this is my third endeavor into cider brewing- I decided to mix it up with some variety. My first batch was strictly farm-fresh cider fermented dry as hell. My second was a grocery store special using concentrate in later stages, as well as a failed experiment with caramel.
I'm reeling back on batch 3, making a small 1 gallon test batch. If this works out great, i'll scale it up.
ingredients:
Yeast starter-
Lalvin EC-1118 (half package)
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
10 oz bottle of Martinelli's apple juice (no preservatives).
Usually let this sit for about 3-4 hours until there are signs of life (that way if something goes bad, i'm out probably 2 dollars in materials versus a whole batch)
Pitched into my concoction of:
32 oz L&A brand All cranberry juice (no preservatives, no blends)
96 oz Santa Cruz "organic" unfiltered apple juice
8 oz Savannah Bee Co. "Winter White" Honey
1 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient.
I took a gamble on this mix. I wanted some pure cranberry and not just a "blend" or "cocktail." I'm hoping the cranberry flavor shines through in this batch due to it being a pure cranberry i'm using. The consequence of this is a low amount of sugar. I decided to boost with some specialty honey i found, however it still wasn't enough as my SG was 1.052. Pretty low for a cider, but i suppose my goal is to take it all the way dry. In hindsight, if this goes bigger i'll probably double the amount of honey per gallon- but we'll see how it works out for now.
I plan to also sit this on some cranberry concentrate in secondary. Will update as things progress!
I'm reeling back on batch 3, making a small 1 gallon test batch. If this works out great, i'll scale it up.
ingredients:
Yeast starter-
Lalvin EC-1118 (half package)
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
10 oz bottle of Martinelli's apple juice (no preservatives).
Usually let this sit for about 3-4 hours until there are signs of life (that way if something goes bad, i'm out probably 2 dollars in materials versus a whole batch)
Pitched into my concoction of:
32 oz L&A brand All cranberry juice (no preservatives, no blends)
96 oz Santa Cruz "organic" unfiltered apple juice
8 oz Savannah Bee Co. "Winter White" Honey
1 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient.
I took a gamble on this mix. I wanted some pure cranberry and not just a "blend" or "cocktail." I'm hoping the cranberry flavor shines through in this batch due to it being a pure cranberry i'm using. The consequence of this is a low amount of sugar. I decided to boost with some specialty honey i found, however it still wasn't enough as my SG was 1.052. Pretty low for a cider, but i suppose my goal is to take it all the way dry. In hindsight, if this goes bigger i'll probably double the amount of honey per gallon- but we'll see how it works out for now.
I plan to also sit this on some cranberry concentrate in secondary. Will update as things progress!