Hybrid Cider

Came up with this recipe while contemplating something for the fall season. Try it out and please let me know what you think, and any suggestions that you have to improve the outcome.


3 gal unpasteurized apple cider
2 lbs Light DME
3 lbs Amber DME
1 lb 20-L Crystal Malt
1/3 lb Roasted Barley
1 oz Simcoe (90 mins)
2 oz Tettenanger (60, 35 mins)
1 oz Hallertau (20 mins)
Wyeast English Cider Yeast
½ tbsp Irish moss
Sugar for bottling

Steep grains until water reaches 160’. Drain and strain water through grains and return water to brew pot. Add malt extract, 1 ½ gals cider, and bittering hops when boil is reached. With 60 and 35 mins left Tettenanger hops. Add Hallertau @ 20 mins, then add Irish moss to the boil @ 15 mins. Pour hot wort over rest of cider in fermenter and top off with water. Pitch yeast @ 70’ and ferment for 1 week then trasfer to carboy for 12 days. Bottle for at least 2 wks, then consume.

Admittedly, I don't know much about beer or grafs, but I do know cider, and two things jump out at me. Adding the apple juice when boiling could change the flavor and give it a cooked flavor (then again, adding malt will change the flavor, also, so what do I know?). Secondly, and probably more important, you seem to be rushing the batch. Cider needs to be aged longer than 2 weeks before drinking. Cider needs to be aged like wine, not rushed like beer. A week in the primary, at least 2 weeks in the secondary, and a good month or longer in bottles.

Actually, the more I think about it, the more I have to say let it age longer. You are adding "sugar" in the form of malt. I'm not sure it would be done fermenting after just three weeks to make it safe enough to bottle, so watch the airlock and check with your hydrometer.

I personally have no desire to do a 90 minute boil for cider. I love the Graff recipe and have tinkered with Malt Extract and which crystal to use, but 4 oz's of hops seems way off for a cider. Roasted Barley would not tasty to me, so I will have to pass on this recipe.

I re-read the recipe after posting and you didn't even state which crystal you were planning on using. 5 pounds of DME seems to be way too much. Good luck and let us know how it turns out.