Hard Cider with a twist?

I heard that if you ferment a hard cider through its initial fermentation, that you can add different fruit juices to infuse it during secondary fermentation. Has anyone tried this? If so, how did they come out?

I've only tried fruit juice once and it sucked, but i was new to brewing and tried to make a pineapple apple cider. Since then, i have found that whole fruit and concentrates seem to work better in the secondary. If you do try fruit juice, make sure to have it free of any preservatives like sodium benzoate, potassium sorbate, or potassium metabisulfite. Ascorbic acid is fine as a preservative though. Please post if you go through with a fruit juice. I'd like to know how it turned out.

Ok thank you very much. If i do go the whole fruit route, do i have to do anything to the fruit to get rid of wild yeasts? Also can i use canned pineapple from the store?

When I use whole fruit, I pour a glass of cheap vodka and soak the fruit prior to adding it to the secondary. This will help to sanitize it and can reduce the likelihood of introducing a contaminant into your brew.

Ok thank you. How long do you soak the fruit if you dont mind me asking?

I did a Hard Lemon Cider a couple months ago. I added real lemon juice to the primary, once a full active fermentation was going. It scored a 38 at the Minnesota Mashout, last month.

I also have a strawberry cider going right now. I let the primary fermentation go for a week, then racked it onto thawed and pureed organic strawberries. 2.5 gallons of cider onto 4 pounds of strawberries. So far that one is doing some sort of MLF. Gravity has not changed in 3 weeks, but there is carbonation like activity when I take a gravity reading.

Sttifyd35 said:

Ok thank you. How long do you soak the fruit if you dont mind me asking?

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I soak it in vodka for roughly 10 minutes before transferring it to the secondary.

I've used frozen fruit a bunch of times in my beers and I've never had a problem. Freezing also breaks down the cell walls in the fruits skin.

You can add potassium metabisulfite along with fruit, at 1/4 tsp to about 5 gallons, or 0.35 grams per gallon. If you don't have a scale, campden tablets are premeasured for 1 per gallon. If you didn't add pectic enzyme initially, I'd add some shortly after adding fruit, as it helps breaking it down.

hockeybrewer said:

I've used frozen fruit a bunch of times in my beers and I've never had a problem. Freezing also breaks down the cell walls in the fruits skin.

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Bingo! Peach slices are my fav. I've never used vodka and never had a problem.