Dave's Carmel Apple Cider

Just finished up my first batch of this and it's carbonated in the keg now, turned out great. Lovely cider to have on for the holidays...I think some of this will get a hot serve as that was my immediate thought upon tasting! I had to dig for a bit of info for a few things, so I'll just cover a few of the recipe modifications here for future reference.

I only used 3 cans of concentrate, that's more than enough sweetness for me and my tastes and it's still plenty sweet. I racked to secondary on top of 1.5tsp of potassium sorbate and 5 campden tablets to arrest fermentation...I'm kegging for Co2, so no need for the yeast to make it out alive. I didn't boil the caramel appler cider, just a slow and low simmer for about 30 minutes...no major gunk in the first pulls, but a little bit of cinnamon remained.

Other than that, exactly as prescribed and super tasty! Thanks OP for the recipe!

I also used only 3 apple conc. as I was afraid 5 would be way too sweet.
I used Starbucks Cinnamon Dolce syrup.

I have 5 gallons bottled as of Saturday night.
I will open the first bottle tomorrow night and check for carb.
Im hoping by only using 3 apple conc. it wont affect the carb.

I did not put in any campden as it is my understanding that you only use this item in the beginning to kill off any natural yeasties if using fresh pressed juice.

I did 3 cans of concentrate and 11 oz of the Starbucks syrup. Turned out great. 7.5%

I left in bottles for one week and then ran through dishwasher on hot cycle for 40 minutes. It did not carbonate in 7 days, but still tasty. Didn't want to risk bottle bombs.

Big hit with friends.

guyinaz5000: I was just coming here to say......
After 5 days I opened my first bottle to check the carb.
There was NONE!
So disappointed.
I will open a second bottle in another 3-4 days to see if it carb'd.
This is a good cider however it will be even better with carb.

If it doesnt carb Im assuming I WONT have to stove past???????

I would think its carbing slower since we did 3 cans vs 5...

Ok sounds reasonable....Im patient.... Can wait!!!

Since there are 25 pages to this thread, forgive me if this has been answered.

Campden Tablets (PS115) release sulfur dioxide when dissolved in a liquid. They are added in small doses directly to fresh juices 24 hours before adding yeast. This is to destroy any wild molds and bacteria that may have been on the fruit.

Wanted to add my $.02 as I really enjoyed this cider and so did my friends!

A couple of tweaks:
*Used Mangrove Jack's cider-specific yeast (M02)
*4 12oz cans of apple juice concentrate (my mistake)

I thought this was a fantastic cider. It yielded close to 5 1/2 gallons after all of the concentrate and syrup had been added. I kegged this cider - and for whatever reason it would not carb until I had pulled off probably 1/2 a gallon of test glasses - continuing to wonder if it would ever carb!

Just kegged a batch of this one, but rushed it and kinda forgot a step...waiting for the k-sorbate and campden to do their thing before adding the sugars. Hopefully it works out? I used a full ~2 cups of the cinnamon sugar and 2 cans of apple juice concentrate on mine. Sitting at 30 psi right now.

Brewed this last month as my first cider, and I think I'm hooked! This stuff really does taste like a caramel apple! I did follow the advice from a previous post (sorry I can't reference it right now....) and did not boil the brown sugar and cinnamon syrup (1 cup and 1tsp), just heated to almost boiling and thickened it before adding. I did a 2 gallon batch, and used 1 can of concentrate with the syrup, and that's sweet enough for me

I made this for a wedding and it was a big hit, drank all 5 gallons

For the OP: did you take OG/SG/FG readings? Do you have an estimated ABV? Just curious.

ellicit said:

Well, as most know this recipe was based off a normal hot cider drink from Starbucks including the syrup. I was talking to an old friend who works there and I found out that most stores will even sell their syrup!!!... Their cinnamon syrup is pre-made for you and is like $8/liter. Cheaper to make yourself but thought I'd share this for those who want to save time.

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Anyone try this syrup?

Another question (and I've read the thread) on nottingham. I have four 6 gallon batches of regular cider on. Nottingham is the one I DONT love the flavour of. All are in secondard ferm - couple weeks in. Then again I don't like beer (I know...booo). So if I was to use lavin ec118 which the SG for both Notti and ec118 were both the same and nder 1.000, would this be bottle bomb material? I understand wine yeast eats up all the sugars but the notti did too on my batches. Currently brewing 1116, ec-118, Notti and M02 Mangrove jacks (which I love and just dropped it into secondary)

New to cider but diving in in a big way! THANK YOU!

I just used it in mine the other day. I also used Notty, and got plenty of compliments. I actually didn't add any apple juice concentrate to mine as it was already plenty sweet for most people's liking, and was a little heavy on the cinnamon. It didn't have as much of the caramel taste unfortunately, just mostly cinnamon. Plenty of people liked it though.

Just pitched Mangrove Jack's M02 for this recipe as I racked an M02 over a couple of days ago and I think it's already drinkable - far more than the other yeasts I have tried so here goes nothing! Will report back for sure. Love that it retained some apple flavour even though it went below 1.00.

Also the Dolche from starbucks has sorbate in it. Not sure if it had been mentioned before so makes bottle carbing a problem or is it not used in enough quantities to really be concerned?
OG is about 1.045-1.050 for fresh pressed
with sugar it was 1.064

globell-where did yo get this mangrove jack m02 yeast? I might try some.

I'm in Canada

Www.bosagrape.com *REVISED*

So far my fave!

They will ship in envelope for a couple bucks. Just call them. web inquiry took days. They are in Vancouver

Yup, me too. I will check it out thanks.

BILTIT said:

Yup, me too. I will check it out thanks.

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Right - I knew that....just quick replied without really seeing who. They normally carry white labs and Wyeast but are out at the moment.

(604) 473-9463

So after pasterizing - will this cider clear up? I prefer clear and wondering if it's wise to let it clear then bottle....

Mine clears up in a month or less with no finings.

I would wait first.

D_Nyholm said:

Mine clears up in a month or less with no finings.

I would wait first.

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Do you mean clear in carboy?

So I've bottled this. Added some extra cinnamon syrup as I wasn't able to taste as much cinnamon as I would have liked. It's sweeter...(will add extract next time). I've read that it takes anywhere from days to weeks to create carbination. I'm at 5 days and nothing at all. Guess I'll leave it for a while and monitor ever few days. Ellicit states about a week (which would be grand) others state 3-4 weeks. Fingers crossed!

*edit* - so I'm at a week and it's lightly carbinated. Going to go for a little longer before I pasteurize.

Working on a 5 gallon batch right now. The primary is done and am going to rack either tonight or tomorrow. Once I go to bottle, does the syrup actually dissolve? Do you just stir so its all mixed in with the cider before bottling? Any advice would be great!

Which syrup, the DIY or the starbucks stuff? The DIY is a messy stringy PITA, the starbucks stuff is really easy to use, dissolves really well, basically like priming sugar dissolved in water.

Ah good point, maybe I'll just use the Starbucks stuff...so then a I need to do is mix in the appropriate amount and then that's good to go? Pretry much acts as the priming sugar?

I can't say about that because I keg, but when I did mine, I used the campden and potasiun sorbate to halt fermentation, then added the syrup only, per the original ingredient's amount of 12oz i believe, and it came out very cinnamon-y and very sweet. I know bottling is a different animal, and there are lots of discussions about bottle bombs with this because the yeast wants to ferment dry. No clue how much syrup would translate to priming sugar amounts...sorry.

christyle said:

I can't say about that because I keg, but when I did mine, I used the campden and potasiun sorbate to halt fermentation, then added the syrup only, per the original ingredient's amount of 12oz i believe, and it came out very cinnamon-y and very sweet. I know bottling is a different animal, and there are lots of discussions about bottle bombs with this because the yeast wants to ferment dry. No clue how much syrup would translate to priming sugar amounts...sorry.

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No worries, ill give it a shot and let you know how it turns out...ETA 2-3 weeks. (primary almost done)

There Starbucks stuff has sorbate in it so if you are bottle carbonating, it may not...

And if you read back further in the thread, you'll notice that the reason that the syrup is stringy is because the sugars has boiled and in essence wants to become caramel. That and the fact that powdered cinnamon won't truly dissolve. I made my syrup without leaving it at a rolling boil and it is just fine. No stringy stuff!

I tried to make mine that way, it was too much work to keep watching it. I'd rather be lazy and just buy the starbucks stuff haha

christyle said:

I tried to make mine that way, it was too much work to keep watching it. I'd rather be lazy and just buy the starbucks stuff haha

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Yeah thats what I did...Just bottled mine yesterday evening! Has some pretty nice clarity, hopefully it will clear a bit more before Christmas. Came out to right about 7.9% abv. You can definitly taste the alcohol in it but I think after its carbed/chilled and settles more that taste should dissipate (fingers crossed).

I am ready for cooking):rockin:

So I am going to make this because it sounds delicious, but I plan on kegging and force carbonating. To anyone that has done this, did you add the juice concentrate and all the syrup before carb'ing? Seems like it will come out too sweet with no further fermentation. Has anyone kegged/carb'd it with zero concentrate added? Any inputs are appreciated!

I kegged mine with no concentrate. I forget, but mine may have not quite reached FG before i halted and sweetened. I think the amount of Starbucks syrup is a little heavy for my taste, and I also used no concentrate once tasting it after the syrup was added. It still could have used less in my opinion.

So it's been almost a month since I bottled this. Was ok at bottling time. A little sharp and harsh. Drinkable but only would have one.
I cannot believe the taste difference over the month. Now it's so very enjoyable and we had two tonight and shared a third with a guest who also loved it. Mine finished at almost 10 percent as I added some FCAJ during fermenting to augment weak fresh pressed juice.
So good. Not it alcohol content at all. Amazing.
Carb'd up in about 10 days and is nice and fizzy. Love this. Will make it again and again!!

Started this last week and showed no signs of life for almost 2 days. Now it has blasted off. Many people in the thread mentioned that they don't see much activity with ciders, so I didn't use a blow-off tube....well, it needed it and is still blowing suds through the airlock over the last two days. Fermentation temp is set at 60, so I thought it would be slow. Why did so many people say there is not much action with cider?

Because most never have had any? I personally have never had any kind of krausen whatsoever that would warrant a blowoff tube being needed. What did you use for your recipe?

5 gal Treetop, 2 lb dextrose, Nottingham just like recipe calls for... I aerated it with an O2 bottle and stone, but no difference in the recipe. I dropped the campden tabs in 24 hrs before I pitched to kill any bad guys. I plan on force carbonating in the end.

Ive never heard of that happening....odd. Mine seriously has zero foam when it ferments.