Cider from Frozen Concentrate

[jmprdood]

Made a batch yesterday to ring out the ol' and bring in the new. Made pretty much like the last I made (except using the concentrate 'cause it was cheaper):

5 gal of apple juice once reconstituted (14 12oz cans, no preservatives)
2lbs of brown sugar
Yeast Nutrient
Nottingham Ale Yeast rehydrated and pitched @ 68F
OG 1.070
Expected ABV of ~9.5%

Fermenting away now 30 hrs in.

How have your batches w/ frozen concentrate turned out?

 

[funky_brewster]

Hey, your recipe specs are just about spot on for what I was gonna try (though I plan to substitute pasteurized strawberries for the brown sugar), since I saved about $10 buying frozen concentrate rather than the same thing + water.

Did this turn out like you'd hoped? 9.5% is beefy, I imagine that took a little time to condition out.

Thanks if you've got a second (and recall from 16 months ago)!

-funky

 

[jmprdood]

Hey, your recipe specs are just about spot on for what I was gonna try (though I plan to substitute pasteurized strawberries for the brown sugar), since I saved about $10 buying frozen concentrate rather than the same thing + water.

Did this turn out like you'd hoped? 9.5% is beefy, I imagine that took a little time to condition out.

Thanks if you've got a second (and recall from 16 months ago)!

-funky

Turned out great, but did need several months of conditioning to smooth out. Did you brew this up?

 

[funky_brewster]

I did, 13 cans of concentrate added up to about the same grams of sugar as 5 gallons of store-bought juice. I also diced & pasteurized about 5 lbs of granny, jonagold, and fuji apples that got added to the primary. Gravity was 1.054 when we pitched the Nottingham yeast.

About 8 days in, it was juuuuust about slowed to a stop and I added another 5 lbs of the same apples, this time juiced, with the flesh collected and all of it pasteurized before cooling and pitching as a secondary fermentation (no transfer). Foolishly, I forgot to take a grav reading before adding the second apple addition, but the reading after was 1.030 and tasted quite nice.

Plan is to let it roll another 2 weeks on the yeast, then bottle or keg for at least a month, depending on the FG.