Caramel Apple Hard Cider

Yakima 728
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For future reference, be careful when you add nutrient and make sure you have plenty of headspace. I can't tell you how many times I tossed in the occasional teaspoon of nutrient and it immediately started foaming up out the carboy.
 
Cheesy_Goodness said:
For future reference, be careful when you add nutrient and make sure you have plenty of headspace. I can't tell you how many times I tossed in the occasional teaspoon of nutrient and it immediately started foaming up out the carboy.
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That's why it's better to mix it with a cup of cider or water so that you don't have nucleation points. :)
 
Newsman said:
Hmm... good question. Maybe a teaspoon? Maybe use yeast energizer instead? (they're very similar formulations, from what I understand, so they are nearly interchangeable.)
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The individual brands of energizer and nutrient should have instructions for how much per gallon or 5 gallons. And yes, energizer and nutrient are very similar to each other.


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I had a ton of head space in my 6.5 big mouth. Active fermentation in the air lock and were on our way down... :) Thanks for all he help guys!
 
Any suggestions on kegging this cider? I swore this has come up before, but nothing came up in my thread search.

Has anyone tasted this cider kegged before?


Edit: Never mind, searched "kegging" and came up with all the results! For some reason just "keg" was fruitless.
 
PinkFrog said:
Any suggestions on kegging this cider? I swore this has come up before, but nothing came up in my thread search.

Has anyone tasted this cider kegged before?


Edit: Never mind, searched "kegging" and came up with all the results! For some reason just "keg" was fruitless.
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:mug: Yep. Gonna say that's ALL I do. :D
 
Thanks for sharing this recipe UpstateMike :)

This is the next recipe I'm going to try. Does the caramel syrup make this a super sweet hard apple cider (almost like a dessert wine)? or does it still taste somewhat dry? I recently tried an Angry Orchard Crisp and it was quite good - not too dry and not too sweet. Is this recipe anything like Angry Orchard?

Thanks again.
 
I just read over this again since I'm pretty close to bottling. Is there a reason for waiting 24 hours after making the caramel sugar?
 
Nope. It can be made in advance if need be, but doesn't need to be.

There's an updated recipe on page 42 or 43 if you havent seen it already :mug:
 
Finally kegged my latest batch of this. I ran out of store-bought cinnamon extract, but awhile back I had bought a bottle of cinnamon sticks and poured some Captain Morgan spiced rum over them and re-capped it. When I ran short of cinnamon extract last night I used some of that. DELICIOUS!!! :D
 
Desrever said:
I started this two weeks ago with 2.5 g AJ and 1 lb Corn sugar - s04 yeast dry and have fermented at 62 degrees since, still airlock movement and test reveal 1.003 taste is of flat Apple. I have allowed the temp to rise the last 8 hours and still have fermentation happening.

I would like to backsweeten this with 1/2 of the caramel syrup and 1.5 cans of AJ concentrate and bottle sparkling.

I won't have time to do this however for another two weeks, if I let this primary for a month and then backsweeten bottle and ST pasteurize I'll have a higher abv.. Already do! Should I add more to sweeten?

Or should I rack onto 2.5 campden tabs and leave it for 2 weeks and bottle still.
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I ended up adding campden and kegging this a week later, been on gas for 7 days now 7 weeks old and tasting great already! Definitely one of the best ciders I have made. Thanks for sharing this recipe it encouraged me to try new things!
 
UpstateMike said:
Caramel Apple Hard Cider

Ingredients, Part 1:
7 x 96 ounce bottles (5.25 gallons) Wegmans 100% Apple Juice, pasteurized, only vitamin C added
2 lbs. Dextrose
Nottingham Yeast

Ingredients, Part 2
5 campden tablets (Optional, see notes)
5 – 12 oz. cans of Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate, thawed to room temperature
12 oz. Caramel Syrup

Recipe for Caramel Syrup:
2 cups of water
2 cups of light brown sugar
2 tsp. ground cinnamon
Combine in a saucepan and bring to a boil. At boil, reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes (until volume is reduced to half). Let cool & bottle for future use.

Part 1 (Started 1/7/12):
Opened 1 bottle of apple juice, got a gravity reading of 1.050. Temp is 64 degrees.

In a 6 gallon carboy, pour in bottles 1 and 2 of apple juice.

Open bottles 3 and 4 of apple juice. Pour half of each bottle into carboy. Add 1 pound dextrose per bottle to the remaining amount of apple juice in bottles 3 and 4. Shake bottles to mix sugar and apple juice. Pour bottles 3 and 4 into carboy.

Pour bottles 4, 5, and 6 of apple juice into carboy. Take another sample for OG, got a reading of 1.064. Open Nottingham yeast, pour into carboy. Agitate carboy to mix in yeast. Pour bottle 7 of apple juice into carboy.


Part 2 (In about 14 days):
Check for target FG of 1.010 to 1.015

Rack cider into a 5 gallon carboy.
OPTION: If you want a still cider, add 5 crushed Campden tablets to the cider at this time. If you want a carbonated cider, skip this optional step.
Make the Caramel Syrup and wait 24 hours before proceeding.

After 24 hours, siphon cider into your bottling bucket. Add the Caramel Syrup and the 5 cans of apple juice concentrate while siphoning to aid in mixing. Bottle the cider and enjoy.

If you are carbing in the bottle, be aware that this will carb up fast (4 - 5 days) due to all the sugar. I highly recommend that you fill and cap a plastic pop or beer bottle first, and use that as a guide to tell you when it will be time to Stovetop Pasteurize the batch.

Picture is Caramel Apple Hard Cider in the foreground, after adding yeast. The Apfelwein is ageing in the background.


400515_2974482650825_1524572682_2895740_258822226_n.jpg
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If you are using apple juice that has been pasteurized why do you pasteurize again after bottling and letting it carbonate...is this something recipe specific or should I be doing this for all my ciders?
 
We buy pastuerized cider or pastueurize homemade cider (by boiling) to kill any wild yeasts. Then we take that, introduce yeast, and ferment to completion. With live active yeast present, we back sweeten and bottle. Once carbonation reaches the sesired level, we pastuerize the mixture to stop the carbonation process.
 
Any different instructions for kegging this cider? Thanks for the share! Can't wait to try it!
 
d_d311 said:
Any different instructions for kegging this cider? Thanks for the share! Can't wait to try it!
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I can only tell you what I do -- I put it in the keg (after mixing in the syrup) and close it up, then carb it at about 12-15 PSI. Generally I leave it there for a few days. It never gets a very big head, and what head it gets doesn't stick around. I keep my kegerator pretty cool... not sure what the temperature is, but my cider is pretty well chilled.
 
So I tried this cider last year and it was a HUGE hit with the family on Christmas Eve! The only part that I was unsatisfied with was the snotty looking cinnamon at the bottom of the bottles. I am making another batch this year, I was going to use cinnamon extract, but could not find any. What I did manage to find was cinnamon oil (meant to be used as a candy flavoring) I was wondering if you guys think this would be alright to use in place of extract, I really don't have time to order and wait for a bottle from Amazon. The oil is much more concentrated than the extract, so obviously I am not going to add as much. Next time I make this I might make my own cinnamon extract by submerging some cinnamon sticks in vodka just like making vanilla extract, I just don't have time to go that route this year. If anyone has used the oil or has experience with this please let me know.
 
Knowing how water reacts with oil I am not sure this would be great. Though as a solvent alcohol might help with that. I would advise no make the extract man! but I have zero experience so you should probably wait for the experienced!
 
TheNewGuy2 said:
Knowing how water reacts with oil I am not sure this would be great. Though as a solvent alcohol might help with that. I would advise no make the extract man! but I have zero experience so you should probably wait for the experienced!
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Since alcohol is a solvent I had also considered making my own cinnamon extract by adding the oil to vodka, thinking that perhaps the oil would dissolve in the vodka better than adding it directly.
 
ajohnson153 said:
Since alcohol is a solvent I had also considered making my own cinnamon extract by adding the oil to vodka, thinking that perhaps the oil would dissolve in the vodka better than adding it directly.
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I do this with ground spices. You still have oil if you add the oil to the alcohol but you can strain off the ground spices after extraction with the alcohol.


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brewski09 said:
I do this with ground spices. You still have oil if you add the oil to the alcohol but you can strain off the ground spices after extraction with the alcohol.


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So, should I make a tincture with ground cinnamon and vodka and just run it through a coffee filter to get the ground cinnamon out? I'm just worried that I won't have time for flavor to develop using the ground spice and alcohol method. I'm sort of on a time crunch to get this done in time for holiday parties.
 
The cinnamon kicks in quite quickly. I think I had enough overnight. I also probably used more cinnamon than I needed. I keep it in a mason jar now for spice additions in clones/spin offs of beers like Mexican cake and bomb!

Just make sure you don't use too cheap of vodka/rum. I've used the super cheap vodka and run it through a brita about 30 times and it was okay, but a smooth starting product will always be better.

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I'd recommend making a tincture with cinnamon sticks and vodka. You can add it to taste after it's done fermenting. That should be plenty of time to make the tincture.
 
Newsman said:
I've been using cinnamon extract and putting a lot more than the recipe calls for since I like cinnamon flavor. Everyone who's tried it loves it. Says it's similar to the "Fireball" whiskey.
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How much more are you using? I'm trying to make mine closer to the angry orchard cinnful for the wife but scared I'm going to overdue do it.
 
Maybe a silly question and possibly answered somewhere within this massive thread, but I assume you don't need to add the apple juice concentrate if going for a still cider or if kegging, correct? I'm assuming the concentrate is to provide sugar for natural carbonation.

Appreciate someone confirming this for me. Thanks.
 
Or just to back sweeten the final product which can be done with a still cider too.


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Made my second batch of this last week using fresh unpasteurized cider. Added more sugar and my target is 10.5% abv
 
CorwinGraves said:
Maybe a silly question and possibly answered somewhere within this massive thread, but I assume you don't need to add the apple juice concentrate if going for a still cider or if kegging, correct? I'm assuming the concentrate is to provide sugar for natural carbonation.

Appreciate someone confirming this for me. Thanks.
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The brown sugar and cans of FAJC are for backsweetening and providing sugar for carbonation if desired. If you want a still cider, either 1) kill the yeast, or 2) immediately refrigerate the cider (it must be kept cold from then on) or 3) immediately pastuerize (I prefer the dishwasher method).
 
TrustyOlJohnson said:
The brown sugar and cans of FAJC are for backsweetening and providing sugar for carbonation if desired. If you want a still cider, either 1) kill the yeast, or 2) immediately refrigerate the cider (it must be kept cold from then on) or 3) immediately pastuerize (I prefer the dishwasher method).
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Great - answers my question. Thanks.
 
Hi guys,

Sorry for what is most likely a repeat question but I'm a little bit confused about the last few steps in this recipe. I'm just about two weeks in and ready to move on to the bottling bucket part.

I'm going for a carbonated cider so I was planning on simply transferring to a bottling bucket, adding the 5 cans of frozen concentrate and the caramel syrup, and then bottling.

Would I be ok just doing this? The recipe talks about carbing bottles and stovetop pasteurizing and I'm not quite sure if I need to do this (or how aside from following the linked stovetop pasteurize method) and what the benefits of each would be.
 
First off, welcome to the forum :mug:

Are you sure it's done fermenting? That'd be the first step. Since you'll be pasteurizing (more on that in a second), it's not as crucial as it is with beer that you be sure it's done, but it is definitely best practice.

If you plan on backsweetening with the FAJC and caramel, and you want it carbonated, you DEFINITELY need to pasteurize.

Even if your fermentation is complete, adding more food for yeast (sugar) will cause fermentation to kick back up again. The problem is, when you've capped your bottles you don't allow CO2 to escape, which could (and with that amount of sugar probably will) cause bottle bombs. You want it to ferment a little bit (that's how carbonation happens), but if you allow it to ferment dry without pasteurizing, you will likely get bottle grenades.

My advice is to leave it in your carboy for as long as you can stand it. This recipe gets pretty good after it's been aged for a few months, and a few months after it's been in bottles it gets to be outstanding.

Hope that helps.
 
Cheesy_Goodness said:
First off, welcome to the forum :mug:

Are you sure it's done fermenting? That'd be the first step. Since you'll be pasteurizing (more on that in a second), it's not as crucial as it is with beer that you be sure it's done, but it is definitely best practice.

If you plan on backsweetening with the FAJC and caramel, and you want it carbonated, you DEFINITELY need to pasteurize.

Even if your fermentation is complete, adding more food for yeast (sugar) will cause fermentation to kick back up again. The problem is, when you've capped your bottles you don't allow CO2 to escape, which could (and with that amount of sugar probably will) cause bottle bombs. You want it to ferment a little bit (that's how carbonation happens), but if you allow it to ferment dry without pasteurizing, you will likely get bottle grenades.

My advice is to leave it in your carboy for as long as you can stand it. This recipe gets pretty good after it's been aged for a few months, and a few months after it's been in bottles it gets to be outstanding.

Hope that helps.
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+1 on all that is said here. And if it helps any, I usually only leave it in the primary for a total of a month, and then move onto bottling. I havent aged it much, but many have with great results!
If you have refrigeration room available for all the bottles: once my test plastic bottles have shown me my carbonation is where I want it, I take all of my bottles and put em in my lagering chest freezer at 38 deg. This does a real good job of putting the yeast to sleep (not dead). Which means, you cant take em out and store em at room temp later. Also, I used Nottingham yeast only for this process, but its worked for 5 batches so far. Enjoy!!
 
Thank you for the replies! I really appreciate it.

Well, to be honest I'm not sure if its done fermenting since I don't have a hydrometer (working on a student budget unfortunately). However, I haven't gotten any bubbles through my airlock in the past day.

As for the fermentation and bottling process, where do you guys usually get your bottles (I was planning on using wine bottles originally, thankfully I read the first 20 pages of this thread)? I've looked online at different options and found its usually around $1 per bottle. Since I'm looking at ~50 12 oz bottles for 5 gallons (larger growlers would be better but I can't seem to find them), it seems like it could get pricey very fast.


Refrigeration room...now that would be perfect! Unfortunately my apartment complex doesn't come equipped with that feature.
 
Well then you need to move :p

Knowing whether or not fermentation has stopped is a bit tricky without a hydrometer. They're not overly expensive (I think I picked up mine for about 5 bucks) and are crucial for beer, but again, it's not essential for cider when you're pasteurizing.

As mesmerizing as the airlock is (I find myself looking over my shoulder at the airlock on my next batch of cider as I type), it's not the best way to tell if fermentation has stopped or not. It's a good indicator, but the only way to know for sure is to take at least two readings (3 days apart is a good standard most follow). If they're the same both times, fermentation has stopped.
BUT, that there are advantages to leaving it bulk age in the carboy. The flavor gets cleaner, and yeast falls out of suspension, settling at the bottom, among other things.

It's worth noting that you could use wine bottles, but you would need to stabilize it before you backsweeten, and you wouldn't have carbonation.

As for where people get bottles, if you drink beer with pop tops keep saving them for a while, and before you know it you'll have too many and you'll need to brew more. It's a vicious cycle :p
I would stay away from growlers though. They're not made to handle pressure for carbonation, and it will make pasteurization more of a guessing game than with bottles.
 

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