Blending ciders and cysers

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miloa

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After 2 years of making ciders and cysers i've made up my mind to make my own cider to cut costs,right now i've got $200 in cider costs, not counting honey or sugar. Because most apple trees bear fruit at different times can I do single apple ciders and then mix in the secondary ferment?
 
You can freeze the juice in large bags. Most people don't like to boil juice because they're affraid of losing aromas, pectin haze, etc, but I boil juice after pressing sometimes. You can get rid of a lot of water and make an apple concentrate, which will allow you to store more cider. It's your call in the end.

What you mentioned is an alternative. You can blend cider after it's fermented. Just make sure that you take measures to prevent oxidization when blending. The downside is that it won't be quite the same as fermenting all apple varieties together at the same time.

Also, don't be affraid to make single variety ciders. There are plenty of ciders out there that are single variety. The trick is to find the right apple. There are even single variety Granny Smith ciders and that's a pretty common apple. In the end it's what tastes good, not always what people tell you or what you read in a book.
 
I was hoping to save freezer space for other fruit,cherries, raspberrys,peaches,apricots, strawberries,I have all types of fruit trees and berries. Could you ferment the fruit juices when ripe then add them to the cider in the fall , just to flavor them?
 
You can. There are various options for this, such as fermenting the fruit with wild yeasts, creating a wine out of it, making a cordial, or mixing it with honey into a melomel. You'll probably find that many of these taste good enough alone, and don't need to be added to the cider.
 
Well my first cider of the year is about done,its a cherry cider starting SG of 1.095 one week ago 1.020 this week 1.018. I've racked it into a 5 gal. keg to age while our beer runs out in the kegarator, then force carb. and serve and bottle. Tastes pretty darn good, a touch sweet with just a bit of bite but all in all another good batch. The only thing I'm wondering is why the lavin 1118 quit working so early,I was afraid it would turn out too dry with that yeast.Could it be not adding nutrients it simply ran out of food?
 
Made a typo on on the SG one week ago it was1.012 and now it is 1.010,sorry
 
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