I have a goofy idea

I just picked up 2 gallons of Kirkland Apple Juice, and while thinking about what to do with the second gallon (I am going to do one gallon a straight cider with safale s-04), I came across the pound of Briess CBW Golden Light DME and pack of East Kent golding hops from a beer I was going to brew before the holidays.

That got the wheels churning. I was thinking of boiling one of the gallons of AJ, adding the DME, cool it down, and then tossing it and the yeast in the carboy and make a lazy graff.... then dry hopping before I bottle it.

What do you think? Worth trying, or would I just end up screwing up a bunch of ingreidents?

I'd make the cider separate from the beer and let it age for a while. When the cider is ready, brew a beer, do some blending trials and bottle. I've blended my cider with my homebrew several times and sometimes I like it, sometimes not so much. By making cider and beer separate you have the option of just drinking the cider and beer if you can't find a blend that works for you.

You could do what madscientist suggests or you could add the AJ AFTER the wort has cooled to a temperature where you could pitch the yeast... Boiling apple juice will help set pectins and if that is not bad enough will boil off flavor and aroma molecules... You don't want to heat apple juice for any reason unless your goal is to make jam...

Good point about not boiling the juice. I think I will boil up the DME and add to the AJ in the fermenter. what would be the minimum water to use to boil in the DME?

So, back on 2-2 I went and and boiled the DME with a gallon of water, cooled that down, added the gallon of apple juice, tossed in the yeast, and let them party for 2 months. Last night, I dropped in just over a 1/2 ounce of pellet east Kent Golding hops. My plan is to let that sit for a few days, bottle it with some fizz drops.

No idea if this will turn out horrible, interesting, or good. But what the heck... I like playing mad scientist

Nice! Let us know

Just bottled. I hope it gets better in the bottle because it was just tart and 'meh' as it came from the fermenter. No beer, malt or hops came through.

Oh well. Still have the straight cider in its fermenter. I know that will be good.

Skip all the boiling, just add DME to the apple juice and if you have to boil the hops just do it in like a cup of water in the microwave. Sure it takes a little bit of stirring but you preserve the apple and dont dilute everything with a bunch of water. WVMJ

WVMJ, I tried what you suggested and it came out extremely sour, both times I tried it, even though I was using some pretty bland juice to begin with. I think the DME needs to be boiled to achieve hot-break, that's my best guess.

More sour than the acidity of the apple juice? We have used DME without boiling it and the yeast like it, not sure if hotbreak would be needed for an apple cider, our yeast eat it just fine as is and it adds a lot of body when we use it in port wines or even just to add some body to a lighter wine like a strawberry. WVMJ

Hello, sorry I'm late. I'm the apple ale guy. I've brewed the following recipe 4 or 5 times and it has done very well in competitions, including golds and a 2nd Best of Show at Brixtoberfest.

The thing with apple ale is that it's hard to taste much apple, even if you use a lot of fresh juice (with the brown lees and everything). The tartness comes through way more than anything else, but also I find that you need to look for the apple flavor not while gulping but in the aftertaste. Maybe that helps.

This link contains my recipe and a lot of pointers that you might find helpful.

http://forum.northernbrewer.com/t/apple-ale/6671/3

And here's that Brixtoberfest thing:

http://brixies.bobbo.net/brixtoberfest/output/print.php?section=default&action=print

Hope some of this helps. Have questions, shoot, I'll be around.

WVMJ: yeah, the apple juice I was using was not very sour to start out with. I used part of that same bag of DME later and boiled it, and even though I made 50/50 beer/lemonade the second time, it was not very sour at all.

It's been two weeks. Gonna crack one tonight and see if it carbed, and see how bad it tastes.

Still 'meh'. Just tart, almost no other flavor. Gonna stick the rest of the bottles back in a dark place and forget about me for a while.

Carbed up fine, though.

bullsi1911 said:

Still 'meh'. Just tart, almost no other flavor. Gonna stick the rest of the bottles back in a dark place and forget about me for a while.

Carbed up fine, though.

Click to expand...

I find the apple comes out more after 6 months or so.

dmtaylor posts here, too.

Cool. That means I'll be bumping around here more often to pick up loose gems now and then.