created a new recipe today "creamy oat and caramel apple cider"

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Daze said:
The important thing to remember is it has to bee cooked to get the silky texture. just adding oats to the brew with out heat will simply cause them to soak up some of your appley goodness. I am actually going to be doing an experiment with oat flower that I made in the blender. I think it will allow me to get a creamier result with less oats and less sediment. Will report back after I try it.

Have you ever revisited this idea? I'm getting ready to start my first gallon tomorrow, but have the resources to start 3 and am thinking about doing one clone of yours. One using apple juice instead of concentrate (even when making the oat milk), and one possibly with a bit of cinnamon. All will be using lalvin ec-1118 yeast.

I'm also going to play with fermenting to dry and bottle carbing with measured sugars of some sort, keeping some still, and possibly a sweeter pasteurized version.

Great recipe and ideas here, thank you for sharing.
 
So after a trip to the store here is what I ended up with:

Batch A:
3 Cans 100% natural Apple Concentrate
About 32 ounces Simply Apple juice
About 1.5-2 cups oat milk
Topped off with water

Batch B:
1 Can 100% Natural Apple Concentrate
63 ounces musselmans apple juice
about 32 ounces Simply Apple juice
Topped off with water (barely)

I rinsed all of the concentrate cans into one and used that to kickstart the yeast while I prepared everything else. I used one small pouch of Lalvin EC-1118 split between the two gallons.

Batch A notes:
The reason behind the different juices was A. Simply Apple on sale looked to have a bit more apple solids vs musselmans, is that a good thing?)
and B
I used this instead of another concentrate due to the fact that I could only find 4 concentrates and wanted to kick up the 2nd gallon a bit.

I made some oat milk by toasting some oats, grinding them into a flour, and steeping for a couple hours. Now that I have done that I would say not to grind it up. I had to squeeze HARD to get it through a cloth filter. and it still has to many solids.

I made my caramel syrup with a touch of dark molasses, it tastes great. I will be adding this after fermentation has mostly stopped and then will bottle and pasteurize after carbing.



Batch B:
I wanted something simple, I used two different juices because I thought the simply apply might give a bit more food for the yeast to chew on. I would have gone with all Simply Apple after I found it on sale, but the store only had one bottle left :-(
I added the single can of concentrate to up the SG a bit.

With this batch I plan on letting it go dry and then bottling it still.


So I have a few questions for the community. I do not yet have a hydrometer, so I do not have any SG readings and will be relying on bubble activity and wild ass guessing to determine when fermenting has stopped. Any tips on how to best judge this? I am mostly worried about the cider I am going to bottle still, but since I plan on racking it into secondary for a bit I guess it won't matter so much as I should have plenty of time to let it finish eating. It also shouldn't matter much for batch A since I'm going to pasteurize.

I am thinking about adding some cinnamon to one of the batches, probably the first. But my gut keeps telling me to keep it simple since this is my first two batches.

I will be purchasing a hydrometer in a week or so, but will also have to have it shipped. Maybe by the time I need it to measure the end activity I will actually have it.

Edit: I added a picture from last night and another form this morning, major difference already and bubbles about every 5 seconds.

2012-11-18 18.52.06.jpg


2012-11-19 07.00.00.jpg
 
How accurate would it be to calculate the SG of a batch using the labels from the ingredients to judge sugar amounts? Is it even worth trying? I know I'm asking for something that I would already know if I could have bought a hydrometer first, but it was the hydrometer or the juice at this point and I wanted to get started. Could anyone give me a best guess ABV range for each batch given the ingredients?
 
Sorry it took me a few days to respond to this I have been really busy. I love this recipe. I have tweaked it a bit. Originally I used acid blend now I use malic acid. The caramel sweetener is good but brown sugar or maple syrup give almost the same flavor and doesn't require the extra time to make. Also with the oat milk, by making flower you don't need to use as much and you don't need to strain it. I found 1 TBL of oat flower per gallon thickens the cider up nicely, and during the fermentation process all the solids settle to the bottom. I am glad you are getting a hydrometer because IMHO it is a required tool for this process. However you can approximate using labels. Lets say the label says 16 servings per container and 29 g of sugar per serving. That means for one gallon of juice you have 464 g of sugar. now take that # and divide by 10,000 This will give you an approximate SG reading. It is not exact but will usually get you with 1% of the actual alcohol content level.
 
Thanks Daze for the response! I'm glas to report that the first batch of two gallons is gone (or mostly gone, I gave one bottle away).

I have since started another two gallons, bottled one of them last night. The last gallon I am leaving to ferment dry and will bottle in wine bottles.

Also, if anyone is wondering I can confirm that 10 minutes in a dishwashers heated rinse or sanitize cycle (or in my case a heated dry) will pasteurize cider in grolsch flip bottle just fine :). They kept the carb level up and no noticeable taste difference.
 
So Daze,

I know this is old but we are having a banner Apple year here in Vermont, that means plenty of cider to go round enough that I can sneak some from my kids into the fermenter ;-) This recipe of yours looks amazing and I am dying have a cider with some mouthfeel to get some going. I'll be pressing apples this weekend with our neighbor and am seeking a little clarity on your last post #44.

When you say: "Also with the oat milk, by making flower you don't need to use as much and you don't need to strain it. I found 1 TBL of oat flower per gallon thickens the cider up nicely, and during the fermentation process all the solids settle to the bottom."

What do you mean? Should I use your same oat milk instructions and just substitute 1 TBL of oat flour for the multiple cups of quaker raw oats? Or do you mean use 1 TBL of Oat Milk (made with Oat Flour) per gallon of cider?

Your help would be greatly appreciated
Thanks
 
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