Caramel Apple Hard Cider

All 5 gallons + are in the bottles now to wait and hope I get no bottle bombs 3-5 days if I remember right

Why isn't this a sticky?? I'm going to try this once I go through my`150 pounds of frozen apples I have left to press.

so by lowering the concentrate to 3 cans from 5, if we're not doing a still cider, should we just let it carbonate fully, or do we still need to pasteurize at some point?
I rehydrated my yeast prior to pitching to try to lessen the stress and it's rocking now at 48 hours. Even has a mini krausen going. I used Whole Foods organic unfiltered apple juice.

This looks absolutely fantastic! Must try this and will post the results!

Beernewb said:

so by lowering the concentrate to 3 cans from 5, if we're not doing a still cider, should we just let it carbonate fully, or do we still need to pasteurize at some point?
I rehydrated my yeast prior to pitching to try to lessen the stress and it's rocking now at 48 hours. Even has a mini krausen going. I used Whole Foods organic unfiltered apple juice.

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You have to pasteurize at some point or the bottles will explode. Mike recommends filling a plastic soda bottle when you bottle and then using the firmness of the soda bottle dictate when you stop carbonation.

So I just wanted to check in. Pitched the yeast on thanksgiving. A couple hours in it looked like this



And this next pic is from today. Airlock bubbling like crazy! Can't wait for this it smells amazing.

"brewed" this in a bucket last tuesday and left wednesday for the holidays.

I got back and looked at the airlock and the area above the fill line looks black/greenish... not like it is infected, but it looks like it has stained the airlock. there was plenty of headspace so i'm not sure why the hell it looks like it does... i'm sure its fine but it threw me for a loop when i looked at it upon returning home

Okay, so I have a weird one... I bottled up a batch of this back in October, and was gun shy about pasturizing since my first batch carbed up faster than I thought it would. I ended up pasturizing this batch too soon, and it was basically Hard Apple Juice.

I let most of them sit at room temp, and about 5 weeks later, they have the perfect amount of carbonation. I am shocked! They are perfect now.

So my question is if I let them go a little longer, will I be looking at bottle bombs soon? Or did the last little bit of yeasties that didnt die during pasturizing finish the job? I'm confused.

janson745 said:

So my question is if I let them go a little longer, will I be looking at bottle bombs soon? Or did the last little bit of yeasties that didnt die during pasturizing finish the job? I'm confused.

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Bottle Bombs. Those few little yeasties will multiply into a sizeable colony, keep eating sugar and producing CO2, and create bottle bombs. Pasteurize again or refrigerate immediately.

So I followed this recipe pretty close to original except I used 1118 yeast instead. Bottles this morning around 10 and when I left for school about 4 the plastic bottle already felt pretty hard. Is it possible to carb up this quickly? Think I might need to pasturize tonight depending on how hard the bottle is when I get home

Finally found some cinnamon extract. At Walmart no less!! McCormic brand. Guess this means I'll have to make my fourth 5 gallon batch this weekend!!

So to all you guys who made this a still cider which is what I think I'm going to do what is your review? Is it delightful as a still cider??

I'm fixin' to do this as my first cider, and in reading the threads above it has become clear to me that the yeast selection is critical in carbonating properly. The Nottingham yeast I have is danstar, so I need to go to the LHBS and pick up some White Labs Nottingham. On the White labs site, they do not list a "nottingham". They list WLP002, and WLP 013 as english ale yeasts. Are either of these the proper strain or something else?

william_shakes_beer said:

I'm fixin' to do this as my first cider, and in reading the threads above it has become clear to me that the yeast selection is critical in carbonating properly. The Nottingham yeast I have is danstar, so I need to go to the LHBS and pick up some White Labs Nottingham. On the White labs site, they do not list a "nottingham". They list WLP002, and WLP 013 as english ale yeasts. Are either of these the proper strain or something else?

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Nottingham is a propietary brand of Danstar (Lallemand). There are other strains of that yeast which will do the job I'm sure. The Nottingham works fine, however.

Reelale said:

Nottingham is a propietary brand of Danstar (Lallemand). There are other strains of that yeast which will do the job I'm sure. The Nottingham works fine, however.

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The earlier threads specifically advise against using Danstar Nottingham as it has a higher incidence of bottle bombs VS "White Labs Nottingham". Looking at what exactly the recommendation is. I'm hoping for a lightly carbonated product but would prefer still to the risk of bottle bombs.

Checked on my 15 gallons last night. It has been sitting at 1.001 for a week so I think I am going to mix up the caramel and get this bad boy bottled this weekend. I would prefer still but the wife likes her cider sweet and fizzy. Although with 15 gallons I think I can spare some.

I used 1118 yeast and it was bottled about 28 hours ago and all of my bottles were fishers. I opened all to release pressure and lost over a 3rd of my cider. I then combined the bottles and am pasturizing now. It was delicious though. Just hope it retains enough carb after gushing

Bottled mine tonight. That is a lot of bottles. Lol. Lets see how it turns out.

Im not sure if this has been asked, but does this recipe produce a large krausen or can I put this in a 5 gallon primary? with a blow off if need be

b_maffucci said:

Im not sure if this has been asked, but does this recipe produce a large krausen or can I put this in a 5 gallon primary? with a blow off if need be

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I've had similar batches using Nottingham in the past which had some krausen but it wasn't too bad. I just made this last batch with dry pitched cooper's and had a a huge krausen though, enough to make 21L in a 6 gallon carboy need a blowoff tube. I'd say leave a decent headspace and throw a blowofftube on there for a few days just to be safe.

Thanks sounds good, i just have one more question. I am trying to do a split of half carbonated in bottles and half flat in growlers. Instead of using campden tablets would id be ok if I just went through the process and just put my flat cider directly into my growlers and then immediately stove top pasteurise instead of letting it carb up? I think growlers can handle the heat and wouldnt it stop the carbonation before it starts?

yup that would work. I did a split batch too on mine, 8 bottles still and the rest carbed. Did it the same way.

Thanks. That just makes it easier i think

Why not rack half into growlers, then half into your bottling bucket? Seems cheaper and easier to me.

Edit: realized that this is backsweetened with the syrup. My apologies.

Hey all. Ive got to check my SG tonight but I have a feeling it's ready to move to another carboy. Only issue is I don't think I'll have time to make up the syrup and bottle until Friday. Would it hurt anything to let it sit in the second carboy until then? THANKS!!!

I wouldn't bother moving it to another carboy, especially for only two days. Just let it sit in primary and bottle when you're ready.

UtahNate said:

I wouldn't bother moving it to another carboy, especially for only two days. Just let it sit in primary and bottle when you're ready.

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Sorry I should've said I'm trying to still it. Plus isn't it recommended to shift it for a day to clear it?

If I want to make this as a still product, and I rack twice, using camphden tablets and sorbate after the first racking, do I still need to pasturize? If so can I pasturize immediately after bottling? What is the taste effect of these chemicals used to halt yeast action?

mikeslag said:

Sorry I should've said I'm trying to still it. Plus isn't it recommended to shift it for a day to clear it?

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I rack to a "secondary" for a couple days even when I plan to carbonate. The reason I do this is when I bottle I stir every six pack to keep the syrup suspended. So any trub that gets transfered also gets suspended. Careful racking would negate the need for this. I need to do this.

mikeslag said:

Sorry I should've said I'm trying to still it. Plus isn't it recommended to shift it for a day to clear it?

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I apologize. I didn't realize you were making still cider. I made mine a split batch of still and carbonated. I didn't use any campden tabs or sorbates because I wanted part of the batch to carbonate. After I bottled, I immediately pasteurized the bottles that I didn't want carbonated. As for the rest, I let them carbonate then pasteurized when I felt they were ready.

As for the "clearing" the cider, I added some pectic enzyme when I mixed the batch up. While not crystal clear (the cider I used was extremely cloudy with lots of sediment) it cleared up nicely in the carboy without any need to rack to a secondary. It's been several weeks now since I pasteurized the carbonated bottles and they have continued to clear.

Is there anything that I can use instead of the 2 lbs of dextrose? I would really like to try this recipe. Thanks.

dward said:

Is there anything that I can use instead of the 2 lbs of dextrose? I would really like to try this recipe. Thanks.

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Table sugar should work.

Is there really any taste difference between sucrose (table sugar) and dextrose?

Fermentation has finished and 24 hours ago I racked onto 3 tabs of Camden and potassium sorbate. Is the 3 camden tabs enough to prevent carbing if I am going to backsweeten?

CodyA,

The dextrose is much finer, which aids in dissolving and overall fermentation time, in my limited cider experience. The big knock against table sugar is that it tends to impart a slight "cidery" flavor, but since you're making cider, this probably won't be a dealbreaker.

My first batch of this was being drunk right about halloween... I split the batch half still half carbed... I wasnt sure on the growlers taking the heat and was short on time so i went straight to the beer fridge, no pasteurization... No problems with carbing of the still batch, but its stored at 33 degrees... For my carbbed bottles i did the soda bottle test, took about 5 days and i just dropped those in the fridge with the still, same deal, no noticable build up...

As for the nottingham question, i used the danstar and didnt have a huge rumbling fermentation in my 6gal carboy, but it did hit fg in about 10days...

As for the syrup... I mixed my juice & syrup in a gal ziploc and let it sit in a simmering pot so it was about 90 degrees to really mix well... I gave it a light stir with my mash paddle after each gal or so... I did not do any cinnamon... I have had zero separation of the syrup in either batch...

pitched yeast 2 nights ago, og was 1.068 which seemed a little high compared to what others have showed. I re-hydrated yeast before pitching, it was going crazy last night, still going crazy 12 hours later. Looks like it will be good.

ArtimusBeerimus said:

CodyA,

The dextrose is much finer, which aids in dissolving and overall fermentation time, in my limited cider experience. The big knock against table sugar is that it tends to impart a slight "cidery" flavor, but since you're making cider, this probably won't be a dealbreaker.

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Table sugar is sucrose, which is glucose attached to fructose. Like:

Glucose-Fructose

Dextrose is just another name for plain Glucose.

So then wouldn't high-fructose corn sugar technically just be frustose-glucose (sucrose) and have the same taste, since "corn sugar" is just dextrose (or plain glucose)? I'm gonna have to buy some dextrose and see what the taste difference is here...