Dry-hopped cider on saison yeast

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Rowdy50

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This will be my next recipe.

Add 4 gallons Sam's Club apple juice and 4 cans FAJC on top of the Belle Saison yeast cake left when I bottle my saison. Set this in the closet about 70-75 degrees. Once vigorous fermentation subsides, I'll top up to 5 gallons with juice and let it ride to FG. Then I'll dry-hop with 1 oz each of Citra and Amarillo and let that go for a week. Bottle with 5oz dextrose and condition.

Considering adding a little extra-light DME also to see if I can get a little head in the glass, but I don't want to overcrowd the experiment.

Thoughts?
 
I have made ciders with bottled juice and Belle Saison yeast, then dry hopped them with centennial...Turned out great!

The Saison yeast will ferment it out very dry, and leave a nice refreshing tartness.

next time I do this, I will try a more tropical hop for the dry hop. Maybe Mosaic, or Galaxy.

I approve of your plan!
 
Went ahead and made this last night after bottling the saison. 4 gallons apple cider, 1 gallon apple juice, and 5 cans FAJC into a big bucket. OG=1.054. Belle Saison should ferment this down to 1.000 and 7%. Right where I want it.

Fermentation was so active this morning, I could feel the stream of CO2 coming out of the airlock. I'll rack to secondary in 2 weeks and dry hop for a week before bottling.
 
It's been 3 weeks. I racked to secondary last night. SG is 0.995. It fermented between 70-80 degrees in my closet. I know ciders are supposed to be fermented cooler, but the Belle Saison likes it warmer, which is good for me since I don't have much (any) control. The juice was Cider from Winn-Dixie. Taste is already excellent at this point. It is dry and slightly tart, but not too much. Plenty of flavor.

I've decided to let this bulk-age for 3 months in secondary, then dry-hop for a few weeks before bottling. Cider needs to age, and hops diminish with time, so I think this should work best.
 
Hops have a diminishing return when "dry hopping" in a cider. 2 weeks is basically the terminal point where you'll just start adding grassy notes instead of hop character. I don't advise dry hopping longer than 2 weeks.
 
Any long term tasting notes? Spices etc. coming through?


I have a saison going right now that is sitting on some Sterling that I added at 0 minutes. I think I am going to pitch my ginger cider recipe on top of it's yeast cake. (I used Belle Saison)

I've been experimenting with pitching ciders on beer yeast cakes and frankly I love what's coming out. My ginger cider has become my house cider and so I am excited to see what happens when I pitch it onto this saison.
 
My wife and I were at a restaurant the other day and they offered a cider called "Bee Hoppy" made locally by Wild Side ... it was the first dry hop cider I had tasted and it finished with a bit of honey ... very good and interesting
 
Any long term tasting notes? Spices etc. coming through?

Still bulk-aging right now. On 9/9 I will begin the dry-hop and I'll bottle on 9/19 probably.

The sample I pulled a week ago was fantastic though. Just enough saison spice.
 
Started dry-hop on 9/13, and I think it is good now after 10 days.

Question: how do I get the hops to settle out before bottling? Maybe rack it again and let it ride for a week?
 
dont rack it again. It will just start to strip the hop aroma that you got. Usually theyll settle at room temps after a bit. If not, try slowly rocking a few times or just rack it under the hop layer
 
This will be my next recipe.

Add 4 gallons Sam's Club apple juice and 4 cans FAJC on top of the Belle Saison yeast cake left when I bottle my saison. Set this in the closet about 70-75 degrees. Once vigorous fermentation subsides, I'll top up to 5 gallons with juice and let it ride to FG. Then I'll dry-hop with 1 oz each of Citra and Amarillo and let that go for a week. Bottle with 5oz dextrose and condition.

Considering adding a little extra-light DME also to see if I can get a little head in the glass, but I don't want to overcrowd the experiment.

Thoughts?

Haha I have this same thing going right now... What a coincidence same yeast and hops, Walmart juice... Ijust racked to secondary last night after 3 weeks in primary tasted amazing SG is at 1.004 so I'm sure it will come down some more.... I also topped up with fresh juice after I racked it

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So I ended up pitching 3 gallons of Honeycrisp; 2 gal. 3 apple blend and 1 gal. mango nectar. I pitched on top of my traditional non-spiced saison yeast cake (belle Sasion) that had sterling hops left in the wort from a 0 min addition. I also added a 1/2 pound of sugar which I brought to a boil then added 1 oz of colmubus hops and turned off the heat. I ended up at 1.050 OG.

It will be a month or so before I get this bottled and carbed up. I will probably add at least 1 lb of lactose. I did this to my last batch to balance out the hops bitterness a bit and I liked the results.

20150918_132907.jpg
 
Loving all these saison ciders/cysers. It's probably one of my favorites that I've come up with. Going to go with 25 gallons this year I think as everyone has loved it.
 
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