I tried to make an "Apple Ale" for my wife. I used 4 gallons of apple juice, 2lb LME in 1 gallon of water, and I used SS-04 yeast. My question is about the yeast. It finished much dryer than I wanted. I don't think any of the natural sugar is left and the finished product is quite bitter. Can anyone suggest a different yeast that would cause this simple recipe to finish higher/sweeter?
Apple Ale Help.
- Thread starter Boomer
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Someone can correct me if I'm wrong (I've only made beer before not cider), but you are putting a ton of easily fermentable sugars in there. Any yeast will dry that recipe out.
Check out Brandon O's Graff recipe. What you have is a really fermentable mixture as said above. Get some crystal malt in there for some sweetness. I just made Graff with 120L, 1 more week bottle conditioning to go. It tasted much sweeter than the original recipe that I've made a bunch of times.
Ok, thanks. I'll play with it a bit and see what happens next time.
wcarter1227
Well-Known Member
you can also brew a simple cream ale recipe or a light base beer and add apple extract flavoring to it.
ive done that in the past and it turned out well. Also if your thinking about brandon o graff, also check out gunslingers graff. its a varation of the recipe more like a apple stout in a way. ive brewed both and enjoyed them well.
ive done that in the past and it turned out well. Also if your thinking about brandon o graff, also check out gunslingers graff. its a varation of the recipe more like a apple stout in a way. ive brewed both and enjoyed them well.
according to the homebrewers recipe guide by patrick higgins, champagne yeast works great. 2 packs in a 5 gallon batch for a dry cider. 1 if you dont want so dry. prime with 3/4 cup corn sugar for sparkling cider or no corn sugar for a flat cider
Tasted my 120L Graff today. Still needs a week to get the carbonation right, but wow! Like the flavor of that a lot more. Might bump the hops IBU up a tad to perfect it.
You could also use some lactose, which is non-fermentable and will leave some sweetening. If you haven't bottled yet you could add it to the priiming sugar when you boil it. You could use a half pound, or more or less, depending on how sweet you want it.
