$40 worth of Cider (2-gal honeycrisp/2gal blended.)

I just picked up 4 gallons of cidermill fresh non-pasteurized/non chemicalized cider. 2 gallons of it 100% honeycrisp (at $13 bucks a gallon) cider.

I'd like to end up with a fairly nice hard cider, that kinda highlights the tart sweetness of the honeycrisp.

The only ciders I've only ever made has been apfelwein, so I'd like to do something special with this stuff.

Any suggestions?

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I live near a great grocery store, and they've got a local cider on sale for $3 a gallon. I'm used to making the apfelwein as well, and am considering something else.

What about adding some small amounts of all-spice, cinnamon, and nutmeg to the juice? You could ferment it out with some red star champagne yeast, and then mull it before drinking.

You could cold crash around 1.005 to get a bit of sweetness left. I think for a serious wassail experience you could forgo adding too many extra fermentables, and let the apple flavor ring through a bit more; the only thing I would suggest is maybe a bit of honey for some extra body: something like 8oz for 4-5gallons.

Really, I think cider, as finicky as it can seem, is almost impossible to mess up. Experiment and have fun with it! Prosit!

Revvy said:

I just picked up 4 gallons of cidermill fresh non-pasteurized/non chemicalized cider. 2 gallons of it 100% honeycrisp (at $13 bucks a gallon) cider.

I'd like to end up with a fairly nice hard cider, that kinda highlights the tart sweetness of the honeycrisp.

The only ciders I've only ever made has been apfelwein, so I'd like to do something special with this stuff.

Any suggestions?

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$13 a gallon!?! Holy freakin snickerdoodles! I thought $9/gallon for pure Mac juice was a high price. I'd want to showcase that Honeycrisp flavour too, maybe use some 2 row to boost ABV ala Brandon O's graff, but use a lower AA hop like Goldings or maybe even leave the hops out completely.

Some honey crystal malt would be nice for some added sweetness & body. I'm also fond of adding a tablespoon of caraway seed, it adds a nice, mild, mellow flavour which some say is like a very mild anise...
I hate anise, but love caraway, not sure how that works, but it does for me.
Regards, GF.

revvy, whats your other juice that you blended with? varieties?
i make dry cider but i bet you woudl really enjoy a cyser. just add 6 pounds of honey into the room temp juice and stir the heck out of it. add yeast (i use rehyd. nutrient) then at 1/3 sugar depletion and 1/2 i add fermaid O (no DAP!)
to make a good dry cider, do the same thing, but no honey addition.
notty, s-04/05, ec1118, k1-v1116, d47 are all popular yeasts. i do not sugest wyeast sweet or dry cider yeast. it's poop.
de-gassing is beneficial in my opinion also, although many disagree. to me, it seems to make it delicious quicker.

frydogbrews said:

revvy, whats your other juice that you blended with? varieties?
i make dry cider but i bet you woudl really enjoy a cyser. just add 6 pounds of honey into the room temp juice and stir the heck out of it. add yeast (i use rehyd. nutrient) then at 1/3 sugar depletion and 1/2 i add fermaid O (no DAP!)
to make a good dry cider, do the same thing, but no honey addition.
notty, s-04/05, ec1118, k1-v1116, d47 are all popular yeasts. i do not sugest wyeast sweet or dry cider yeast. it's poop.
de-gassing is beneficial in my opinion also, although many disagree. to me, it seems to make it delicious quicker.

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Unfortunately I don't know what the blend is in the rest of the cider- the cashier I ended up with at the cider mill couldn't remember and said there was a poster near the exit but I couldn't find it in the crowd. I figured it would say on the label but it didn't.

It's honestly more rounded a flavor than the 100% honeycrisp, it has more depth of flavor, that was one of the reason's I decided not to go with all honeycrisp, that and the cost of it.

I think I'm going to go with S-04 yeast, following CvilleKevin's thread for the last few years, it sounds like that yeast will produce what I'm looking for.

I don't really want to do a graf like someone else has mentioned,nor do I want to add spices or anything else. Except maybe honey.

I really want this to be cider or like you mentioned a cyser. If I can get some honey-ness into the it that sounds nice.

yeah, honeycrisp isn't really a variety that you can do single variety cider with. arkansas black works for that though. that's the only variety aroudn me with a good amount of acid, sugar and tannins. really though, if you could find a handful of those little crabapples, probably in your neighborhood somewhere, you coud really kick that thing off. just juice em with a food processor into a grain bag or something, doesn't take much .

test the pH too, looking for between 3.2-3.8,
my preference is about 3.4 or so, i like acidic drinks though.
take hydrometer reading and most people say if its not about 5.5, chaptalize a little to bring it up to at least six. that's your call .

as always, these opinions are my own and many might not agree.

i have been adding a few handfuls of crabs to all my ciders this year (3 so far, 1 or 2 more to come, all with S04), tasted the first 2 on racking and it's really worth it!! gives a pleasantly mild tannin bite, an extra dimension that i didn't even know was largely missing from my previous efforts. using red/white and orange crabs the size of a cherry, pilfered and juiced. highly recommended.

I don't know crab apples from adam and don't have many trees where I live- But there appears to be a tree along the side of my parking structure at work that has some gnarly looking green appley looking things. Are those what you guys mean?

Maybe I'll take a pic on the way to my car and post it tonight before I gather some tomorrow. (I have to head to the lhbs for some -04, and stuff for Saturday's big brew day.)

If I can't find crab apples is there something I can get from the LHBS instead? Like acid blend or something?

Also so I still go with the crab apples if I'm also adding 6 pounds of honey (Or however much honey to get to 1.060?)

Thanks guys, I love being a noob for something...it's been awhile.

crabs give tannin more than acid. the ones i am using look like these, and again are the size of a large cherry. taste-wise i didn't notice any huge difference between them, but there is so much tannin that your mouth puckers and knocks out your taste buds a bit if you taste the crab juice straight. very sweet, above 1.060 for each type. all of the ones i have found have been overhanging fences in back yards or gardens. you don't need much to make a noticeable difference. a bike helmet sized bowl in my last 10 L batch was a nice amount

I just wanted to point out that if you go with crabs earlier in the season (August or so, but really depends on climate and variety) you can get crabs with amazing tartness and tannins, but lower in sugars. I usually grabs a fwe handfuls to infuse in vodka each year.

clevernonsense said:

I just wanted to point out that if you go with crabs earlier in the season (August or so, but really depends on climate and variety) you can get crabs with amazing tartness and tannins, but lower in sugars. I usually grabs a fwe handfuls to infuse in vodka each year.

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I think it's a little late on that one.

I'll have to note that for next year.

This is all pretty spontanaeous, I keep planning to get cider from a mill every fall but never get around to doing it, then last week I saw a piece on one of the cidermills and they mentioned they had 100% honeycrisp cider. And HCs are really the only apple I like to actually eat, so I thought if I like the fruit so much I'd make a 100% hard cider, not realizing how expensive the cider is and how really one dimensional it is as week.

I'm still excited about all this. I really appreciate all the help on this.

post pictures of the leaves and i can tell you what it is.
probably need much less honey if you started with fresh juice, but it all depends on the apples. when i use store bought juice, my o.g. is around 1.040 and i use 6 pounds of honey to bring it up to 1.080, damn fine sparkling cyser.
my fresh juice is usually more like 1.050-1.055 but i use a "secret blend"

lots of crabapples in detroit mang, check it out:
https://pomaceousdetroit.crowdmap.com/reports?c=5
i really wish we had one of those websites for where i live!

do not naturally assume the person id'ing the tree and putting it on that website is correct though. sorry, had to say it.

Last year I got 4 gallons of local pressed cider when I was in Northern VA. Probably not the best way to do it, but I just pitched a vial of WLP775 with it, and let it set for 3 months.

It was dry, but man it turned out to be a great cider. Tried it this year with some cider from Whole Food and it didn't turn out near as good, so I think the fresh pressed stuff made a big difference. However I still liked the cider better than Apfelwin and it turns around into something drinkable a lot faster.

So does this be them?

from my experiences with the pressed juice, keeping it simple is the way to go. I would go lighter on honey or sugar and shoot for something in the 5-6 % abv. no hops or spices if you are trying to show the apples off. ferment it dry and bottle it primed for sparking cider. wait for a couple months and you will not be disappointed.

this is still my favorite drink that I have made. just bottled some today, and have a perpetual line of the stuff going. I get juice at the coop here in town. it runs about 8-9 $ a gallon and in my experience is worth the price. store bought juice that has been filtered has never produced the same quality cider for me.

Revvy said:

So does this be them?

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that's an apple tree. plus, the apples look kind of small and gross. hooray, those are very likely to be delicious cider apples. i would shake the heck out of that thing and take all the fruit that looks decent. nothing rotten or gross, mishapen is just fine though.

check out that website i posted and it should lead you right to several of the right trees. basically, think a small, understory tree, probably has a great shape, nice spread, and bunches of 10-25 "tiny apples". go look at a church, churches love crabapples, i'll leave it to you to search for why.

Shopping list time....

I am probably making a LHBS run after work today (unless I go to a Red Wings game instead)

Besides US-04, what do I need for this batch from them?

i'd just ferment this straight up. cold crash it around 1.010. let it clear for a month. it'll be great.

yeast, juice, nutrient, maybe a little acid (but that's personal taste)
also, pectic enzyme can be helpful when using fresh juice, but only if you are looking for a less cloudy drink.

So, I'm sitting here enjoying a bomber of this cider. It's pretty amazing stuff. It's like the perfect balance of both sweet and tart. I can't even describe it.

Revvy said:

So, I'm sitting here enjoying a bomber of this cider. It's pretty amazing stuff. It's like the perfect balance of both sweet and tart. I can't even describe it.

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<---Does it taste something like this?

Revvy said:

So, I'm sitting here enjoying a bomber of this cider. It's pretty amazing stuff. It's like the perfect balance of both sweet and tart. I can't even describe it.

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Don't leave us hanging. Post some pictures!