Caramel Apple Hard Cider

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Has anyone used cinnamon extract on this? I was wondering how much to use.


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Has anyone used cinnamon extract on this? I was wondering how much to use.


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Per post #420, 1/2 tsp. but I now use 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon extract and 3/4 tsp vanilla. Really adds to the "apple pie" flavor concept. And last batch, I had no cinnamon extract at kegging, so I put 2 cinnamon sticks in a stainless steel "tea ball" and suspended it in the keg. Worked great!! FWIW, I use the original 5 cans FAJC with syrup for backsweetening.
 
Looks like its bottling day for me. How many days do you guys wait before pasteurizing?

I'll be setting a plastic soda bottle aside as a measure of carbonation, but I just wanted to get an idea of the average wait time.
 
Looks like its bottling day for me. How many days do you guys wait before pasteurizing?

I'll be setting a plastic soda bottle aside as a measure of carbonation, but I just wanted to get an idea of the average wait time.

I usually do 2 plastic bottles, open the first one at 72 hours (if it seems pressurized enough), then the next 12 hours later, and then open another every 12 hours. It kinda doesnt do anything at first, then really accelerates from undercarbed to overcarbed very quickly. It you open a gusher, the only option remaining is to cold crash em to put the yeast to sleep.
 
Ambient temp has a lot to do with this. During the summer we have our house set around 75F and I usually do it after just 2 days, but I like mine with pretty light carbonation.

This past time I think I waited 4 days, with a much colder ambient temp. All about preference really.
 
How long it was in the secondary also effects it. The past couple years I've let my cider age 6-9 months or more. It can take a couple weeks to carb.
 
Ambient temp has a lot to do with this. During the summer we have our house set around 75F and I usually do it after just 2 days, but I like mine with pretty light carbonation.

This past time I think I waited 4 days, with a much colder ambient temp. All about preference really.

+1 on temp affecting this. FWIW, I keep my home around a constant 73 deg
 
Per post #420, 1/2 tsp. but I now use 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon extract and 3/4 tsp vanilla. Really adds to the "apple pie" flavor concept. And last batch, I had no cinnamon extract at kegging, so I put 2 cinnamon sticks in a stainless steel "tea ball" and suspended it in the keg. Worked great!! FWIW, I use the original 5 cans FAJC with syrup for backsweetening.

Hey I'm about to bottle my second batch of this stuff. And was thinking about using some vanilla in addition to the Carmel and juice concentrate. Do you think 3/4 tsp is enough to come through in a five gallon batch?
 
Hi guys, just opened up my first plastic test bottle and it fizzed up out of the bottle. Its been less than 48 hours so I'm not sure what happened. What are my options?
 
Hi guys, just opened up my first plastic test bottle and it fizzed up out of the bottle. Its been less than 48 hours so I'm not sure what happened. What are my options?

If a hard glass bottle is opened, and it gushes, your only choice now is to put it in the cold and put the yeast to sleep. That will reduce carbonation a little bit too. The general statement is that attempting to pastuerize stovetop or in the washer runs a high risk of bottle failure. Maybe someone has tried it, and has had success, but I havnt heard of it.
 
Thanks for the response. I started my cold crash but now have no idea what the next steps are. Will I eventually be putting my cider back into the fermentation bucket?
 
SmCranf - you won't have the caramel flavored goodness in the syrup and some folks think table sugar (usually made from sugar beets) gives alcoholic beverages an "off" taste
 
As I could see the Vikings were going to lose to the Packers again, I decided to take my mind of our miserable team and bottle up 2 batches in the kitchen. Just bottled my first batch of this yesterday (made 2 batches of Ed's Sparkling Apfelwein previously). As I was capping the last of the batch, I realized I screwed up the timing. Bottled on Sunday afternoon and will not be home for days 3,4, or 5 as we will be traveling for the holidays.

Since I dropped this all the way dry in a carboy prior to re-priming, I hope it might be a little slower to carb. Also used Montrachet (didn't have any beer yeast at the time), so the basement temps of 59 or so are hopefully low enough that it carbs slowly, if at all. Guess I'll hope for the best that I don't have gushers or bombs by day 6. I'll pop one in the Fridge when we get back on Saturday and see how it goes (fingers crossed).
 
What was your batch size and how much did you prime with of
what?


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That seems risky to me.
You might end up OK but if you've got some fridge space I'd toss everything in there until you're home for a few days to monitor it.
 
Yeah not a bad idea Cheesy. I will pop one on Wednesday afternoon just to be sure its chugging along very slowly, if at all. If its starting to carb, I will have to find fridge space, though I have 54 bottles to stash. Beer yeast would wake up fine from the fridge, not sure about wine yeast though.

Gravity was 0.990 in carboy. After priming and the carmel syrup I was at 1.013. I still want it to be a little tart, but not all the way dry.
 
I'm thinking of making a batch of this in my new plastic conical, but I don't have any way to control the temp. I have a spare bedroom which is kinda chilly. I tend to keep my house in the upper 60's to low 70's. What yeast would be best for this range of temperatures?
 
I'm thinking of making a batch of this in my new plastic conical, but I don't have any way to control the temp. I have a spare bedroom which is kinda chilly. I tend to keep my house in the upper 60's to low 70's. What yeast would be best for this range of temperatures?

This is the temp of my house. I use notty with great results.
 
As a new brewer, I am coming to you for advice. I used 9 - 64 ounce jugs of 100% apple juices with no preservatives. Along with a 1/2 gallon of fresh apple cider in a 6 gallon carboy. I added 2 pounds of dextrose. On brew day, Sunday 11/15, I added Windsor, after three days of no action I added Saflager w-34/70. The fourth day forward lots of action and lots bubbles. I'm brew day I had readings of 1.064 and today, which is day 10
1.010. It's been consistent 66° and seems to have a good taste. My concerns are the color and it is very cloudy, any suggestions?
 
If your main worry is about it being cloudy, you have nothing to worry about. :p

The cloudiness is just the yeast, which are now eating up the sugar in the juice. Right now its in suspension and going where the sugar is (which is everywhere), but eventually when all the sugar is gone it'll settle at the bottom of the carboy. Colder temps (refrigeration temps) can help the yeast settle, but I usually let mine clear naturally which can take anywhere from 1 month to 3 months.

In short, cloudiness is natural and expected at this stage in the game :mug:
 
Great! Thanks. I've been trying to start it off in the low 60's to help avoid off flavors, but since my conical is too big for my freezer / fermentation chamber.... 😄

Don't worry about it to much. With the amount of sugar going into this at the end it's pretty hard to have any off flavors making its way to the finished product.

Also, my first batch I made of this fermented in the summer at about 73 degrees, tasted fantastic both before back sweetening and after. My last batch which I admittedly changed the formula on (fresh unpasteurized cider, more sugar added and an extra week in the primary, was fermented at 63 degrees, and was much more bitter. That one is still carbing and will be ready thursday/Friday. Much higher abv in that one.

Anyway my point Is, I find with this recipe, as long as you keep Temps below 77 and above 60 you'll be fine.
 
If your main worry is about it being cloudy, you have nothing to worry about. :p

The cloudiness is just the yeast, which are now eating up the sugar in the juice. Right now its in suspension and going where the sugar is (which is everywhere), but eventually when all the sugar is gone it'll settle at the bottom of the carboy. Colder temps (refrigeration temps) can help the yeast settle, but I usually let mine clear naturally which can take anywhere from 1 month to 3 months.

In short, cloudiness is natural and expected at this stage in the game :mug:

Thank you for your reply. It leads me to my next question. Since it is at the alcohol content I want it to remain. Does that mean I should go ahead and bottle it regardless of the cloudiness?
 
Anyway my point Is, I find with this recipe, as long as you keep Temps below 77 and above 60 you'll be fine.

Cool. I have a window A/C unit I could install in my spare bedroom to help keep it cool. :) May do that just to help keep the room cool and thus the cider cool. :) I like to add extra sugar as well for a higher ABV. :)
 
Thank you for your reply. It leads me to my next question. Since it is at the alcohol content I want it to remain. Does that mean I should go ahead and bottle it regardless of the cloudiness?

You should not bottle it at this point as the yeast will continue to eat sugars and start exploding your bottles from excess CO2. It will get down betwen 0.990 and 0.998 if you were to let it continue.

However you can stop the yeast from fermenting with any of the following: stove top pastuerizing (as mentioned at the beginning of this thread), combination of camden tablets and stabilizer to suffocate and kill the yeast, or a filter system that goes into the micron/sub micron size range. Option 1 will allow for carbonated cider in bottles, but needs to be carefully timed. Options 2 or 3 would require a keg setup if you wanted carbonation. It can be bottled still in wine bottles with either of those options.
 
Cool. I have a window A/C unit I could install in my spare bedroom to help keep it cool. :) May do that just to help keep the room cool and thus the cider cool. :) I like to add extra sugar as well for a higher ABV. :)

? What's the temp of the room without the ac.
And yes this last batch I have at about 10.7 abv
 
Thank you for your reply. It leads me to my next question. Since it is at the alcohol content I want it to remain. Does that mean I should go ahead and bottle it regardless of the cloudiness?

I wouldn't recommend bottling now (see solbes above).

Plain and simple, it's too early. There are a few reasons as to why that is, but the biggest one (bottle bombs) wouldn't apply to you if you pasteurize. (stabilizers are risky if your fermentation is still active)
However, I still wouldn't bottle now even if you plan on pasteurizing.
It's best practice to let your batch age in bulk for a while to let the flavors develop. You could bottle now and pasteurize (which, depending on your goals, you will probably do anyway. see the stovetop pasteurization thread for more on that), but you would still have to wait for the flavors in the bottles to come together and, simply put, get better.
It has been my experience that the conditioning phase happens faster in bulk. In other words if I make two identical 5 gallon batches side by side, and bottle batch 1 a month before batch 2, batch 2 will most likely taste better because it was aged in bulk as opposed to aged in bottles.

Next time, if you want a lower ABV, don't add any additional sugar. You can rely on the sugar content in the apple juice to provide your alcohol. If you want an even lower ABV, you could dilute your juice with a bit of water.
 
Hmm. So it seems to not be carbing for me. I bottled a week ago yesterday (monday) it did carb a little but not as much as it has in the past or how much I like. Anyone smarter than me know any tricks/why this would happen. The only difference between this batch and the last is higher abv (10.7) and it spent a week more in primary and a week more in secondary.
 
Hmm. So it seems to not be carbing for me. I bottled a week ago yesterday (monday) it did carb a little but not as much as it has in the past or how much I like. Anyone smarter than me know any tricks/why this would happen. The only difference between this batch and the last is higher abv (10.7) and it spent a week more in primary and a week more in secondary.

May need to GENTLY pour it back in the bottling bucket and pitch some champagne yeast or something along with a LITTLE more priming sugar. May have exhausted your existing yeast's alcohol tolerance.
 
May need to GENTLY pour it back in the bottling bucket and pitch some champagne yeast or something along with a LITTLE more priming sugar. May have exhausted your existing yeast's alcohol tolerance.


Exceeding the yeast alcohol tolerance at 10.7% can happen but it depends on the yeast used. I would sooner use the CBC (cask and bottle conditioning) yeast and do a proofing/starter to wake it up and get it into solution, then transfer into the bottles in very small amounts (think sanitized syringe like for infant Tylenol or something like that).


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Hmm. So it seems to not be carbing for me. I bottled a week ago yesterday (monday) it did carb a little but not as much as it has in the past or how much I like. Anyone smarter than me know any tricks/why this would happen. The only difference between this batch and the last is higher abv (10.7) and it spent a week more in primary and a week more in secondary.


I think you said you used Notty for your yeast. You should be able to get 12% out of that yeast. How long total between brew day and bottle day? It probably just dropped out of solution if you did any sort of bulk aging (this happens to me with Notty in cider recipes because it flocculates well with time).


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