Sweet apple pie in a bottle recipie

This is a recipie that I found on the net and have modified it slightly to meet my needs.

Yield: Five Gallons US
Beginning SG/PA: 1.05
Ingredients:
5 gals. Treetop Cider
24 oz honey
1 lb. brown sugar
1/2 cup bottling sugar
5 cinnamon sticks
1 pkg Safale S-04 Dry Ale Yeast

Instructions:

1. Bring one gallon of the cider to 160 degrees.
2. Add honey and brown sugar.
3. Stir for 15 minutes.
4. Pour 3 1/2 gallons of the fresh cider into your primary fermenter.
5. Reserve 1/2 gallon for later.
6. Pour the cider with sugar and honey into your primary.
7. Check SG and add cane sugar if needed.
8. Pitch your yeast and allow to ferment for 5 days in primary.
9. Rack off into your secondary and allow to ferment for about 10 more days
10. The fermentation should have slowed to a crawl by now and you are ready to bottle
11. take the last remaining 1/2 gal and bring to a boil add cinimon sticks and allow to boil for 30 mins.
12. Remove the cinnamon sticks and allow to cool.
13. Add the 1/2 cup of bottling sugar.
14. Bottle as normal.
15. Allow to condition in the bottle for about 2 months.

This will be very carbonated and will leave some lees at the bottom of your bottles. To decrease the amount of lees rack off the cider one more time and allow it to stand in the carboy an extra week before bottling. You may also want to decrease the amount of bottling sugar to control carbonation.

I found some Treetop on sale last week, bought five gallons, and was looking for a way to put it to good use. Thnx for this post.

But I do have one question.

Does the honey really contribute that much to the overall flavor of this cider? I also picked up one can of concentrate to use with the juice when I went to put it all together. What do you think the effect of substitution of the concentrate for the honey will be? I would assume a more apple taste to it. I only ask becuase I am not a fan of the honey flavor in most anything.:cross:

Is that dark or light brown sugar?

I use light but it really doesn't matter I have used dark before and it taste the same just darker in color. As far as the honey goes I have made it without the honey and bringing up the sg with corn sugar and it seems like it is not as smooth and a bit more bitter but still had a good flavor. I have never added concentrate but I bet it would definatly make a more apple flavor. Let us know how it turns out when you are done. Good Luck

Ok, just put a variant together.

5 Gallons TreeTop
1 Can Juicy Juice Apple Concentrate
1 lb Light Brown Sugar

Brought the one gallon up to 160 and dissolved the brown sugar in that, dumped into fermenter already filled with two gallons of juice, and then put the concentrate and the last two gallons in. Was right at 80 degrees after all that and I pitched some dry ale yeast on it to get er done.

I don't plan on doing the cinnamon on this batch, I want to see what it tastes like before adding spices of any kind.

This might actually tempt me to make something other than beer.

Most of you probably don't listen to Dave Moody's motorsports radio program, but the week after the NASCAR race at Martinsville he was talking about riding around (in a golfcart) in the parking lot the night before the race and somebody gave him some moonshine mixed with apple cider and some spices and that it basically tasted like apple pie in a bottle. The way he described got the ol' gears turning and I was thinking about a version without moonshine.

This is my second attempt at brewing a non-beer beverage. I did a Cyser using champagne yeast and I ended up with such a high alcohol level and left it to clear so long that it dropped out or killed all the yeast and wouldn't carb up. I bottled some still and some I tried to carb with Cooper's carb drops and they just got a little sweeter. So this time I hope I will end up with something a little more tame and bubbly. The only other thing I might attempt in the future would be a hard lemonade type drink, but from what I hear these are tough due to all the acid in them.

We have fermentation!

Started about midnight last night and has been bubbling away since then, hope to get it into a secondary Saturday for a seven-ten day clear and ferment finish, just have to bottle the two beer batches I have going as well to free up the carboy.

Sounds Yummy

Bookmarking thread for follow up

Well I did like the recipe says and racked it over to the carboy for secondary clearing today. It was for sure still fermenting but should slow way down over the next few days and be able to be bottled with minimal sugar this next weekend. I plan on using the 1/2 cup of dextrose and checking the carbonation after about 4-5 days and see where it is at, then cold conditioning for a couple months when it's nice and bubbly.

Anyone think my plans are insane for this type of thing?

@BrewFrick

No Your are not insane at all. as a matter of fact I am thinking this would be a great Idea for a Christmas Holiday. I am just waiting to see how my Apfelwein turns out then I was going to try this. keep this thread posted so we can see the results.




Thought here .......

You COULD with the brown sugar put in a hint of Cinnamon Sugar Approx 2 tablespoons then throw in the 3 or 4 cinnamon sticks

Idea I just came up with

23 Liters Pure apple juice
.5 Kg of Brown Sugar
2 Tbls Cinnamon Sugar
.75 Kg Dextrose
3 cinnamon sticks

I got all this into bottles Sunday and I tried one after just two days of carbing. It has tiny little bubbles that quickly fade but now I at least know it will carb up and it really does have a great apple taste to it. Now to wait for two weeks of carbing and then another month or so for cold conditioning.

Update on the cider. I have had it in the fridge now for a week and they have really carbed well and still have a good apple taste to them. They still have a kind of yeasty or grainy taste to them with a little bit of sulphur flavor too. I will keep this cold conditioning for several more months in hopes that the taste will mellow out and loose the off flavors that I don't much care for. Anyone else with a similar issue? Please let me know if I am correct in assuming the flavor will change with time on this type of cider recipe.

I have learned that the flavor I don't like is the bite of the fermented brown sugar, so the next batch will be without the BS, he he.

This carbed up really well and has a great apple taste to it, a little less strong than I was looking for and more dry, but a great drink overall and easy to put together.