Woodchuck fall cider

New to ciders and brewing
I just tried Woodchuck fall hard cider. HOLLY WOODCHUCK. Perfection. Now i need help with idea's. Bottle says cinnamon, nutmeg and white oak. Can the spices be added in secondary? The white oak.... Is that something i can get at the LHBS? Like smoking chips just dropped into the secondary?

Recipes helpful

I second this! It's my favorite from Woodchuck. I would love to clone this recipe. I took a gravity reading of a flat room temp bottle of Woodchuck Fall. It measures 1.038. Much sweeter than their other flavors. (Probably why I like it so much). Love the blend of spices and oak too. I also like the idea of turning this into a Graf.

I'm very new to the cider thing. I've tried two different ones. Woodchuck nailed it. Exactly what i'd like to make. The other one was to dry and a light on the apple flavor. I have a high ABV cider (apfelwein) at 12.2%. It is still sweet. But, has a FIRE from the alcohol. I may attempt to make a strong spice extract to add as my cider is in the secondary.
Would LOVE it if someone could clone this recipe for us.

Last night i heated 3/4oz of apple pie spice in 1 cup of distilled water. Made a very strong extract. Added 1/4 cup of it to my cider. Will check in a couple days to see how much flavor it added then go from there.

Had a little taste today. No sign of the apple pie spice. Will have to make a stronger exact and add more. Alcohol is still very strong and the first thing tasted. The after taste has a hint of apple. So, it is starting to come through.

Don't know how i never found this thread. But, this may help with my next batch.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/woodchuck-fall-cider-357582/

After soaking them for 2 days, Added 1oz of med roast oak cubes. Had a little taste before adding oak. Hot alcohol flavor dissipating. But, still comes comes across first. Apple starting to become more pronounced towards the end. Apple pie spice not noticeable. May have to add more extract.

Had a sample today. Sweetness is still dropping slowly away. Spices are a little more noticeable. Just barely thou. For a sweeter cider i'll have to back sweeten. Tartness is more noticeable. Wondering if it's the oak cubes.

I'm thinking this may take some time to come into it's own. So, working on getting Champagne bottles together. I'm going to back sweeten and bottle. Then put away for aging. Torn between using apple concentrate or priming sugar for carbing. I would like to have a nice strong apple flavor when it is ready for drinking. When i bootle i'll post the pre-bottling FG. Since i haven't taken a reading in 4 weeks and it seems to be drying out a little more.

OH, i guess i should post the recipe used.

5 gal apple juice
2 cans apple concentrates
5 # dark brown sugar
1/2 cup oak cubes into secondary

3 weeks in prim frem. Racked into secondary. Added
apple pie spice steeped in 8oz rum for 7 days. Then added to secondary with some med toasted oak cubes.

5 weeks in secondary.

Curious why you steeped in rum rather than just steep it in your cider? That alone could be throwing that high alcohol heat into your flavor profile. Sounds interesting, though.

I figured that the rum would kill anything bad that maybe in the spices. I also thought the rum would extract more flavor from the spices. Reading around the boards. Rum and vodka seem to be used a lot. Being new to this i figured.... Ok, i'll give it a shot. The alcohol heat came from the very beginning.

Cool. I realize most people use rum and vodka for infusing, just wouldn't have put infusing and cidering together. Sounds great! I hope it mellows for you!

Patients.... I want something to drink now. LOL Hoping to bottle in the next couple day. So, i can get another beer and a faster low abv cider going.

This one will be good in time. Just new to this. It seems my first beer and cider are both big add bold.

Bottled the cider on the 13th. Looking at the bottom of the bottle, No signs of yeast build up. I'm thinking that the yeast hit it's max and is dead. Will open a bottle soon and see what it's doing.

Opened a bottle this weekend. No sign of yeast. Which explains the no carbing in the bottle. Yeast has crapped out. I think it hit it's tolerance leave. Alcohol is not as strong. Pie spice is not coming throw yet. Priming sugar did add a nice sweetness to it that it did have before. Just a joking thought... I wonder if putting it throw a soda stream to carb.....

Sampled a bottle for New Years. It is carb'ing now. Nicely. The taste is still on the young alcohol side. Showing signs of apple flavor. But, has a ways to go to be truly enjoyable. Spice not coming throw at this point. Color is amber with a slight haze. If your looking for a buzz. This will do it. Down the road this will be very nice. *fingers crossed*

Looking forward to hear how it turns out! I've been looking at doing something like this as well and have yet to try. Just finished a 5 gallon batch of cider I'm going to experiment with.

Being new when i made this. I thought it would be ready to drink fairly quickly. With the high ABV, It's going to have to sit a WHILE to mellow out. We tried it 2 weeks ago. It's getting better. But, has a way to go. I've just put it into storage to age. The pie spice still isn't very strong. It has carb'ed up nicely. The color is a nice amber.

I'm thinking maybe the pie spice extracted an alright amount through soaking in rum. What I do with mead and cider spices is get water boiling, drop in spices for 20 seconds, strain out water and put spice into secondary. You get more of the raw flavor of the spices because the alcohol wasn't present to break down the flavor profiles and they are sterilized as well

Sorry if you have already thought of this, but watch out for bottle bombs. Your yeast is obviously still working, and if you're going for a slightly sweeter cider then there is probably still lots of sugar left in those bottles (I think you said you used champagne bottles?)

Maybe if the cider has hit a good carb level you could pasteurize with a modified method

I have some in champagne and in 12oz bottles. Ya i fear the bottle bombs. I haven't done a gravity test in a while. But, the carb'ing is a little on the light side. But, very nice. It just has to age. Being new when i made it. I had no clue how hot it was going to taste. I learned a great lesson. High ABV means longer in the bottle. When you have nothing in the pipeline. That's a killer having to wait.

Wagwag said:

I'm thinking maybe the pie spice extracted an alright amount through soaking in rum. What I do with mead and cider spices is get water boiling, drop in spices for 20 seconds, strain out water and put spice into secondary. You get more of the raw flavor of the spices because the alcohol wasn't present to break down the flavor profiles and they are sterilized as well

Click to expand...

With you mead, Do the flavors just take time to come throw? At the time i was worried that i had put way to much into the mix. From reading around here. I kept reading that time would bring the flavors out. Again this was my first attempt at making not only cider. But brewing anything. but, we do love the Fall woodchuck. YUMMY stuff.

Sampled a bottle with a friend. It's starting to look like a good cider. It still has some aging to do. The pie spices are subtle. But, finally coming throw. My friend could tell me the taste (spices) without being told they were there. For my first cider and being a strong one. I'm pleased with the progress.