Two new Ciders started .....

Here is what I have started.

Ginger Cider
2.5 gallon batch

2.5 gallons Fresh Pressed Cider
1.5 pounds Honey
1.5 pounds Brown Sugar (light)
6 Cinnamon Sticks
2 Whole Nutmeg
1/2 oz. dehydrated Ginger Root
1 tsp. Pectic Enzyme
1 tsp. Yeast Nutrient
SafAle S04 Yeast

Spices were put in a mulsin bag and cracked with a hammer. These spices were simmered in 2 cups water for 10 minutes to extract some flavor and sterilize them. The bag was removed and the brown sugar and honey was added to the spiced water and heated just enough to disolve the sugar and make the honey pourable. This was then added to the well aerated cider and mixed well. OG of 1.082.

Spiced Cider (Cyser)
2.5 gallon batch

2.5 gallons Fresh Pressed Cider
2.5 pounds Honey
6 Cinnamon Sticks
4 Whole Cloves
8 Whole Allspice
1 whole Star Anise
1 tsp. Pectic Enzyme
1 tsp. Yeast Nutrient
SafAle S04 Yeast

Spices were put in a mulsin bag and cracked with a hammer. These spices were simmered in 2 cups water for 10 minutes to extract some flavor and sterilize them. The bag was removed and the honey was added to the spiced water and heated just enough to make the honey pourable. This was then added to the well aerated cider and mixed well. OG of 1.072.

I'm trying to get more variety in my ciders. I hope these turns out good.

Sounds nice. Have you ever tried a commercial ginger cider? What're they like?

I'm making a winter spice cider too, but I'm gonna add the spices/oranges after fermentation, and use mollasses to sweeten to darken it. I've heard horror stories of cloves ruining winter spice batches because apparently there's no happy medium - it takes the spice very suddenly, so you have to be really careful with it or it'll overpower it.

Good luck though, let us know how it turns out!

RobWalker said:

Sounds nice. Have you ever tried a commercial ginger cider? What're they like?

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i made a cider with apples, fresh ginger and lemon juiced in a juicer. the fresh juice tasted wonderful, just hints of ginger and lemon but mostly big sweet apple, added honey and some other spices. fermented to dry with champagne yeast. once dry, the ginger and lemon came out of nowhere to completely overpower the apple. so be careful.

How are these progressing Bombo80? They sound great!

Well, The spiced cider (cyser) is in the bottle and waiting to carb up. The Ginger cider is still in the fermenter, and has fermented to 1.000. I ran out of time to bottle yesterday since I really needed to remove the foot to 2 feet of snow that was on the roof of the house. I did that while I had a Hofbrauhaus Lager brewing. My first BIAB. It worked out OK, but I didn't have the bag far enough from the bottom, and two holes melted and alot of the grains (about 1/3) had worked through the holes and was in the bottom of the keggle. My efficiency was awful, only 60%.

Anyway, I am hoping to get the Ginger Cider bottled tonight, as well as a batch of graff that is ready to bottle.

Bombo80 said:

. Anyway, I am hoping to get the Ginger Cider bottled tonight, as well as a batch of graff that is ready to bottle.

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How does the ginger cider taste?

Well, I finally got the Ginger Cider bottled. It had fermented all the way out to a 0.998. I wanted it sweeter, so I drew off a cup or so of the cider and heated it with 14 oz. (by weight) of sugar. I know that sounds like alot but the end sample bottle was very good tasting. Very noticable ginger, but not overpowering. I think it will be very good once it gets carbed up.

I also tested the spiced cider and cranberry cider. They are carbing nicely. They probably need another week though.

The spiced cider tastes very nice, alot of clove presence, but not overpowering either. It is a very nice holiday cider.

The cranberry cider is fantastic. Definitely to be done again.

I also kegged the graff I brewed, and it is sitting under pressure as I type this. I checked it yesterday, but it is still a little lacking on the carb level. Probably needs another couple days. But it does taste really good, nice apple flavor, but not much on the maltiness. The jury is still out on this one. I think with a few tweeks on the recipe it could be even better.

Well, you inspired me to try a few. I put together a half gallon batch of cranberrie/apple cider, and a half gallon batch of spiced cider last night. Didn't have any S04 yeast, so I ended up using som Nottingham yeast. I'm a little concerned that I got a little too much sugar in them as they had a OG of 1.090 & 1.088 respectively. I'm trying to decide if I will let them ferment dry, or not. Does anyone know if the Nottingham yeast will ferment all that sugar, or will it die off?

It will ferment all the sugar