Hard Berry Cider Recipe?

I have been trying to find a recipe for hard berry cider, hopefully similar to Beery Burst Cider from BJ's. I have found a couple of recipes but I haven't seen a lot of info on it. I figure someone here is making it and would hopefully be willing to help.

Thanks in advance,
Dan

I'm about to do the same thing. I'll likely be doing it my next beer brew day.

My plan:

- 1 gallon of apple juice
- 1 bag of frozen mixed assorted berries (bought some fresh from a street-side vendor in California. Blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries. You can use any combo you see fit)
- Some yeast slurry from a Wyeast 1272 (American Ale II) starter I'll have made for that brew day

- Pour apple juice into 1 gallon glass container, leaving room for berries and some headspace for fermentation (you can do it in the bottle it came in... I just like my glass jugs)
- Pull the berries out of the freezer and dump them right in. Freezing them first not only "sanitizes" them but it breaks open the plant cells so you can get at all the juice available.
- Add yeast. I'll just be adding about two tablespoons or so of thick slurry from my starter. You'll be fine with half a pack of dry yeast (US-05, Nottingham) or liquid if you want to spend the few extra bucks (Sweet Cider, Wyeast 1056, Wyeast 1272, Wyeast 1099.) If you want strong, dry cider that's more like Apfelwine (German applewine) then use EC-1118 Champagne or another dry wine yeast.
- Let sit for a few weeks to a month if using the Cider or Ale yeasts. Let it sit for a couple months to half a year if using champagne or wine yeast.
- Bottle it up



I hope that helps. Ask any more questions you may have. People here are friendly and always willing to help.


EDIT: If you end up doing a 5 gallon batch just scale up. 5 gallons of apple juice, probably about 6 pounds of berries, and a full pack of dry yeast or liquid yeast with a 1 liter starter.

You are AWESOME! That is exactly what I need!

So leaving the berries in (primary only) for a few months will be ok? I assume it will settle to the bottom and stay there when I rack it for bottling...

DanH said:

So leaving the berries in (primary only) for a few months will be ok? I assume it will settle to the bottom and stay there when I rack it for bottling...

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That is quite correct! And even if they don't settle (after a few months they likely will) you can rack from beneath them. And you'll probably only need a few months if you're using wine/champagne yeast but it's not necessary when using ale cider.... though it doesn't hurt.

I'm making a "Very Berry Cider" that is super similar to this. I pitched S-04 into 5 gallons of store-bought apple juice 2 weeks ago, which I'll rack onto 5-8 lbs of Costco mixed frozen berries soon and let sit for another few weeks before kegging.. and carbing to the max. I'll let you all know how it comes out

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/cider-carbonation-373701/

My apple berry recipe, contained in the above thread, is drinking well right now and will be even better with age.

It is not a bad idea to freeze the berries as it breaks them open. Just realize it doesn't sanitize them whatsoever.

Those berry seeds can release a lot of bitter tannins, you will get all of their flavor out in a couple of days. A little pectinase wouldnt hurt to help clear up later. Germs easily live through winter so freezing doesnt do anything but slow them down, but some KM knocks them down good, but if you are using a nice starter that will outcompete them quickly. WVMJ

I've removed berries with little seeds like raspberries and strawberries after less than a week and still got a bitter taste 6 months later. That doesn't happen when I use Craisins.

We have actually changed from the usual way of adding fruit. We freeze our fruit as we pick it, thaw it overnight, crush it, add potassium metabisulfite and pectinases and let that macerate overnight and then press out the juice and just ferment on the juice. Result - NO bitterness from the seeds. We do loose whatever the alcohol extracts from the skins and seeds, but we add more fruit to make up for that, and we dont get the bitter stuff so that more than makes up for it. WVMJ

MarkKF said:

I've removed berries with little seeds like raspberries and strawberries after less than a week and still got a bitter taste 6 months later. That doesn't happen when I use Craisins.

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Reno_eNVy said:

- Pull the berries out of the freezer and dump them right in. Freezing them first not only "sanitizes" them but it breaks open the plant cells so you can get at all the juice available.

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I'm sorry to inform you that freezing ANYTHING does not "sanitize." Freezing the berries will not kill bacteria, yeast, or molds. It will simply slow down the reproduction rate. This is why we put our food into the refrigerator because the lower temps retard the rate at which bacteria, yeast, and molds can multiply so that food lasts longer. I would use some k-meta or boil the berries if you wish to "sanitize."

LandoAllen said:

I'm sorry to inform you that freezing ANYTHING does not "sanitize." Freezing the berries will not kill bacteria, yeast, or molds. It will simply slow down the reproduction rate. This is why we put our food into the refrigerator because the lower temps retard the rate at which bacteria, yeast, and molds can multiply so that food lasts longer. I would use some k-meta or boil the berries if you wish to "sanitize."

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Um.... yeah, I realize that. Note the quotation marks around sanitize. You then used the same punctuation incorrectly,

I freeze them so that it slows bacteria/fungus/etc, on the berries enough so that when I dump them into the cider there is absolutely no way they could out-compete the yeast being added.

Reno_eNVy said:

I freeze them so that it slows bacteria/fungus/etc, ...

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My apologies. I am glad you know this. I just didn't want someone to read that and think that they could kill microbes by freezing. You would be surprised how many people think that practice works. Even Dr Oz is misinformed and tells women to sanitize makeup by putting it in the freezer overnight:

http://abcnews.go.com/m/story?id=8543211

And btw your recipe sounds really good. I might try this on my next batch. By using the amount of berries in your recipe did you find that the cider still had a nice apple flavor or did the berry flavor overpower the apple?

There's still quite a bit of apple in there. And the berries have contributed more tartness than natural sweetness. It's quite nice and very refreshing. I need to make sure to save some for the summer... or just make more

Do you think adding the berries to the secondary instead of the primary would give more berry flavor?

LandoAllen said:

Do you think adding the berries to the secondary instead of the primary would give more berry flavor?

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Absolutely. I've done a raspberry cider and just started a mixed berry one. For 1 gallon I've done 1 cup berrys during primary and 2 cups during the secondary

What I did for my raspberry cider was ferment the apple juice through primary, then add the berries to a bit of apple juice on the stove, mash them while it heats to 165, then strain with a wire strainer into secondary and rack on top of it. It worked really well, I find that any fruit flavors in primary get muddled and in secondary work real well.

Brulosopher said:

I'm making a "Very Berry Cider" that is super similar to this. I pitched S-04 into 5 gallons of store-bought apple juice 2 weeks ago, which I'll rack onto 5-8 lbs of Costco mixed frozen berries soon and let sit for another few weeks before kegging.. and carbing to the max. I'll let you all know how it comes out

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I'd be interested in an update on this.. so do tell, in good time sir!

xjbobbin82 said:

I'd be interested in an update on this.. so do tell, in good time sir!

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I kegged the cider an ditched the fruit... didn't want to risk ruining what turned out to be a really tasty 5.2% ABV cider. Maybe next time!

It's tasty!

Brulosopher said:

I kegged the cider an ditched the fruit... didn't want to risk ruining what turned out to be a really tasty 5.2% ABV cider. Maybe next time!

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Hey better safe than sorry! Looks delicious, nice job!!

If you don't mind me asking, did you use anything to clear the cider or did you let it clear itself out? I made a batch with cloudy cider that didn't clear, now I have some store-bought apple juice going with the hopes to eventually pour a glass that looks much like yours!!

xjbobbin82 said:

Hey better safe than sorry! Looks delicious, nice job!!

If you don't mind me asking, did you use anything to clear the cider or did you let it clear itself out? I made a batch with cloudy cider that didn't clear, now I have some store-bought apple juice going with the hopes to eventually pour a glass that looks much like yours!!

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Store bought juice + SafAle S-04 + 4 weeks in primary + 1 week on gas = what you see. Using cloudy or fresh pressed cider, you'd want to use a bit of pectic enzyme.