Please Critique my recipe plan

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russb123

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Here is my planned recipe:

5 Gallons Member's Mark Apple Juice (Sam's Club) - No preservatives
4 Cans Old Orchard Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate - Only Malic and Absorbic Acid
Yeast Nutrient - LD Carlson Brand package says 1tsp per gallon of must(so 5 tsp)
Cider Activator Wyeast ACT4766
3lbs Frozen Blueberry's

I will be putting at least another 3lbs of blueberrys in my secondary.

My plan is to bring the concentrate and frozen blueberrys up to room temperature(or close to it) and then throw the blueberrys in the blender and then mix it all together with the 5 gallons of juice in a 6.5 gallon carboy.

I plan to use a stainless steel racking tube with wire mesh on the end so hopefully I will not have any trouble with the blended up fruit.

Before I start am I missing anything? Are any of my amounts out of whack? I am really only concerned with the yeast nutrient because I have not used it before.
 
not a bad idea with the blue berries... blue berries have a good ammount of fermentable sugars in there juice, and it gets around the way of putting in cane sugar... (shruggs) your additions seems about right, using the concentrate on top of the blue berries? that is possiablly to much sugar but hey the only problem with this is not a problem at all, it just might make your cider sweet rather then dry... (shurggs) your right on track

Cheers
 
Since your blueberries are frozen the cell walls are already broken so putting them in the blender would be one more step where contamination could set in. Plus with the subtleties of aroma of blueberries I would wait until the secondary to put them in to prevent CO2 scrubbing. Please get back to us and let us know what you did and how it turns out. I have had a local orchards blue berry hard cider and it is great!!
 
Do you think 4 cans of concentrate is too much? According to the nutrional label each can is 162g of sugar, which is 1 lb 7 oz of additional fermentables.

What does pectin enzyme do? How much would I use if I picked some up?
 
Since your blueberries are frozen the cell walls are already broken so putting them in the blender would be one more step where contamination could set in. Plus with the subtleties of aroma of blueberries I would wait until the secondary to put them in to prevent CO2 scrubbing. Please get back to us and let us know what you did and how it turns out. I have had a local orchards blue berry hard cider and it is great!!

when you say Co2 scrubbing what exactly does that mean?

Reduction of flavor?
 
Yeah that is what he means, the blueberry will lose most of its aroma due to all the CO2 passing through and around it during fermentation. I will be adding more blueberry's in the secondary to combat this effect.

I read on a wine forum 1/2 tsp per gallon for pectin enzyme, does it hold true for cider's?
 
Yeah that is what he means, the blueberry will lose most of its aroma due to all the CO2 passing through and around it during fermentation. I will be adding more blueberry's in the secondary to combat this effect.

I read on a wine forum 1/2 tsp per gallon for pectin enzyme, does it hold true for cider's?

Nice..thats what I thought.

I can't wait until this spring/summer we have allot of pick your own farms here. I'll be looking for you guys to give me some Blueberry and strawberry wine recipes!!
 
Sounds a lot like what started as my Blueberry Cider and ended up as my Blueberry Apple Wine, since the abv ended up being in the high 12's. I would agree that the blender is unnecessary. When I did mine, I just through in the frozen blueberries, they weren't even entirely thawed yet! One thing I would suggest it to just let them thaw, squish them up a bit, then freeze them, thaw them again and throw them in the primary. I ended up doing 4lbs in primary and 5lbs in secondary, I definitely got more flavor and aromatics from secondary, but the primary adds a different profile. This was more evident when I went to secondary, because I actually bottled 4 right there and could compare the taste.

Other than that, sounds like a great recipe to me. Not sure if the pectic enzyme is necessary, but it won't hurt and might be needed, so better safe then sorry.
 
I am in no hurry so I am following Tusch's advice. I smashed up the 3lbs of blueberrys a bit and put them back in the freezer this morning.

It sounds better to me than pasturizing them. I will also go buy some pectic enzyme tonight and put some in.

I will modify my recipe post once I have actually done all these things.

One more question, I would like to keep my ABV below 10%, around 8 would probably be ideal for something easy drinking from 12 oz bottles. Should I reduce the cans of concentrate? Tusch I noticed you added 2lbs of brown sugar, that is more sugar than my 4 cans of concentrate.
 
Just from a quick glance you should be about where you want to be. If you are unsure just check your gravity with a hydrometer.

1.075 reading will lead you to a potential of 10%

I know from my experience, just juice makes around 6% - 7% ABV depending on the juice. And it will be hard to determine the exact amount of sugar the berries will bring to the table so keep that in mind. :mug:
 
Thanks for the input everyone.

I think I will cut back to 2 cans of concentrate and see where my SG is with just that. I would rather error on the mild side so I have something drinkable within 6 months.
 
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