Southern Sweet Cider

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sceneater

Member
Joined
Feb 26, 2009
Messages
12
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Location
Gainesville,Fl
Ingredients:
2 Gal Publix Greenwise Apple Juice
8oz Publix Pure Clover Honey
3oz Publix Molasses
2 teaspoons potassium sorbate
1.5 cups Domino Dark Brown Sugar
Yeast:
Fermentis Salfale S-04
Directions
Pour 1.75 gallons apple juice into primary. Heat the remaining apple juice on the stove top(low setting) and add honey and molasses. Stir until combined well. Cool down and add to primary. Rehydrate yeast and pitch. Ferment at 70 degrees for ten days. After ten days, transfer to secondary and add potassium sorbate. I let mine sit for about another ten days then added brown sugar. Heat 1.5 cups of water and add brown sugar to water. Stir until sugar is diluted. Add to secondary. I kegged mine about 5 days later. The sample was delicious, real sweet and appley. Carbing it up now.

O.G.:1.068
Final Gravity:1.012
 
This sounds delicious and I might try it out myself. Question...

You say you kegged... How would I go about bottle carbing this if I wanted to bottle it instead? I'm curious if the 1.5 cups of brown sugar added in the secondary 5 days prior to kegging would provide enough priming for bottle carbonation...

Edit:

Hmm... I guess the potassium sorbate would kill the additional fermention for carbing in bottles.
 
Yes indeed the potassium sorbate killed the yeast. You could bottle condition if you didn't backsweeten it with the brown sugar and it would still be good just not as sweet. Initially I had not intended to backsweeten this but I let it go longer in the primary than I had intended too(life got busy) and it got a bit dryer than I wanted. If you racked it after 3 to 5 days it would finish sweeter without the brown sugar. Give it a shot and let me know.
 
sceneater
 
The ABV is right around 7% but it's not real dry cause of the backsweetening. They're real easy to put down so pace yourself.
I'm gonna do a bigger batch here real soon because I drank them up real quick.
 
My girlfriend has been bugging me to do a sweet cider so I think this may be the one to try. Just out of curiosity, if you are kegging it, why do you only do a 2.5g batch?
 
I did a small batch because it was my first time working with potassium sorbate and then back-sweetening. Also, I too have been trying to make something my girlfriend would drink and didn't want another 5 gallons of a cider she didn't like. Plus, bottling out of a keg with the counter pressure bottle filler sure beats the bucket! I'd keg a one gallon batch to avoid that thing!
 
I went ahead and made a double batch of this today (a little over 4 gallons). Publix had buy one get one Motts apple juice (100%, no additives) so I used 8 64oz bottles. It looks great and my OG came out to 1.065. I used the Publix brand Orange Blossom honey to see if it gives it an interesting flavor. I also aerated with an airstone. Will let you know how it turns out!
 
I have two questions about this recipe.

One, does anyone have any experience using fresh-pressed apple cider for this? The apple season is coming up real quick here in Maine and it'd be swell to have some sweet, hard cider made from local apples.

EDIT: My second question was about bottle carbing, but I've done a bit more research and used some common sense and see that you can't really carb a sweet cider without fake sugars or a co2 setup, which I lack. It'd be cool to have it bottle carbed and sweet, but oh well.
 
I have a batch of this in progress now - upped the recipe to 5 gallons. My OG was only 1.060 (close enough, i think) and I used wyeast cider yeast. After about 5 days in a warm space the cider is at 1.025. Hopefully it continues to drop.
 
sceneater

Your cherry bomb cider sounds interesting too...could you post that recipe, and possibly describe the tast, color, texture, etc as well??? I'd love to make a cherry flavored cider.

Dan
 
So, updated recipe for 5 gal? I have never used potassium sorbate. Want to know how much to use for 5 gal. I have drunk a lot of commercial ciders over the years. I like the sweet ones as well as the dry ones. No one seems able to make a sweet one naturally, so I look forward to trying this one.

But, if it's good enough to make, it's good enough to make 5 gal:)
 
just read the bottle of Sorbate..it tells how much for 5 gallons. I think it's a half teaspoon per gallon (2 1/2 teaspoons for 5 gallons)

Dan
 
Thanks, I had a hard time finding any. My home brew store does not carry it. I had to find it on a wine website. It was giving directions on the website for wine and said to use with Meta-Bisulphite. I'm guessing that is for wine preserving and not needed for cider.

Jim
 
I assume that this is a 2 gal recipe. Anybody mind double checking my math and telling me that this is the accurate form of a 6 gal recipe? That seems like a lot of brown sugar for sweeting.

6 gal cider.
1 ½ lbs honey
9 oz molasses
4 ½ lbs brown sugar.
Potassium sorbate
 
NO..thats wrong...

6 gallons cider
1 1/2 pounds of honey
9 oz molasses
Pot. Sorbate
4 1/2 CUPS of Brown sugar...NOT POUNDS
 
Yes indeed the potassium sorbate killed the yeast. You could bottle condition if you didn't backsweeten it with the brown sugar and it would still be good just not as sweet. Initially I had not intended to backsweeten this but I let it go longer in the primary than I had intended too(life got busy) and it got a bit dryer than I wanted. If you racked it after 3 to 5 days it would finish sweeter without the brown sugar. Give it a shot and let me know.

Hey guys just to clear up a question I had
I was planning on making twice as much so I was going to double the recipe
I was going to let the cider ferment for about a week in the primary and then siphon into secondary since i plan on bottling instead of kegging will I still need to add the potassium sorbate? This is my third homebrew very excited about the cider my finance wont get off my ass :) basically i guess I'm looking for a more defined step by step with time frames and instead of kegging what I would need to do for bottling, Sorry for the newb questions thanks for any help you guys rock!!!!
 
just follow the OP directions..10 days in primary...add your K-meta and let sit another 10 days. Then bottle. you don't necessarily need the brown sugar...it is plenty sweet without it. I just did a new batch of this. was at 11 days yesterday, when I racked it off the lee's and added my bisulphite...and my OG was at 1.010..and it was very good. I may just add some cinnamon extract to spice it up just a bit and call it good.

the Salfale so4 is a great yeast for this one....if you want it it drier then backsweeten using sweet mead yeast or other.

Dan
 
Just started up a 5 gallon batch of this last night. Only change is I threw in a cinnamon stick to the juice we heated on the stove and then dropped it in the fermenter with the honey/juice/molasses mixture. It was fermenting steadily within a couple hours. Here is what we used:

-24 oz honey (We measured out 20oz which would be the correct amount according to recipe, but there was just a little bit left in the container so we just used all of it)
-7.5 oz molasses
-1 cinnamon stick
-5 gallons Always Save brand Apple Juice (3 qt jugs were on sale for $1.50 each)
-1 packet salfale s-04
-5 tsp. potassium-sorbate
-7.5 to 8 cups brown sugar and apple juice mixture for back sweetening

I plan on siphoning onto the p-sorbate in a couple weeks, then back sweetening a week later. Then moving it to the keg a week or so after that. I've only got a single tap keg and its in use, so it'll have some conditioning time before I'm able to fully hook it up and start drinking it.

I've got 2 thoughts:
1. I've got lots of juice left (bought 10 gallons, planning on making this and edworts, but then realized I didn't have enough carboy space!) so I was thinking about back sweetening with a juice and brown sugar mix instead of water. Anyone see a problem there?

2. When I let this condition in the keg should I go ahead and apply co2 and let it carb, or should I leave it still until right before I'm ready to start drinking? Or is there any difference?

3. What psi do you keg it at?
 
can I bottle carbonate this? what is the recommended level of carbonation for cider?

if I carbonate in bottles I assume I should add some yeast before bottling? am I right?
 
can I bottle carbonate this? what is the recommended level of carbonation for cider?

if I carbonate in bottles I assume I should add some yeast before bottling? am I right?

I haven't tried this recipe, but from other replies it looks like you can. You just wouldn't add the brown sugar. I would assume that after letting it sit for another 10 days in the secondary, you would rack it and add follow the same steps for bottling any other beer, bottling sugar. Am I right?

Is there anything we can use to replace the brown sugar, so we can keep the sweetness up?
 
This stuff is awesome. Wish I had brewed 4-5 gallons. SWMBO wants more!

Finding juice with no preservatives is always a problem.
 
if you like this simple one, you'll love this next I brewed up. I used some advice from CvilleKevin and came up with a super simple, and tasty hard cider

5 gallons tree topp AJ
2-3lbs of raw Orange blossom honey to take the O.G. to 1.065

add 4 gallons of Tree Top AJ to primary. Warm a quart of AJ (not boil) and add honey to mix it and dissolve it. add this a bit at a time until you reach your OG of 1.065

Make a yeast starter, and use Nottingham yeast. Add this to to juice, when juice is room temp. Over the course of the next 4-5 days take a gravity reading daily..until you get it dropped down to 1.020...cold crash it...and then add 1 tablespon of cinnamon extract..and then keg and carb.

It's an awesome tasting hard cider that is ready quickly! Good stuff

Dan
 
I have this fermenting in the Primary now... I had a question about the Potassium Sorbate though. I thought you had to combine the k-Sorbate with k-Meta (Campden Tablets) in order to insure halted fermentation? Was planning on kegging this and bottling from the keg, but I don't want to run into bottle bombs if the bottles were stored warmer.
 
This stuff sounds great. I don't keg, so tell me if this would work.

I was thinking of back sweetening as stated, then bottling. After bottling, I will let it sit at room temp for a day or two then stick it in the fridge. This should make it partially carbed and partially sweet I would think.

Now, if I do this, would it ever be safe to take out of the fridge for an extended period of time? In other words, would this ever permanently stop fermentation? Maybe if I freeze it? (no idea what that would do to taste)

Oh, and I of course would then use no preservatives for this.

EDIT: Never mind, I just discovered the wonderful world of bottle pasteurization. Wish I would have known about this method earlier!
 
will adding the cinnamon extract before pitching the yeast prevent fermentation?

I have a similar brew, but it doesn't seem to have started fermenting and I wonder if it is because I added the cinnamon extract the same time I pitched the yeast.
 
This is my favorite recipe. I've bottled and drank two batches, I have one in the primary, and one in the secondary. The one in the secondary I included fresh pineapple juice from the start. I'll let you know how it turns out. Cheers!
 
Yes indeed the potassium sorbate killed the yeast. You could bottle condition if you didn't backsweeten it with the brown sugar and it would still be good just not as sweet. Initially I had not intended to backsweeten this but I let it go longer in the primary than I had intended too(life got busy) and it got a bit dryer than I wanted. If you racked it after 3 to 5 days it would finish sweeter without the brown sugar. Give it a shot and let me know.

How would not adding the Brown Sugar in the secondary condition the brew for carbing in bottles?

I would think adding the brown sugar would give it the fizzle for carbing?!
 
I don't have potassium sorbate. Could I just cold crash it and then back sweeten it?
 
How would not adding the Brown Sugar in the secondary condition the brew for carbing in bottles?

I would think adding the brown sugar would give it the fizzle for carbing?!

I'm curious too. I want to do this recipe but I don't keg so bottling is the way for me. If I don't add the brown sugar and then bottle, will it carb?
 
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