Candied Pecan Hard Cider

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tdexterc

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Hey everybody, I've been doing a lot of small batch cider experiments lately and this one turned out so good that I thought I should share it! This recipe is for a simple 2 gallon batch, but you can easily adjust it to any amount. I'll be doing this in a 5 gallon batch soon to bring to my wedding in August! Sorry I'm missing the OG/FG...

Maple Pecan Cider

-2 gallons of Apple Juice (I used simple Aldi brand 100% juice, no sulphites)
-2 cans of frozen apple juice concentrate
-ferment at 67-68 for 1 week using California Ale Yeast (any clean, not fruity ale yeast will do. Some prefer Nottingham, others use Champagne, I just use whatever I have extra of kicking around!)
-after 1 week, add 6oz chopped candied pecans (recipe down below) and let fermentation finish up for another week.
-during this time, scrape and chop 1 vanilla bean and add to 1/4 cup bourbon. Any hard liquor will do, but I'm partial to bourbon! Let this soak for 1 week.
-before bottling/kegging, add the vanilla/liquor tincture and back-sweeten with 7-8oz (by weight) of maple syrup. This seems to be slightly sweet to me and just right, not overpowering. Adjust maple amount to taste.
-Remember that if you bottle this, you must refrigerate or pasteurize this after carbonation! Otherwise... BOOM!

Candied Pecans
-6oz pecans, roughly chopped, 2tsp cinnamon, 1/4c brown sugar
-combine ingredients in a pan on the stove-top and heat on medium until the sugar begins to melt and break down. This takes a while (20 mins?), but you must keep an eye on it. It will go from done to burnt in no time! Heat and stir until the sugar has melted and coated the pecans and turns nice and shiny. once it's sticky and shiny pull it from the heat before it begins to smoke and spread on wax paper.
 
Glad you like the sound of it! I was surprised at how well the flavor of the candied pecans came through in the cider. After a week in the carboy they were stripped of all their sugary caramelized goodness and pecan flavor and they all just floated up to the top! I'll be interested to hear how your batch turns out. I'll be making a second batch of it shortly.
 
I heard of a brewery in Michigan making this style of cider and I became determined to find/concoct a recipe. Your recipe sounds spot on! I want to make this for the family Christmas. Congrats on getting married btw. How did this turn out (assuming you're already married)?
 
I heard of a brewery in Michigan making this style of cider and I became determined to find/concoct a recipe. Your recipe sounds spot on! I want to make this for the family Christmas. Congrats on getting married btw. How did this turn out (assuming you're already married)?

Glad to hear you like the sounds of it! I look forward to hearing what you think of it when you make it. I just returned from the honeymoon, thanks for the congratulations!
 
This looks great.
Maple wine by itself is good, I'm sure with the pecans this makes an awesome cider.
 
Question for recipes like this, how long does it usually take to carbonate? My cider is finished and I'm ready to back sweeten and bottle, but I have a few things I will be out of town for sporadically over the next three weeks and I'm not sure when to do this.
 
It's tough to say how long it could take to carbonate. It's taken as few as 3 days for me before and as long as a week and a half depending on how lively the yeast left in the bottle is. Your best bet is to back sweeten and start carbing with whatever time you might have. If you're heading out of town and it's not done yet then you can always put the batch in the fridge if you have the space and fermentation will slow waaaaay down. Take the bottles out and bring them back to room temperature when you return and then you can resume carbonation.
 
It's tough to say how long it could take to carbonate. It's taken as few as 3 days for me before and as long as a week and a half depending on how lively the yeast left in the bottle is. Your best bet is to back sweeten and start carbing with whatever time you might have. If you're heading out of town and it's not done yet then you can always put the batch in the fridge if you have the space and fermentation will slow waaaaay down. Take the bottles out and bring them back to room temperature when you return and then you can resume carbonation.

Thanks, I appreciate the help!
 
Are you backsweeting with the frozen juice as well, I suppose?

Edit: candied pecans sounds great but I'd be concerned that the candy coating is going to limit pecan flavor extraction. We also need to worry about the oils in the nuts getting into the beer. Common solutions are to bake the nuts on low to cook off the oil, or a tincture. Cinnamon can be added directly.
Heck! You might as well make a tincture with pecans and the bourbon! Scrape off the oil/fat that floats after a few weeks of soaking, then pour the liquid only into your finished cider:

Thinking out loud (cuz this looks tasty and I want to try it):
  1. Make tincture in a small jar with enough bourbon to cover the pecans and vanilla beans.
  2. Ferment the 2 gallons of cider for two weeks (letting the tincture develop for the two weeks)
  3. Clear the floating oil off the top of the tincture and decant the liquor into a bowl.
  4. Mix cinnamon and brown sugar and syrup with the tincture, before adding to the cider.
  5. Backsweeten as necessary with concentrate.
 
I personally don't back sweeten with the frozen juice, just the maple syrup. If this was indeed for a beer I would worry about the oils from the pecans but because it's just a cider there's never any head to retain, so I don't worry about it! As for the candy coating it gets completely dissolved from the exterior of the pecans and I've found that the caramelization of the sugar on the pecans helps to add even more depth of flavor. If you go about it in the way you mentioned I'd love to hear how it turns out!
 
[*]Mix cinnamon and brown sugar and syrup with the tincture, before adding to the cider.
[*]Backsweeten as necessary with concentrate.
[/LIST]

Don't use powder form cinnamon for a cider......it does weird/bad things.
Use sticks in secondary.
 
Mine turned out great btw. I ended up adding pecans directly into the bucket with cinnamon sticks. Filtered through a Muslin bag with decent results.
 
Tdexterc when you did the 5 gallon batch did you increase the amount of pecans mixture and maple syrup addition as well? If so how much?
 
I now have this on tap. I have made a seasonal cider, 4 times a year, for several years now. This has the most unique flavor of any I have done. Highly recommended. Great job OP!
 
Kegged mine Friday and tasted the hydro sample and it was tasting good even without the maple syrup/vanilla addition so only can imagine it with it. The cider almost seemed like it was already carbed up. I used champagne yeast instead. OG 1.044 FG 1.000 with the syrup and vanilla a figure abv would be around 5.2 to 5.3% Fingers are crossed it will be carbed enough when I have people over for the holidays.
Edited:
Good thing I checked Sunday morning I carb the wrong keg and got it switch out to the correct one
 
Oh my gosh!! Just found this recipe. Going over to the neighbors to pick up pecans RIGHT NOW. Very excited to try this one. Can you tell? LOL
 
I made up a batch of a similar cider. Very unique flavor, very pronounced pecan flavor. Absolutely awesome. Thanks for the recipe!
 
I made a 2.5 gallon batch. (didn't use the concentrate)
THIS IS DELICIOUS! I bottle conditioned and pasteurized about 25 bottles. One exploded in the pot during pasteurization.
As a side note. I think the pecans that I chopped up still had some residual parts from the shell in it. You can taste a slight bitterness in the taste. It's not bad and adds a little complexity to the taste. I have a 5 gallon batch brewing now.
 
There is way more than enough here to carbonate. I force carbed and prevented natural priming. If you bottle with the maple amount I used you will need to pasteurize the cider once carbonated.
 
So, I've made 2 batches of this recipe already and have always put the maple syrup and bourbon/vanilla tincture in the bottling bucket and racked the cider on top of it before bottling. Is this the way everyone else is doing it, or do you simply just pour it in? .... Annnd are you guys stirring it? :confused:

Thanks in advance!
 
I made this.
made the candied pecans, used imitiation vanilla (thought it was real extract I grabbed off the shelf) and a bottle of maple syrup for 2.5 gallons.
I fermented Aldi apple juice then added all the flavors to a secondary and let that sit a few weeks after adding sulfates to secondary.

I put a hop bag on the end of my siphon to catch the pecan bits when i kegged but it's super cloudy.

however it doesn't taste too bad.
betting it will taste better in a few more weeks and warm.
 

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