So I finished my first batch of this and had an awesome success with it. Everyone who has tried this is in love with it and I have been informed by SWMBO that "we will be keeping a regular supply of this on hand, right?" Who am I to argue with being told to brew... so thanks to Upstate Mike for that!
So I followed the instructions for the modified / updated version of the recipe (find it around post 42ish I believe). The apple juice was store brand (HEB - its a Texas thing ya'll), I chose it by looking at the ingredients list and made sure there was no sorbate or sulfate chems listed. For this apple juice it was water, apple juice from concentrate and citric acid. Works for me!
Poured 5 gallons into my 6.5 gallon carboy (easy because the juice was packaged in 128oz/1 gal containers), following the same basic bottle schedule, mixing in the corn sugar into half full bottles, and poured in the Nottingham yeast dry. No starter or anything special.
Shook the carboy up after the yeast had hydrated, for about 45 seconds. Shook it again about 2 hours later for the same amount of time.
Fermentation was full on within 4 hours of pitching. The fermenter was in a room @ about 70 degrees, though I know from past experience, while the primary ferment is full on the internal temp gets up to about 76ish.
Fermented for about 10 days and the bubbles in the airlock slowed down. Took a reading on day 11 and got 1.015. Checked it the next day and got 1.013.
Made the syrup per the instructions, 2c water, 2c light brown sugar, 1/2 tsp of cinnamon extract (McCormic brand). Heated the water and added the sugar. Brought the water to a boil, and let it boil gently for 5 mins. Turned off the heat and waited a minute and added the extract. There was a little boil off of the extract due to the heat, and I know I lost some of the cinnamon flavor, but it worked out fine in the end.
Put a lid on the pot and let it cool down to slightly warm to the touch.
Got the bottling bucket out (sanitized of course), and put the sugar / cinnamon mixture in the bottom, put the 3 cans of apple juice concentrate (same store brand, same ingredients list) and racked the cider (quietly) on top of it. As a safety measure I made sure to stir the mix and cider after racking to make sure I got a good blend of the two, since I had been reading of people getting separation issues.
Bottled to 22oz bombers and 12 oz shorties. Capped with oxycaps.
I also had bought 2 12oz PET bottles of Coke, drank one and left the other closed. I bottled the cider in the empty one (cleaned out and sanitized of course), right in the middle of my bottling session, in hopes I would get a pretty representative sample of the mix.
I kept both the full bottle of Coke and the Cider filled one with the bottles, and checked it daily. The room was kept between 70 and 75 the entire time. I checked by giving the coke bottle a squeeze and compared it to the cider filled bottle. At those temps the coke bottle had a tiny bit of give in it and I was shooting to match as close as I could. After about 5 days, I felt the bottle in the morning and it was oh so close to the coke bottle in pressure. So made plans to pasteurize that evening.
Pasteurization went pretty smoothly. I did this on my gas stove, in a 3 gallon pot. I filled the pot with water and tested the level for the 22oz bottles. I planned on doing 5 22oz bottles at a time. The pot was a little too small to completely submerge the 22oz bottles, but left the very top / cap exposed to the air. I figured since the fill line would be below the water surface I should be able to ensure the liquid got to the right temp. Removed the bottles, put my floating thermometer into the pot, and cranked the heat up.
Now, I have to tell you, I was very apprehensive of putting carb'ed bottles into hot (190 deg) water. So I made sure to wear long sleeves and put on my eye protection. I also used a silicone oven glove which covers my hand and well past my wrist to put the bottles in and out of the water. I am sure I looked like quite the mad scientist in the process!
Got the water to 192, killed the heat, and started putting bottles into the bath, carefully. Covered the pot with a kitchen towel, just in case something burst I didn't want glass and sweet cider over everything. Also figured it would help keep some of the heat in.
Set the timer for 10 mins and vacated the kitchen - like I said, I was a little apprehensive. 10 mins is up and I checked the thermometer - damn! 156 degrees. I marked these bottles to drink first - just in case one of those little yeasties survived the heat. Eventually I found that for my setup, the right temp was just shy of 200 degrees and 4 22oz bottles (5 12oz bottles - reduced the water level, but they were submerged). This got me to just above 160 every time.
No accidents, no busted bottles, whatsoever. I put the hot bottles directly into the crate / box they come in, after wiping them with a towel to remove the excess water.
So how did it turn out? Well, I can say the pasteurization did change the cider slightly. The flavors definitely seem to be a bit better "melded" than the unpasteurized, and the carbonation is definitely different. The only way I can describe it is the bubbles are a bit bigger in the pasteurized bottles than the not. The unpasteurized bottles seem to be more like champagne bubbles, just a little bigger.
Also, my bottle capper leaves a small ring indention in the center of the bottle cap. When the bottles came out of the hot water bath, that little indention had been forced out. So there is definitely some serious pressure going on in there - definitely deserves the respect I showed it. Also noticed on the 12 oz bottles, which were completely submerged, that in the last 5 minutes they began to leak a very slow stream of CO2 out of the bottles. Nothing near enough to drive off or really affect the carbonation, but something of note for sure. The overall process of pasteurization for 22 x 22oz bottles and about 11 x 12oz bottles was just under 3 hours.
Overall a very satisfying experiment into some techniques in home brewing I had never done before. Sorry for the long post - but I figured it might help someone read a first timers' process, results and experience.
