Need help with a cinnamon cider

I am new to cider making and am looking for some advice on making a cinnamon base cider. I don't really want to add any other spice besides the cinnamon. I am going to make a total of 6 gallons. My plan is to split into 2 3gallon, 3 gallons regular and 3 gallons cinnamon. Can someone help me with how much cinnamon per gallon to use and when to add it?
Thanks

You might try adding one 4" stick of cinnamon per gallon. You can put them in a hop sack & weigh it down with a couple of sanitized marbles if you want. Leave 'em in for a couple weeks & then taste. Not enough cinnamon flavor, leave 'em in for another week & taste again. Keep doing this till you get the flavor profile you want, then remove the cinnamon sticks. Avoid using powdered cinnamon, it will make a big mess & cannot be removed without filtration.
Regards, GF.

I would add 3-5 cinnamon sticks (depending how cinnamony you want it) in primary fermentation. The fermentation mixes the sticks in.

Thanks for the help. I like the idea of using the marbles to hold the cinnamon below the surface.

I too am making my first batch of hard cider. I bought regular cider for the first batch, added a little brown sugar, but only one cinnamon stick. I have heard it is really easy to over-spice, and have done so with a pumpkin spice ale that smells like clove cigarettes. When I went back to the same store I noticed that Musselman's brand also had a spiced cider, so I grabbed 6 more gallons and don't plan on adding anything to it..

What yeast are you using, and does anyone know how much the yeast will draw out the character of the spice, or is that just a result of the alcohol alone? I'm using US-05 for the first batch, wanted something neutral and a little dry.

I ended up using Red Star Côte des Blancs. My plan is to make a sweet cider and was told this was the yeast to use.

One 4-inch stick of decent cinnamon sounds right; are there any recommendations of how many whole cloves to add per gallon of cider, if someone wants to try that?

TasunkaWitko said:

One 4-inch stick of decent cinnamon sounds right; are there any recommendations of how many whole cloves to add per gallon of cider, if someone wants to try that?

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Not in cider, but I've used cloves in mead (JAOM). I can tell you that cloves are powerful little buggers. Two cloves in a gallon can be overpowering. I'd use only one.

Sounds good - I will keep it sane for the first one and try that.

Thanks!

I agree on going light on cloves! With stick cinnamon, it will be hard to go too far because even a whole stick probably amounts to less than a tsp of powdered cinnamon. (Guessing!) And the powder is stronger because there's more surface area. 1 stick per gallon seems about right.

I think if you add it during primary fermentation, you might want to remove it while it ages. If you plan on racking to secondary (and then racking to clear it like wine), I think taking it out before secondary OR after one cycle in secondary before racking again.

I don't know for sure, but that's what I would do. I've only used powdered spices in primary, and it came out pretty spicy but not great. We're coming up on 2 years of aging, so maybe it's time to crack one open.