Cider Ideas

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HAREEBROWNBEEST

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So i went shopping today and was checking out some juice and getting ideas for my next cider. Here's what I found.

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Anyone ever done a grape juice cider? I might try that. $2.99 for 2 quarts

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Black cherry anyone? $2.99 for 1 quart, kinda pricey:(

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Agave...a sweetener alternative, use in place of honey or brown sugar.

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Some cider and some concentrate I was looking at. $3.69 for 2 quarts of the pressed cider, $1.69 for the concentrate.
 
I did "wine" from grape juice concentrate. Tasted pretty good a few months ago but I still haven't bottled it. I use agave syrup on pancakes waffles and English muffins. I don't think you would get any flavor bonus over honey or cane sugar.
 
MarkKF said:
I did "wine" from grape juice concentrate. Tasted pretty good a few months ago but I still haven't bottled it. I use agave syrup on pancakes waffles and English muffins. I don't think you would get any flavor bonus over honey or cane sugar.

Nice, I'm going to try it out anyway with some small batches. I also had some ideas about an black cherry/pineapple cider in my head. What about a tropical punch cider???
 
Nice, I'm going to try it out anyway with some small batches. I also had some ideas about an black cherry/pineapple cider in my head. What about a tropical punch cider???

Let us know how this went with the agave. I picked up some at Costco last week but haven't used it yet.
 
My local store has apple juice in the refrigerated section for a dollar for a 1.8 quart bottle. Trumps everything else that's available price wise. No preservatives. I haven't tasted it though, so I'm not sure how it would taste in a cider.
 
I went blackberry picking a couple days ago, and came back with 20 lbs of berries for a wine, but where I hit the jackpot is that my friend and I found six trees full of plums at the back of his folks property, they didn't even know existed, they were falling off the tree ripe, we picked around 25-30 lbs in an hour, and that was only one tree! I'm going to do a plum wine naturally, but I'm thinking an apple plum cider has to be in the works, I'm thinking of juicing the plums and going half and half with plum and apple juice.
 
I used agave once in a cider… for me it turned out tasting like aloe vera juice… not very pleasant. Curious how yours turns out

Plum cider sounds interesting!
 
try a pineapple-maple cider, if you've ever grilled pineapple after coating in maple syrup, then basting it with the maple syrup as you grill, it gets so sticky and carmelizes, and you cant beat it, so why wouldnt it work in a nice cold drink?

cant beat that loving sweetness right from the tit of the big momma maple tree
 
Yeah take the advise of C-Ville Kevin and use agave for back-sweetening only. Tastes weird as a fermented sugar.
 
I started a black cherry Apple wine 2 months ago. I'm going to taste test it in a month or just open it up around Halloween. I'll post the results then.


A plum-Apple cider sounds interesting...as does the pineapple one. I might try a 1 gallon batch of the apple-pineapple cider soon.
 
Man that sounds good, I have a bottle of 100% black cherry juice in my cupboard I think I may try this also, I think I will buy a fresh pineapple and juice it though, I hate the taste of canned pineapple juice, it always tastes like metal to me, and I will cut it with apple juice as well prob half apple half pineapple/cherry. Do you think an ale yeas like Notty would be better, or a wine yeast? Maybe one that leaves a little more sweetness.
 
I always use wyeast 4766. It was recommended by norther brewer and I've used white labs before but the wyeast I think is better. Definitely fresh pineapple too, I plan on getting one at Costco, letting it get nice and ripe and throwing it in my secondary, all cut up of course.
 
HAREEBROWNBEEST said:
I always use wyeast 4766. It was recommended by norther brewer and I've used white labs before but the wyeast I think is better. Definitely fresh pineapple too, I plan on getting one at Costco, letting it get nice and ripe and throwing it in my secondary, all cut up of course.

BTW, my reasons for the yeast being better are nice clean white Kruasen, and no yeast flavor.
 
Yeah I'm pretty limited in my yeast choices, I have coopers available to me in port alberni.... And .... Coopers lmao. The only reason I have Notty is because I special ordered it from a place that is out of town I had to drive an hour to get it lol. Maybe I'll make another special order when my Notty runs out.
 
I've used notty once and I liked the results. It may have been because I didn't rack it off the less after cold-crashing (i just left it in the fridge and drank it after it cleared) but it started to get a noticable yeast taste to it.
 
I always use wyeast 4766. It was recommended by norther brewer and I've used white labs before but the wyeast I think is better. Definitely fresh pineapple too, I plan on getting one at Costco, letting it get nice and ripe and throwing it in my secondary, all cut up of course.


FYI- If you can taste the pineapple before buying, do so. Sugars don't increase after harvest, so there is no actual ripening except the shell color changing. Sorry for the interjection, it’s the curse of a produce salesman.
 
That's why I always transfer to a secondary, cold crash then transfer to my bottling carboy. My wife says this is like a full time job. I don't mind the reward though:)
 
smalone4839 said:
FYI- If you can taste the pineapple before buying, do so. Sugars don't increase after harvest, so there is no actual ripening except the shell color changing. Sorry for the interjection, it’s the curse of a produce salesman.

I worked in produce at Albertsons for 13 years, I don't mind the interjection at all;)
 
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