uwmgdman
Well-Known Member
A friend of mine makes hard cider every fall. He buys ground apples from orchards, presses them and ferments them. Usually the batches are really good. This fall one of his batches turned much too dry for his liking, but otherwise fine and it's been sitting in a secondary since then.
I had the idea to brew a lowly hopped somewhat high FG wheat beer and blend the two 50/50. (5 gallons hard cider and 5 gallons of wheat beer).
Has anyone done anything like this before? I imagine there would be sufficient yeast from the wheat beer to carbonate the bottles (we will be bottling). I do have some concerns.
1) If the cider yeast is too attenuative that wouldn't make for a good idea to bottle immediate after blending the batches (read bottle bombs). That shouldn't be a problem, I would just blend the batches and let them sit for a while to make sure the cider yeast doesn't start working on the beer. Although that cider has likely fallen clear enough where it would have a rather small amount of yeast remaining. I suppose I need to see what kind of yeast he used.
2) Would this taste good? I figure this would be nice to have ready by June, a crisp refreshing hot weather malt beverage, but who knows maybe it would taste like ass. I don't really drink stuff like this so I don't have anything to compare it to. I guess it would be something like Woodchuck meets an American Wheat.
Let me know if you have $0.02 to donate.
Thanks!
I had the idea to brew a lowly hopped somewhat high FG wheat beer and blend the two 50/50. (5 gallons hard cider and 5 gallons of wheat beer).
Has anyone done anything like this before? I imagine there would be sufficient yeast from the wheat beer to carbonate the bottles (we will be bottling). I do have some concerns.
1) If the cider yeast is too attenuative that wouldn't make for a good idea to bottle immediate after blending the batches (read bottle bombs). That shouldn't be a problem, I would just blend the batches and let them sit for a while to make sure the cider yeast doesn't start working on the beer. Although that cider has likely fallen clear enough where it would have a rather small amount of yeast remaining. I suppose I need to see what kind of yeast he used.
2) Would this taste good? I figure this would be nice to have ready by June, a crisp refreshing hot weather malt beverage, but who knows maybe it would taste like ass. I don't really drink stuff like this so I don't have anything to compare it to. I guess it would be something like Woodchuck meets an American Wheat.
Let me know if you have $0.02 to donate.
Thanks!
But I have to face the fact that I may end up with more product than will fit in my corny keg. I was thinking that I might pull off 1-2 gallons after primary fermentation to do something with. No reason why that something shouldn't be an experiment in Hefeweizen-Apfelwein. Anyone interested in discussing possibilities?
