Blackberry cider - when to add juice and how much?

[aurora_colony_cider]

Well, it's blackberry season here in Oregon and I was thinking of making a blackberry cider.

My question is fourfold:

1. Do I need to pasteurize the blackberry juice to get rid of natural yeast? Will heating do the trick?

2. Do you add the blackberry juice just before bottling or at the start of fermentation?

3. How much blackberry juice per gallon of cider? I've decided I will juice the berries to avoid the mess created by putting whole berries into the cider itself.

4. If I add the juice just before bottling, will the sugar in the juice affect the amount of priming sugar needed? Any calculations for how to factor that?

Phew.

Thanks all.

R.

 

[MindenMan]

There are many differing ideas about how much fruit to add to a 5 gallon batch; some people use 3 pounds and some people use between 3 and 6 pounds. Juiced, I really can't tell you. Add the fruit in the secondary and let it age a good long time before drinking. Whatever the intensity of the flavor is at bottling it will usually increase with time up to a point.
If there is any sugar at all in the juice, and there will be some, it will affect the amount of priming sugar that is "needed".
Any calculations would be iffy at best as the sugar changes from season to season.You could use almost any amount you want if you are willing to bottle pasteurize...

 

[madscientist451]

How much Blackberry juice to add and when to add it depends on what flavor profile you are looking for.
If you want a strong berry flavor, make a base cider, stabilize it,
(there are several ways to do this, not going into that here) and add the blackberry juice before packaging. Note that adding juice to finished cider will reduce the ABV.
If you ferment the Blackberry juice along with the cider, it won't taste much like Blackberries, the sweetness will be turned into alcohol and the tart flavors will remain.
So it all depends on what you want.
My method is to make a base cider in the fall and then the following summer, I'll
do secondary additions with fruit and let the fermentation kick off again.
I've done this with raspberries, cherries and rhubarb. I'll also take a 1/2 gallon jug, add a cup or two of juice like you suggest, from blackberries, fill the rest with finished cider, keep it in the refrigerator and drink it within a week. No fussing with chemicals or pasteurization.
If you are picking the berries now, I'd freeze them and they'll be ready when you want them. Or you could make juice and freeze that.
Good Luck.

 

[aurora_colony_cider]

Thanks guys. Great insights. I'll post how the results turn out. My biggest problem, waiting for the stuff to mature!!!

 

[MarkKF]

I've always added fruit and juice up front. I once did after racking and it took off again. This year I'm gonna try adding it after stabilizing and just before kegging.