Caramelized Cider with Saison III Yeast

[danz]

This has turned out to be a fantastic experiment and look forward with future batches and improving the flavor. I ran a second batch of straight juice on top of the cake/lees and its dry and lost almost apple flavor. Boiling/Condensing the juice really adds so much to this cider.

SG - 1.070
FG - 1.008


Ingredients:
2 - 96oz Great Value 100% Apple Juice from Concentrate
3 - 64oz Tree Top Apple Blend Juice 100% Fresh Pressed, Not From Concentrate (Granny Smith and Red & Golden Delicious apples)
1/2 lb - Dark Brown Sugar
1 - White Labs WLP585 BELGIAN SAISON III YEAST

Process
1) Toss the 3 Tree Top juice blends in the freezer
2) Boiled down 2 bottles of the cheap concentrate juice down to half which intensified the apple flavors.
3) Added some of the cheap concentrate juice to a sauce pan with 1/2lb brown sugar and turned to high letting it simmer away and caramelize
4) Cooled the base juice down & brown sugar syrup till it was not steaming in an ice bath, sorry didnt have my thermometer handy
5) Add 1 bottle of the cold Tree Top juice to fermentor
6) Add cooled base juice to fermentor
7) Add last 2 bottles of the cold Tree Top juice to fermentor
8) Add brown sugar syrup
9) Pitch yeast straight from tube

Backsweetening - Caramelized Lactose, Burnt sugar syrup, condensed juice & oaked tincture that I burnt off the alcohol to add a slight smoke flavor.

Boiled down cheap walmart juice, was very very good and flavor reminded me of the TreeTop juice.

High Krausen

Caramelized Lactose - slowly sprinkled lactose onto a hot pan and let it melt, then sprinkled more and more till the entire amount was melted. Once I got the color I was after added some apple juice slowly and then cranked up the heat to make a syrup.

Enjoying a glass or 2 of still cider before bottling

 

[Yrogerg1089]

This sounds delicious! What was your aging profile?


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[WVMJ]

That is called boiled cider, you can keep cooking it down and make a syrup, keep going and you get cider jelly. Need to do one of these ourselves when we get some extra cider but without the brown sugar, why would you need that if you concentrate the apple cider enough while caramelizing it? WVMJ

 

[danz]

This sounds delicious! What was your aging profile?

Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

Right now its been no aging, the first batch sat in secondary for 3 weeks or so.

That is called boiled cider, you can keep cooking it down and make a syrup, keep going and you get cider jelly. Need to do one of these ourselves when we get some extra cider but without the brown sugar, why would you need that if you concentrate the apple cider enough while caramelizing it? WVMJ

It was an experiment and ultimately it did come out too sweet with the additions of lactose caramel. I blended 2 parts from the recipe above and 1 part of straight juice on top of the cake/lees and added some of my liquid oak extract I made. I had my local homebrew shop give it a taste and was a thumbs up all around. Its sweet at first but not overly sweet then dries out with that belgium alcohol character and leaves a little tartness before falling off. Its quite an experience to drink it still, now to make it sparkling.

I am going to try this minus the brown sugar and see if gives me the flavor I want. Overall for my second attempt at cider I am ecstatic that I knocked it out of the park. I shared how I made my oak extract here, this stuff is awesome.