Opinions needed

My grandmother passed away almost 2 months ago. I received a small box full of her old recipe's and one of them was for a cider. I have everything needed to make it and an empty 5g carboy. I'm not sure if it would be worth it and I cannot find anything similar to go by.

Old Fuzzy's Cider

4.5g apple juice
2 black tea bags
3 banana's
3/4-1c rolled oats
2lb brown sugar
yeast

cook sliced banana's and oats in cheesecloth bag @ 155f for 30min in 1 gallon of water. Remove from heat after 30min @155f and add tea and sugar. Stir until sugar is dissolved, throw away tea bags, oats, and banana's. Cool to room temp and pour into carboy. add apple juice until full, pitch yeast, bottle in 2-3 weeks with priming sugar.

No idea on what type of yeast. I was thinking of using s-04 since that is what I have on hand. I have light and darlk brown sugar.

What is the purpose of the oats? Body? Don't banana's add body?

Ideas would be great. I am thinking of brewing it just to see but...

Interesting! I would image she used baking yeast, by the way, if you want to keep it as similar as you can.

I was thinking that as well. I wish there were a few more details in the recipe.

Well, i decided to give it a shot. What can it hurt besides tie up a carboy?

Well it's in the fermenter. I used dark brown sugar, 1c of rolled oats, Earl Grey tea, and s-04 yeast. Followed it as closely as I could. O.G = 1.058

I only used 4g of juice so far. I left a couple inches of head space and attached a blowoff tube. I'll top up with more juice after initial fermentation.

It has a nice dark brown color, very close to a fresh pressed cider. The wort or liquor, not sure what to call it, had a very nice flavor that reminded me of good granola. All put together it smells like apple pie.

Worries:
Heavy banana flavor

Long aging time

Pectin Haze from banana

A lot of Gross Lees

too late since you have already made it, and i have no experience whatsoever with bananas let alone cooked bananas, and it sounds weird, but,,, How could you not make it!! tribute to your nan! lees be damned i'm sure you'll enjoy it

I think the oats give it more of a head retention? Not sure. Bananas are used for body without much of a taste. I'd also be careful with the tea, it could get overpowering pretty quick.

dinnerstick said:

too late since you have already made it, and i have no experience whatsoever with bananas let alone cooked bananas, and it sounds weird, but,,, How could you not make it!! tribute to your nan! lees be damned i'm sure you'll enjoy it

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Right on!!!

oldmate said:

I think the oats give it more of a head retention? Not sure. Bananas are used for body without much of a taste. I'd also be careful with the tea, it could get overpowering pretty quick.

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Is anything else needed for "head"? I don't brew beer (though I drink a ton of it) only wine and cider. I have never had "head" on a cider other than BrandonO's Graff.



All in all, fermentation took off nicely last night. within a couple hours of pitching yeast. No foam or blowoff issues. I topped up with more juice this morning and the airlock is bubbling away. It's at 68°f.

This sounds awesome! Keep us posted on the results!

I've been thinking about doing a tea infused cider myself. Did you stick to 2 bags per 5 gallons?

MikeRussell said:

This sounds awesome! Keep us posted on the results!

I've been thinking about doing a tea infused cider myself. Did you stick to 2 bags per 5 gallons?

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Yeah, 2 bags of Earl Grey for the 5 gal.

That sounds like an AWESOME receipe!!! As soon as I get another carboy, I'm going to try it out. I was going to use S-O4 as well, but maybe I'll use Nottingham.

Keep us posted. Do you think 2-3 weeks is a little short, though?

Ckarsanac said:

That sounds like an AWESOME receipe!!! As soon as I get another carboy, I'm going to try it out. I was going to use S-O4 as well, but maybe I'll use Nottingham.

Keep us posted. Do you think 2-3 weeks is a little short, though?

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Notty should work great as well.

The time does sound pretty short to me but, I have no idea of what yeast was used. I also have never heard of my grandma making this in my 32 years on earth. I talked to other family and they have no idea about it either.

I'll take gravity readings and determine that way.

I've got 3 gallons of cider going on soon, so I might rack 1 gallon off and give it a try. Nothing makes a cider taste better than a strong emotional attachment!

Any thoughts on letting the 'narners go a little ripe before using them?

RobWalker said:

I've got 3 gallons of cider going on soon, so I might rack 1 gallon off and give it a try. Nothing makes a cider taste better than a strong emotional attachment!

Any thoughts on letting the 'narners go a little ripe before using them?

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I have no idea on teh naners. Mine were just turning yellow. yellow or brown may be better. Testing is needed for this recipe for sure.

What a great post...if you don't let us know the results you are going to get a lot of disappointed people...ditto dinnersticks comment...how could you not make it ?...thanks for letting us in on it too.

Thats sounds awesome...
Pectic enzyme would have helped with any pectin haze, though theres nothing wrong with a cloudy cider!

I definitely want to know how this one turns out.

Gravity is down to 1.034. The sample tasted very good. Almost like a caramel apple flavor with a lot more body than other ciders I have made. I can't think of a commercial brand to compare to because I do not buy or drink commercial ciders. I am pretty excited about this one though.

Insomniac said:

Thats sounds awesome...
Pectic enzyme would have helped with any pectin haze, though theres nothing wrong with a cloudy cider!

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Yeah. I just wanted to stay as close as possible to the original recipe for the first batch. Next batch I may add a little of this and that.

Think i might have to give this a go... couple of questions though, what is a "c" of oats? Are these just porridge oats? I assume the 4.5 galons juice is more of a "top up to 5"? Any more clarrification on what you used would be appreciated.

The "c" is for 1 cup. I used regular old oatmeal oats, 3 medium sized bananas, 2 breakfast tea bags, 2 pounds of dark brown sugar, cheap 100% juice. I sliced the bananas into thin disks and put them in a nylon bag with the oats.

While steeping the oats and bananas, I lost almost a half gallon of water. So you are correct, the 4.5 gallons of juice is to top up to 5 total gallons.

One other thing, there are a lot of gross lees on the bottom of the carboy. Nothing more than I see when making fruit wines.

let me know how this turns out, i might have to try a small batch of this.

Banana will make for a lot of lees, did you squeeze the bag of banana/oats to get some water back or just lift it out?

I smashed the bag a little while steeping. Then put it into a glass bowl to drain while mixing sugar. Added the drippings back in after squeezing a little. Once tea and sugar were mixed, I set the pot in cold water to cool it faster.

Ok. I spoke to a family member who I have never met before. He gave me some clarification on the recipe.

His name is Liam and he was my grandmothers cousin. His Uncle was always called Old Fuzzy. It is said he never shaved once in his life and that is why everyone called him Old Fuzzy. He passed the recipe on to my grandmother and a few others.

Anyhow, Liam used to help my grandmother make this cider. Wild yeast she collected on apple peals is what was used for the yeast. She would mix apple peals, raisins, and a little lemon juice in warm water and let is sit.

He couldn't remember fully but, thought that she used light brown sugar.

She always transferred the cider into a bucket after 5-7 days, cleaned out the junk on the bottom of her glass container, then put the cider back into the glass container. Used more apple juice to replace what was lost after transfer. He said she never messed with teh stuff on the bottom.

She would always make a batch of this for a family reunion or picnic or some other special occasion. It would go very fast and was always a big hit. he had no idea about long time storage because it was never stored for longer than a couple weeks.

The talk with Liam really cleared up some things I have been thinking about. Also, I feel that using our current sanitation and preserving processes will not change the the recipe too much and can only improve on it.

So, I took a gravity sample today. It was down to 1.006 so I racked into a clean carboy. I topped up with another 1/2g of apple juice. I did not use any campden tabs or anything (although I sanitize with a meta solution and carboy and tools are wet when used). The cider had a slight banana/fruity nose and a nice caramel taste with a good body. I can only assume that it would ferment dry without transfer or cold crashing at this point.

I will continue to keep an eye on it.

^thats awesome!
Keep us up to date

More updates please!!

Looking forward to knowing how it turns out as well!

Sorry all. I just got back from a week vacation. I will take some samples tomorrow and report.

OK. SG has been at 1.004 for 8 days. Tastes like a dry cider with good body. I will be bottle carbing with apple concentrate when I get the time. Stabilizing, backsweetening, and kegging would work great with this cider. Next batch I will probably cold crash around 1.010 or so for a sweeter, still cider unless I get a keg system by then. I may also do a spiced batch for the christmas season.

I've got my kegging system ready to roll.. Send a few gallons my way and it'll be carbed up proper.