honey instead of sugar?

I am going to start this tonight,

Basic Hard Cider (1 Gallon Recipe)

14-16 lb. apples or 1 gallon apple juice (unpreserved*)
1/3 lb. Sugar
1/2 tsp. Pectic Enzyme
1/2 tsp Yeast Energizer
1 Campden Tablet
1 pkg Champagne Yeast (or other wine or ale yeast of your choice)

Procedure:
If you are starting with apples, be sure to pick ripe apples without worm damage and rotting. Wash the apples and cut them into smaller pieces for easier pressing.

If you are starting with apple juice, be sure it is unpreserved! One way to know if it has preservatives is to look in the ingredients for "potassium sorbate" or "sodium benzoate". The juice will be unfermentable with either of these ingredients present. Pasteurized juice is ok, while fresh pressed, unpreserved apple juice is best.

1. Collect the juice in your primary fermenter and add a crushed Campden tablet (per gallon), along with the pectic enzyme. Stir in added sugar and yeast energizer (yeast nutrient will also work). Be sure to keep out the yeast. The Campden tablet will knock out the yeast and prevent fermentation. Cover the primary fermenter.

2. Wait 24-48 hours and add yeast. Cover the primary with the lid and airlock.

3. Stir the cider daily with a sanitized spoon or gently swirl primary fermenter. After 7-10 days (or until active fermentation subsides) siphon the cider into a secondary fermenter. Attach airlock.

4. Allow fermentation to finish out in the secondary, and let the hard cider rest until the cider clears. Clarifiers such as Sparkalloid or LQ Super-Kleer may be added at this time to help clarify the cider.

5. If you want carbonated hard cider, add about 1 oz. per gallon of priming sugar (corn sugar or dextrose) or an appropriate amount of another fermentable sugar source.

-or-

If you want still, uncarbonated cider, add potassium sorbate at bottling time to prevent re-fermentation. Bottle preserved cider.

6. Cider is typically bottled in standard beer bottles and capped. Wait 2 weeks for carbonation to develop and drink up! Cider will get better after a month or more in the bottle.


Instead of the sugar I was thinking of using honey. Would this not be such a good idea? If the idea seams good when would I add the honney? same time as I would use the sugar? Should I use the same amount of honey as I would sugar?

Thanks for any tips!!!!

If you use honey (well any real amount) to cider/juice and you will have a cyser not a cider. A cyser is an apple based mead. It is an excellent combination of flavors. You would add it just as you would sugar. The amount is totally up to you, whether you want a stronger honey character and more abv or less, its up to you.

I like honey, so I'd do that. It might take quite a bit longer to ferment out, and to age, but it's worth it.

One note on your instructions- DON'T add the pectic enzyme with the campden. Mix as instructed, but don't add that pectic enzyme. 12 hours later, you can add the enzyme. Then, 12 hours later you can go ahead and add the yeast.

YooperBrew said:

I like honey, so I'd do that. It might take quite a bit longer to ferment out, and to age, but it's worth it.

One note on your instructions- DON'T add the pectic enzyme with the campden. Mix as instructed, but don't add that pectic enzyme. 12 hours later, you can add the enzyme. Then, 12 hours later you can go ahead and add the yeast.

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yopper,

you would do as I was going to do or what Tusch suggested?

Thanks for the tips on the pectic enzyme and yeast.

Honey and sugar are not interchangeable in a 1:1 amount. I think you'd use a bit more honey for the same amount of fermentables, but I'd take an SG reading first and add honey to whatever I wanted my OG to be. I think you'd add maybe 10% more honey than sugar (due to the water in honey) but I'm NOT sure about that.

YooperBrew said:

I like honey, so I'd do that. It might take quite a bit longer to ferment out, and to age, but it's worth it.

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*QUITE* a bit longer for sure. I did this few months ago and i didnt use a lot of honey (4ish ounces i think.... ish.... i forget exactly)

but it took about 2 months for it to mature to awesome drinkability levels.

Ok.. I don't plan on drinking any of this until next summer, so the longer wait will not be a problem

Thanks for all the pointers every one!!!!