Angry orchard

[JTW628]

Hey my wife loved this stuff has anyone come up with a similar clone? We tried reds last night and she didn't like it at all. I know the % will be higher with home made but we feel like the reds didn't have as much sweet apple flavor at angry orchard.

 

[UpstateMike]

Redd's is nothing more than apple flavored light beer.

 

[JTW628]

Oh after trying it I agree but I am wanting to try and make something close to angry orchard. I haven't tried many ciders so it might be pretty standard. I normally make mead so trying to branch out.

 

[Pratzie]

I read somewhere that they ferment out regular cider and then back sweeten to get the desired flavor. Ive also read that the OG of the cider isn't very high so as to keep the ABV lower then one would see compared to home brewed cider.

 

[Yooper]

Cider is impossible to "clone". It depends on the mix of the apples. And even if you have the same apple mix, they could be grown somewhere other than where you find yours.

Even from year to year, my own apple cider and wine varies greatly depending on how much rain we've had and how late or early the harvest is. Just like with wine from grapes, you aren't going to clone a cider.

You can still make a nice cider, of course. But it would be finding a cider that you like, and then fermenting it. If you like it a bit sweet, you'd stabilize and sweeten (or pasteurize it). It wouldn't be a clone of anything, but it could be quite good.

 

[pkrath84]

My sister LOVES Angry Orchard Apple Crisp and I made a batch of cider to her taste so here's what I came up with...

Using EdWorts recipe as my base ... I backsweetened with 4 cartons of apple juice concentrate and also black english tea. To make the tea I steeped 4 English tea bags in 1 cup of water and just made the strongest tea possible. Everything went into the bottling bucket.

If you're looking for something like apple crisp... that's the closest I've come and it's not bad! EdWort's recipe is definitely higher octane, so adjust that accordingly too! (more, less or no corn sugar)

Note on the tea:

The more tartness you want, the less tea you will use as it smooths things out. The other thing is that the puckering tartness seems to mellow out on it's own over time (5-6 months later) so keep that in mind. I've only used the tea when I want to tap into a batch of cider right after 3 months.

After all of this, I bottle and pasteurize according to the sticky to avoid bottle bombs. Works like a charm. Summer heat has hit SoCal and nothing's burst in the garage!

**Lastly, I used 4 cartons of juice concentrate.. You'll want to use 5 if you're shooting for Apple Crisp sweetness. FWIW, my FG was .998 and 5 cartons should get you to 1.020, which is the number I've seen for residual sugar in Apple Crisp. What I've posted above came up short of 1.020, but i cut it short because while my wife and sister would have enjoyed it... I didn't like it. This way, everyone was happy.

I hope that helps!

 

[Jacob_Marley]

Someone else was trying to do Angry Orchard a while back ... https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/questions-about-getting-right-flavor-389775/#post4899871

 

[JTW628]

Thanks for the feedback ill give it a shot and post the results

 

[pkrath84]

^Hit the jackpot with that post! Thanks for that!

 

[hehawbrew]

Angry Orchard in a can = best beach drink ever!


I think someone on this forum said they get a lot of apples from France.....

 

[UpstateMike]

Cider is impossible to "clone". It depends on the mix of the apples. And even if you have the same apple mix, they could be grown somewhere other than where you find yours.

From the AO website, they use the following mix of apples for the AO Crisp. Sorry about the caps, that's how they had them listed:
AMERE DE BERTHECOURT, BEDEN, MEDAILLE D’OR, MICHELIN, BINET ROUGE, BRAIRTOT, FUJI, GOLDEN DELICIOUS, RED DELICIOUS, JOANA GOLD, ELSTAR, GRANNY SMITH, GALA, BRAEBURN

Some of those I have never even heard of (probably European apples), and I live / grew up in an "Apple Town" area of NY.