Blueberry and apple cider

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joentuff

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ok I am thinking about trying a blueberry and apple cider, I have seen a few on here and I just want to make sure I get it right, I know how to make a simple cider, but do I have to take the blueberrys and crush them and mix in some camden tablets first, and let that sit for a day befor adding it to the cider? or how do I make sure its ok? I really want to use fresh blueberrys
 
I think you're on the right track using campden tablets. When I make a batch of blueberry cyser I'm going to be using pasteurized wild blueberry juice, just to make it easy on myself. If I were to use fresh blueberries I would first freeze the blueberries or put them into a food processor to ensure that I got all the goodness out of them. The I would mix my blueberry slurry with equal parts of apple juice and use campden tablets accordingly. Make sure you mix it well. Let sit for 24 hours and then rack onto the mixture from your primary as it's the general consensus that fruit additions are done in secondary.

Viel Gluck!
 
what about frozen berrys? do I need to campden tablet those previous to adding them?
 
also should I mash them up and then let them sit for a little while previous to adding them? I was going to add them on the second day of letting my cider ferment
 
what about frozen berrys? do I need to campden tablet those previous to adding them?

You should campden the frozen blueberries after thawing them out, and 24 hours before they make contact with your brew.

also should I mash them up and then let them sit for a little while previous to adding them? I was going to add them on the second day of letting my cider ferment

Do you only have 1 fermentation vessel? I would recommend that you wait until after fermentation has almost entirely subsided before racking the cider onto the blueberries in a secondary fermentation vessel. If the blueberries have been frozen and then thawed they shouldn't have to be mashed up, just campden them.
 
Ok thanks, yes I have more then one fermenter, thanks again for everyones help
 
In mine I froze, thawed, refroze, and rethawed. Threw em into primary without campden, yeah it is safer to campden it, but with it being frozen I risked it and had no issues. But when I do it again I will be using campden. Also I used blueberries in both primary and secondary to develop a really complex flavor, because both get you different characteristics.
 
I made a blueberry mead a while ago, and I added the fruit in the primary. The fermentation scrubbed out a lot of the flavor of the blueberries. In the nose it smelled more like very floral roses, and the flavor was more about flowers than fruit. The next time I make it, I will be doing a secondary with the fruit, racking the mead over when fermentation is almost done. YMMV
 
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