Caramel Apple Cider

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This is a great recipe and a week ago I started two different gallons. One with Wyeast 1272 (American Ale) and another with Wyeast Kolsch. They are fermenting well, but I forgot to take an OG. Anyone take an OG for this recipe before they pitched?
 
FightingBob said:
This is a great recipe and a week ago I started two different gallons. One with Wyeast 1272 (American Ale) and another with Wyeast Kolsch. They are fermenting well, but I forgot to take an OG. Anyone take an OG for this recipe before they pitched?
Click to expand...

I made about 3.5 gallons of this and the OG was 1.086. Made it with Us-05 and it has been fermenting for about 13 days. Just checked the gravity today and it is at 1.005, and I believe it is still going, so going to give it a few more days.
 
Got 2 1gal batches going now, started 10/31.

9f9d3aee040311e19896123138142014_7.jpg


Trying out EC-1118 and 71B-1122 yeasts, in 3 hours they were both bubbling away happily.

And a little pic of the sugar caramelizing cause it smelled so good.
6e2036d003fc11e1abb01231381b65e3_7.jpg
 
So I added the honey, bottled, and pastuerized my batch of this last night. It was STRONG. I am hopeing that it mellows out a little with some time in the bottles. I will probably put one in the fridge in the next couple of days and try one cold and see how it is and the rest I am going to let sit for a while. We are having the in-laws over for Thanksgiving, so I will probably break out a couple then and the rest I will let sit until they, hopefully mellow out a little. The taste was good, I don't think I let the brown sugar carmelize enough as the carmel taste is not real apparent, but again it was still good. It is only going to take a couple though as the estimated abv is around 11.2% or so.
 
Ok, I've got my batch in a secondary but the honey seems to settle to the bottom even after thorough mixing. Is this normal? Should I mix it one last time before bottling and then give the bottle a shake before opening?
 
The honey should dissolve with time, just leave it for a bit and top off with some boiled warm water if you like.
 
after adding the honey and more sugar i let it sit about a week or so since i didnt have time to bottle. Finally got around to it a couple days ago and got 8-9 bottles from each gallon jug... I have to say between the 71B-1122 and the EC-1118, I think I like the 71b a little bit better (its a tad sweeter)... anyways, we'll see if these carb up without any additional sugar.... may take a while. cracked a bottle last night and it was delicious.
 
What are you using as a primary? A plastic pal or the one gal. glass carboy?

Can't wait to start a batch sounds awesome.
 
seancroome said:
What are you using as a primary? A plastic pal or the one gal. glass carboy?

Can't wait to start a batch sounds awesome.
Click to expand...

Glass Carboy. I have a bunch of the whole foods glass apple juice ones.
 
jgilmour said:
Glass Carboy. I have a bunch of the whole foods glass apple juice ones.
Click to expand...

So do you just use a funnel or something like that to the the Caramelized slugger in it? And I, guessing you let it cool a bit first.
 
oldmate said:
For a 1 gal batch:

Ingredients:
2 cups raw sugar (I would believe that the sugar is interchangeable, doesn't matter if it is white or brown)
250 ml honey
1 gal Apple Juice/Cider (preservative free)
Any standard wine/champagne yeast.

Method:
1. Add 2 cups sugar and 1/2 cup apple juice to a pan. Caramelise on medium heat for around 14 mins. NOTE: If you want this to be a clear cider, substitute JUICE for WATER.
2. Once sugar is caramelised, add to fermenter.
3. Pour half of your juice into the fermenter and SHAKE.
4. Add the rest of your juice.
5. Pitch yeast.
6. Ferment till dry, and yeast clears (see notes).
7. Add honey (Adding extra sugar is optional at this point, depends on your tastes) to a pan and caramelise to taste. (I used 15mins).
8. Siphon clear cider into clean fermenter and add half of your cider and the honey mixture from step 6.
9. MIX, MIX, MIX, MIX. I ended up mixing for almost half an hour to get it all to homogenise. Be wary that your cider may still be releasing CO2, so release the pressure often. Once you have mixed in the honey/sugar solution, add the remaining cider.
10. Bottle and pasteurise.

Notes (READ):
The sugar mixture will take a long while to mix in both times. It is more important to mix in the sugar at the latter part of the recipe, as the yeast will eat the sugar not in solution during primary fermentation.

Ferment till dry and yeast clears. If you have used apple juice with your sugar mixture, your cider will not completely clear, I would suggest using a hydrometer and wait for stable readings.

Do NOT burn your honey or sugar. This will most likely ruin your pot, and will smell and taste awful. That being said, watch for splashes and remember that the sugar will continue to caramelise after you remove it from the heat.

Essential Reading:
Pappers_ pasteurisation thread which is stickied at the top of the cider forum. I do not know how this would go being dry, but the flavours are complemented as a sweet cider.

Finally, I did not take gravity measurements, but I would hesitate a guess of a final ABV at 9%. This is the single best cider I have made to date. It tastes like I am drinking apples dunked in caramel, with a honey aftertaste. It is SO smooth. I had a sample of it as I was mixing and ended up going through a whole 750 ml bottle. BE CAREFUL with this stuff, it's dangerous because it is so smooth, even straight out of primary.
Click to expand...

Sorry this might be a dumb question. I'm new.

After you have fermented till dry, you rack to a clean carboy and add your honey and mix. Is it not under air lock after this still?
And how long do you leave it after adding the honey? Or can you bottle right after and bottle age it?
Do you do any kind of degassing?

Thanks
 
Hey all, I have started a batch of this wine 3 days ago and it's still not fermenting.... It's Ina room with a tem of 68 ish and I used EC-1118 yeast. Should I of added a yeast nutrient? Can I add it now?
Any ideas why it's not doing anything, or am I just being impatient?
 
seancroome said:
Hey all, I have started a batch of this wine 3 days ago and it's still not fermenting.... It's Ina room with a tem of 68 ish and I used EC-1118 yeast. Should I of added a yeast nutrient? Can I add it now?
Any ideas why it's not doing anything, or am I just being impatient?
Click to expand...

Is there any chance that you scorched the yeast? (Added the yeast on top of the hot caramelized sugar perhaps?)

Ec 1118 usually takes off like a rocket pretty quickly, so you may need to add another packet
Adding nutrients now wouldn't hurt (I wouldn't bother though)
Also remember that wine yeasts like 1118 don't make any foam or kreusen, you just have to look for airlock activity
 
Cascadegan said:
Is there any chance that you scorched the yeast? (Added the yeast on top of the hot caramelized sugar perhaps?)

Ec 1118 usually takes off like a rocket pretty quickly, so you may need to add another packet
Adding nutrients now wouldn't hurt (I wouldn't bother though)
Also remember that wine yeasts like 1118 don't make any foam or kreusen, you just have to look for airlock activity
Click to expand...

Ya never thought about that! I let it sit but not too long.... That's probably what happened. That batch is no longer with us now anyways.... It had an accident and the carboy got smashed and wine everywhere! That was a fun mess to clean up.
Plan on trying this again tho!
 
I'm now making my second batch of this. I made a gallon with Wyeast 1272 and a gallon with Kolsch. In an unscientific taste test, the 1272 was preferred.

I'm now doing two more gallons. One with Safale us-05 and t he other with safale s-04. We'll see how it turns out.


A word of caution about stovetop pasteurization. I used strong thick-glassed New Belgium bottles on most of the last batch and the pasteurization went well. However, I used one of those cheap thin-glassed LHBS bottles that I had from a previous beer brew. Three seconds after I stepped away from the stove one of the thin bottles burst with cider and glass landing all over my kitchen. I was pretty lucky that I stepped away when I did. If I waited few seconds more, I could have been seriously hurt.

SO: use good thick bottles and check the level of carb on a few before you pasteurize.
 
New to the forum - greetings & thanks for having me.

Re Pasteurization: for a still cider, can you just rack into a clear one gal. jug and bring a water bath to 160 deg F. to pasteurize, or must you do in individual bottles (750 ml or smaller).
 
Just started a batch. I cut back a bit on the initial sugar, carmelizing about 1 2/3 cups of brown sugar. The cider I used was UV pasteurized from an orchard that I left in the fridge for a few weeks cause I forgot about it. The gallon jug was rounded out from the pressure of it fermenting. I threw it in and it foamed up like crazy when I shook it and released a ton of CO2. Got everything mixed up and put and airlock on. Immediately seeing bubbles. OG 1.076. I want this to kick some ass so I'm gonna get it down to around 1.003 for 9.5% ABV.
 
Made a batch last night. I love making these one gallon recipes. Looking forward to tasting this one!

Thanks oldmate!
 
Is there an advantage to stove pasteurization vs using potassiun sorbate to stop the fermentation?
 
Potassium sorbate works best in presence of sulphites, the downside to using sulphites is that a lot of people are sensitive to sulphites causing an allergic reaction.
 
Looks like everyone is making 1 gallon batches but I had a bunch of juice sitting around so I just started a 5 gallon batch of this using Red Star Champagne yeast. If you don't stir while you are caramelising the sugar then it's much easier to mix in your carboy because it won't crystalize on you.

Forgot to write down the OG, d'oh! I think it was around 1.080. I will report back when it's done!

Planning on just pasteurizing it in a pot on my stove, then kegging.
 
Took a gravity sample - it's at .998 whichs brings me to a scary 9.4% ABV for its taste. Smooth out of the primary - and the majority of the sample I put in a small glass and added some sugar to get an idea of what the final will be like. After tasting that, SWMBO immediately asked, "You can make more, right?"

:ban:
 
oldmate said:
For a 1 gal batch:

Ingredients:
2 cups raw sugar (I would believe that the sugar is interchangeable, doesn't matter if it is white or brown)
250 ml honey
1 gal Apple Juice/Cider (preservative free)
Any standard wine/champagne yeast.

Method:
1. Add 2 cups sugar and 1/2 cup apple juice to a pan. Caramelise on medium heat for around 14 mins. NOTE: If you want this to be a clear cider, substitute JUICE for WATER.
2. Once sugar is caramelised, add to fermenter.
3. Pour half of your juice into the fermenter and SHAKE.
4. Add the rest of your juice.
5. Pitch yeast.
6. Ferment till dry, and yeast clears (see notes).
7. Add honey (Adding extra sugar is optional at this point, depends on your tastes) to a pan and caramelise to taste. (I used 15mins).
8. Siphon clear cider into clean fermenter and add half of your cider and the honey mixture from step 6.
9. MIX, MIX, MIX, MIX. I ended up mixing for almost half an hour to get it all to homogenise. Be wary that your cider may still be releasing CO2, so release the pressure often. Once you have mixed in the honey/sugar solution, add the remaining cider.
10. Bottle and pasteurise.

Notes (READ):
The sugar mixture will take a long while to mix in both times. It is more important to mix in the sugar at the latter part of the recipe, as the yeast will eat the sugar not in solution during primary fermentation.

Ferment till dry and yeast clears. If you have used apple juice with your sugar mixture, your cider will not completely clear, I would suggest using a hydrometer and wait for stable readings.

Do NOT burn your honey or sugar. This will most likely ruin your pot, and will smell and taste awful. That being said, watch for splashes and remember that the sugar will continue to caramelise after you remove it from the heat.

Essential Reading:
Pappers_ pasteurisation thread which is stickied at the top of the cider forum. I do not know how this would go being dry, but the flavours are complemented as a sweet cider.


Finally, I did not take gravity measurements, but I would hesitate a guess of a final ABV at 9%. This is the single best cider I have made to date. It tastes like I am drinking apples dunked in caramel, with a honey aftertaste. It is SO smooth. I had a sample of it as I was mixing and ended up going through a whole 750 ml bottle. BE CAREFUL with this stuff, it's dangerous because it is so smooth, even straight out of primary.
Click to expand...

This will be my first Cider attempt and I have a few questions:

So if I wanted to do a 5 Gallon Batch I would do this X5 on all these specs right? Any issues there?

Any difference if I use Juice or Cider? If so, what are they?

Also, any issue with just Kegging this after step 9 and skipping pasteurizing? (Basically using the Keg as the secondary.) Any issues with this at all?
 
Yep, x5 on everything but yeast, here in Australia the difference between juice and cider is that cider is alcoholic, juice is the juice from the apple regardless of cloudiness. I have no idea what the difference is over there, but I just use juice. If you want to keg the cider you will need to kill the yeast to stop further fermentation from the fermentables added in step 9, whether you like to use sorbates and sulphites and keg or bottle pasteurise is completely up to you :)
 
oldmate said:
If you want to keg the cider you will need to kill the yeast to stop further fermentation from the fermentables added in step 9, whether you like to use sorbates and sulphites and keg or bottle pasteurise is completely up to you :)
Click to expand...

Thanks again, would just putting the Kegged Cider in Keezer do the trick on killing the fermentation? Or would I still need to add sorbates or sulphites?
 
I guess it would depend on a few different parameters eg. how cold you can get it, the amount of dissolved CO2 etc. I can't help you too much with that side of it, might need to ask around. The yeast that I use is incredible and won't stop fermenting in the fridge. I would be adding the sulphites just in case!
 
Anyone who has pasteurized this recipe:

How long after bottling did you pasteurize? Papper's 3-5 day time frame I believe is for a cider that was still in the primary and still going down. This is a dry cider that added the honey. It's been 7 days since bottling and the carbonation level is pretty weak. The "Pfft" was weak and a super-aggressive pour didn't do much else either. I'm thinking another weak before cracking another open is the next step.

How many days did yours take to get a solid carb level?
 

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