ice cider

I remember reading an article in BYO about ice cider and i recently saw an episode of How its made where they feature ice cider. Has anybody ever tried to make their own?

I currently have two half gallon containers of aj frozen and inverted over a couple of jars. My plan is to wait until each one fills up to a quarter gallon and do a simple half gallon batch. I have a starter of 550 that I'll take a tablespoon out of and see what I get.

Anybody ever make or drank ice cider before?

Currently I have a batch aging that was made by thawing frozen apple juice concentrate and fermenting it pure without adding water. This way, your starting material is on the order of 40 Brix (1.18 SG). With such a high sugar content, the yeast will reach its maximum tolerable ABV content before all of the sugar is consumed. This leaves you with a very sweet final product.

Essentially what you're doing by freezing your apple juice is concentrating the sugar and the flavor. If you're not using fresh apple cider and have chosen store bought juice, I think the concentrate is the way to go.

Well i got about half gallon of 1.076 juice and added 1.5 tbsp of yeast slurry. I guess its more of a regular cider. I was thinking of using the concentrate but didnt want it to give me attenuation problems. If it ferments as low as i want it'll be 10% abv. Maybe I'll pick up some champagne yeast to go along with the belgian strain. I enjoy the flavors of belgian yeasts even in ciders. Hope my first experiment will turn out good enough to encourage me to keep experimenting

Yes to the 550 Belgian yeast! Haven't attempted ice cider but the White Labs 550 has been my fave for cider so far. I also had great similar results with 575 blend, although I haven't seen that one for awhile.
Just wanted chime in about your yeast choice...now continue the ice cider talk! Ha.

So far i've used 3711 and its been great. I used it for a saison, washed it and used it for 3 or 4 ciders and theyve all come out really nice. We'll see how the 550 does on this one.

So today seemed like a good day to give this a try. Wasnt expecting much for a high gravity drink less than a month after pitching yeast. I cant find a hydrometer so going by taste, id guess it finished around 1.010 for around 9% abv. Drinking it still and chilled but drinking slowly letting it warm. Not bone dry, slightly sweet and a nice apple taste. No alcohol burn but tastes and feels like wine. The Belgian yeast lends a very pleasant but not overbearing flavor. It differs from regular cider in that the apple flavor is stronger.

Very glad i tried this technique. trying again is a guarantee. I'd like to get the abv up a bit and try to dry it out more. Probably try hitting it with some 3711 if the 550 cant get it dry enough.

Oh man, I want to do this!

Do you think it's carb-able since you've already boozed the yeast into submission? Would it take other flavors in secondary or bottling nicely?

I have made apple jack, which is fermented cider that is frozen so water can be removed to concentrate it. I have part of a case left from the last batch. I really like to use it as a spray on smoked ribs.

Started yesterday. It's a lovely amber color. Fermentation is slow to start but that may be because my yeast is ancient and I forgot the nutrient.

Kashue said:

Oh man, I want to do this!

Do you think it's carb-able since you've already boozed the yeast into submission? Would it take other flavors in secondary or bottling nicely?

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You can certainly carb it but it may take awhile. I did an 11% cider and it carbed fine.

mikeysab said:

You can certainly carb it but it may take awhile. I did an 11% cider and it carbed fine.

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It depends, if you've pushed the yeast to their ABV tolerance, they simply won't carb up. You might push a weaker yeast to its tolerance and the pitch a different yeast, like ec1118 to bottle carb it. But then it will be dry. So maybe let it carb a bit then pasteurize?

Tough to do an ice cider bottle carbed I would think.

My recipe is halfsies between ice cider and traditional. 6 tubes of concentrate, topped up to a gallon with unfiltered juice, appropriate Nottingham, no other sugar.

4 days in and it's fermenting very steadily; lots of CO2 and very little foam- it's much more orderly than I would have expected for something so sweet. I'm expecting a fairly quick ferment with so much sweetness, and presumably a middling to long secondary.

Update

Cider is developing a thick carpet of yeast hanging out just under the surface. Smell is fantastic. Can actually see bubbles going pew pew in the top of the liquid. Looks like it's starting to clarify a bit too. I wonder if this is a similar effect to how honey can clarify a cloudy cider or beer? Of course if I'd used ALL concentrate it would be clear

More to come!

Kashue said:

...bubbles going pew pew in the top...

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The Keeve has mostly sunk now and while there is still a great deal of bubbling it isn't raging like it once was. The cider has cleared slightly and is a pleasingly dull reddish-brown. At its current rate it looks like it may actually wrap up faster than a "normal" cider.

I've been impressed by the resilience of this brew. Our thermostat died, and the utility room where I brew dropped to about 40 degrees; the cider totally didn't care and just percolated happily the whole time.

It's been a month now, and while there is still some activity, I'm going to go ahead and rack to secondary this afternoon to avoid picking up a yeasty taste that will add to my already quite long expected secondary. Airlock smell is now the harsh scent of a newborn dry cider, although it's hard to notice over the constant rhino farts from my new 5-gal.

This weekend my cyser also turns 6 (months) and I'll be giving that a shot. Exciting times in MY basement, that's for sure.

UPDATE

Just racked the ice cider and YOWZA. The best taste match I can think of, and it's quite close, is DeKuyper Sour Apple Pucker- but this isn't distilled and only contains natural apple flavor and no added sugar. It is unreal how sweet and tart this stuff is, and the warmth suggests it is strongly alcoholic.

It's sitting in secondary now- I wouldn't be surprised if stirring it up and topping it off fire it into a whole new rage of growth though. I'm hoping some time in secondary calms it down a bit, because right now it's a little hardcore to drink straight. The strong apple flavor it's kicking out bodes well for using concentrate as a sole source of sugar in primary though.