Opinions on a this recipe and some newb q's

Hi All,

I started a thread about making a strong hearty cider with these requirements:

-Strong
-Heavy body
-Balanced but leaning toward sweet
-Heavy mouth feel
-Not rocket fuel


Thanks to a ton of great advice I came up with this:

5 gallons Unfiltered Juice
3 cans Concentrate
1 lbs Brown Sugar
1lb Clover Honey
WLP720 Sweet Mead/Wine Yeast

4 oz oak chips in the primary. Keep in primary for 3-4 weeks.

Rack to secondary for 2 months

Bottle condition for about 6 months (yeah right)

What do ya'll think of this?


I also have some Cider Newb Questions:

-Do I need to/would there be any benefit to boiling this mess for a while?

-What about adding 1lb of Extra Light DME to increase the body a bit?


Thanks in advance,

Jim

jmooney -

I can see potential with each variation.

BTW - Keep in mind that I'm a newbie myself!

Why not do four mini-batches, 1 to 3 gallons each, of (1) your basic recipe, (2) same as one, with the oak chips, (3) same as one, with the DME, and (4) same as two, with the DME.

Who knows?

Like Baskin-Robbins, each variation could very well justify having it's own grown-up sized carboy!

Of course, taking such action would obligate you to update this thread regularly with your progess and ultimate findings!

Pogo

Do NOT boil! You'll set the pectin (think apple jelly) and make it hazy. I use camdpen tablets with unpasteurized fruit/juice, but if you've got pasteurized juice, don't worry about that.

I don't know about DME- I guess I'd have to try to figure out why you'd want it. For body, there are better choices out there, assuming that it is lacking body anyway. I'm not sure what you will end up with will be sweet (it depends on the OG and the attenuation of the yeast), but you can always sweeten later if you want.

I'd take the SG when I got it all mixed up, just to make sure you're not going to have too high of an ABV. If you want to drink it in 6 months, you don't want it to be too high in ABV.

Hmmmm....What about adding a pound of brown sugar and killing fermentation after 2 weeks? Keep the ABV down and maintain some sweetness.

jmooney said:

Hmmmm....What about adding a pound of brown sugar and killing fermentation after 2 weeks? Keep the ABV down and maintain some sweetness.

Click to expand...

Well, it's not really very easy to stop fermentation once it's started. It's like stopping a freight train. I like to ferment with a fairly low OG and let it ferment out and then sweeten to taste, if needed.

What kind of ABV are you shooting for? That should determine your OG.

Hi jmooney: I think the honey flavour will be completely lost in the the other flavours of your must; 1lb in 5 gallons is not going to be noticable in the taste. About all it'll do is add more sugars. Also, Yooper is right when she says "do NOT boil"; I'd use camden tabs to sanitize the must, though you might want to warm the honey to get it to dissolve better/quicker. FYI: honey takes longer to ferment than brown sugar. I don't know how oak in the primary would effect the end product, I've only used it in secondary. I'll have to bow to those who know more on that than I do; but those oak chips are the 1 thing you will want to boil, seperately of course. I think pogo had a good idea with doing the 1 gallon batches all at once & changing them up a bit, you could more easily & less expensively, in the case of an off batch, refine your recipe(s). Well that's my 2 cents worth, hope you find some of it useful. Regards, GF.

You may want to check out a cyser. It's mead made with apple cider instead of honey.

I've been wanting to try a cider with a little DME to leave some sweetness and still allow for carbonation. Don't know if it those tastes would clash, though. I did hear of someone steeping some crystal 60L in a cider and reporting great results.