Cider #3 - Cranberry Cider

[Bombo80]

I took about one gallon (7# 4oz) out of the 5 gallon fermenter, and put it into a new, clean and sanitized gallon water jug, and put it in the freezer. This will be thawed and used as a concentrated apple/sugar source to backsweeten this cider once the fermentation has finished.

So I started with 4 gallons of fresh pressed cider @ 1.048. To this I added some homemade cranberry juice. This was made from Craisins. I took 8 - 3/4 cup units from the bag of Craisins, and put them in a large stainless pot, with a cover. I then took another pot and put about 10 cups of water, and brought that to a boil. Once a rolling boil was active, I shut it off and poured just enough of that boiling water to cover the Craisins. I covered it and let it cool to room temp before putting it in the fridge.
The next day, I putted out my food mill and processed the Craisins through it. Then poured that through a wire sieve, to catch more of the solids. This gave me about a half gallon of cranberry juice @ 1.135. Holy Crap ! Lots of sugar in there. This gave me a fermentable cider with a gravity of 1.054. Just what I was looking for.

I added 5 Campden tabs and mixed that in. Tonight I will add a pack of the Wyeast Cider/Mead yeast and let it do its thing.

I will update as things progress.

 

[Bombo80]

So far everything is going nicely. Fermentation is moving right along. I will let it go until this weekend, then rack it to the secondary for at least a week or so.

More to follow .....

 

[Bombo80]

Kegged and carbed, ready to go.

Renamed to Craisin Cider since I made cranberry juice from Craisins. Surprisingly, it doesn't have much cranberry qualities, but very tasty anyway.

 

[Bombo80]

I forgot to add that I added Campden and metabisulfates to this and let is gas off for a few days before backsweetening. I used the same fresh cider, but I froze it first. When I thawed it, I collected 1/2 gallon of the sugars and apple essence, and added this to the finished cider. FG was 1.010.

 

[TechFanMD]

Kegged and carbed, ready to go.

Renamed to Craisin Cider since I made cranberry juice from Craisins. Surprisingly, it doesn't have much cranberry qualities, but very tasty anyway.

Different from your process, but telling about flavors: I made cider using store bought juice and 2lb dextrose (Apfelwein recipe here on HBT). Normally I stabilize and then add 2 cans frozen apple juice concentrate to back-sweeten then keg and force carb.

The last one I did, I used 3 cans (tried two and the tart/cranberry was too subtle) of frozen cranberry juice concentrate. It is really good, but there isn't a lot of cranberry flavor.....if anything it helps bring the apple flavor out (or that's how it reads on the tongue). I would be interested in using the Craisins along with concentrate to try to get more of the cranberry flavor and tartness without adding additional sweetness.

That said - a pint of this with a shot of pomegranate liquor is amazing! I might try using pomegranates at packaging next year to make one for the holidays.