm letting it ferm all the way out and will then stabilize and back sweeten.
 
bd2xu said:
But also at 1.000 or close right? I was planning on stopping ferm at 1.010 or close then back sweetening. Problem is I didn't have an empty keg or room in my kegerator for a carboy so I couldn't cold crash (bad planning). Now I will have a bigger abv as I'm letting it ferm all the way out and will then stabilize and back sweeten.
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You're in Atlanta, where the night time temps are below freezing and you worry about not having space to cold-crash????? ;) Seriously... stick it outside after dark and it'll cold-crash naturally! :D
 
Newsman said:
You're in Atlanta, where the night time temps are below freezing and you worry about not having space to cold-crash????? ;) Seriously... stick it outside after dark and it'll cold-crash naturally! :D
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Damn I actually haven't even thought of that! But the temp swings are pretty radical... It was 60+ today
 
Can I use us-05 yeast that I harvested from a black IPA to ferment a hard cider? Will it make my cider taste of beer?
 
I'm beginner to home brewing. Wonder if I can start it in a 5 gal bucket then rack in Carboy?
 
Collector, I have only done 2.5 batch. Worked well.

Dale, yep. You will be fine with that process. I have done that without issue.

Sent from my SCH-I545 using Home Brew mobile app
 
TheCollector said:
Has anyone scaled this recipe to 1 gallon in the past 151 pages?
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I did, for two batches. I don't have my notes in front of me, but iirc I just divided everything by five. Came out well...
 
scdale5 said:
I'm beginner to home brewing. Wonder if I can start it in a 5 gal bucket then rack in Carboy?
Click to expand...

Im wondering this as well for my first batch and then rack to another 5 gal carboy as well. I figure the notty won't require a blow off if I leave 6 inches.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Home Brew mobile app
 
ImageUploadedByHome Brew1389999515.134161.jpg
You sure be fine with this pop off. The is 1 1/4" and the pop off came from Austin home brew supply
 
thelouisvillekyle said:
Im wondering this as well for my first batch and then rack to another 5 gal carboy as well. I figure the notty won't require a blow off if I leave 6 inches.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I337 using Home Brew mobile app
Click to expand...

You won't get much krausen with this (or any cider as far as I can tell) cider, my guess is you should be fine.

About the racking though, most people just keep it in the primary until bottling time then rack to a bottling bucket with the priming syrup. There's nothing wrong with doing it either way though :mug:
 
Cheesy_Goodness said:
You won't get much krausen with this (or any cider as far as I can tell) cider, my guess is you should be fine.

About the racking though, most people just keep it in the primary until bottling time then rack to a bottling bucket with the priming syrup. There's nothing wrong with doing it either way though :mug:
Click to expand...

+1

I use Nottingham every time an there is no worry of a blowoff. With Notty, as always, keep the temp low, 62-65 for the first week. Add yeast nutrient, or raisins, if u can
 
This thread has been rockin' a long time! I have a batch of this in primary that's finished. Had a taste yesterday and took a reading, everything appears to be perfect. The syrup smelled delicious, I've been looking forward to this cider since the day I put it in to ferment. I ended up leaving it in primary for 4-5 weeks, I'm hoping that will give me a headstart with flavor.

Going to keg, so I'm planning on going to secondary with the syrup + two cans of AJC to taste test, follwed by additives to suspend fermentation. I'm trying after three days!

I also started another batch last night because I have a feeling its not going to last very long :D

I used sucrose for both, EC-1118 for the first batch and Danstar Premier Cuvee for the second batch. Second batch started bubbling REALLY fast, but I also added some extra yeast nutrient + energizer and a degasser for the first time. I think it really got things going in there.
 
For some reason I'm not getting a lot of caramel flavor... plenty of cinnamon and apple, just not a lot of caramel. That's OK, though... it's still darn good! :D
 

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