Afraid the milk stout cider was a complete disaster from beginning to end. I will revisit it again someday, but for now I'm just tired of trying!
As for other experiments in the works:
1)
Cinnamon coffee cider has been coming along nicely. After a few itterations we are homing in on the *right* way to add coffee flavouring. Adding beans straight to the fermenter is a serious no no for flavour. Cold Brewed is the way to go. Will report back once I have a recipe locked down.
2)
My original test batch of my new favourite was 1/2 a gallon apple juice, a cup of maple syrup, a handful of untoasted american white oak chips, an ounce of rum, and 6 ounces of lactose.
It turned out too sweet (6 ounces of lactose in 1/2 a gallon adds around 22 gravity points, way higher than I like), but overall it was fantastic. a little boozy because I added the rum in straight, and the oaky flavour was there but too light to be truly enjoyed.
3)
I have a 10.5% cider on the go now, and the original test batch was beyond wonderful. I have super high hopes for this full sized and slightly tweaked batch. Now, this one is special, a little expensive, but special.
5 gallons generic apple juice,
64 ounces of grade b maple syrup,
champagne yeast (fermented at 60 in order to slow it down and hopefully preserve a lot of apple and maple flavour).
Now heres the kicker: I roasted some oak chips to a deep dark beautiful vanilla smelling hue, and then proceeded to soak them in dark Caribbean rum for two weeks. I will then be 'dry hopping' my cider with this oak (after letting the booze dry off of course, otherwise the cider would end up tasting very boozy).
I have pre-sweetened with lactose. I added 1.5lb to give me an estimated FG of 1.009, right around my favourite level.
I'll post back with results!
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