First cider turned out (thank you!), on to the next

[primerib]

Happy Thanksgiving! Well thanks to all the generous input from this forum, my first cider turned out nicely, certainly something to be thankful for. It isn't perfect, but certainly drinkable and what's more, my wife has been drinking it. These 5 gallons won't last for long, it's time to start something new.

For subsequent batches, until I can pick apples again next fall, I'll be using storebought juice.

I decided I'd like to experiment a bit with adding raspberries (I'm looking for both color and flavor) to apple cider. After digging through these forums, I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to do the typical process of primary fermentation for a couple weeks or as long as it takes to achieve a stable specific gravity, and then rack onto about 5lbs of mashed/macerated /previously frozen raspberries in the secondary (I'm doing a 5 gal cider batch).

I have two questions to ask about my method this time:

1. I've read that the cider can become bitter if the raspberries (with seeds) are left in contact with the cider for too long in either primary or secondary. Does anybody have any anecdotal experience with this? The reality is that I'm in school right now and would prefer to have something that can potentially be left for a couple extra weeks at a time as needed when I get busy with peripheral responsibilities (ie. life). I don't necessarily want to HAVE to emergently re-rack when I don't have the time.

2. I also decided I'd like to experiment with slightly increasing the ABV to somewhere around 8%. I've seen recipes that suggest using brown sugar, white sugar, dextrose, honey, etc. On a whim, I picked up a few extra cans of FAJC from the grocery store. My thought is to add FAJC into the must until OG is somewhere around 1.060 or slightly better. My thought was using the FAJC purely as a simplifying/streamlining measure (as opposed to melting sugar down into a simple syrup). Should I have any concerns with how the early FAJC might alter the final product (flavor, body, etc.), as opposed to just using straight-up sugar?

On a side note, I am trying out EC1118 on this one (used Cote Des Blancs on first batch). Thanks again for all the advice and opinions.

 

[primerib]

I realize experimentation and finding out personal preference is the name of the game, but I'd just like to avoid any overt missteps that I'm too green to notice right now. Thanks!

 

[bmd2k1]

Happy Thanksgiving! Well thanks to all the generous input from this forum, my first cider turned out nicely, certainly something to be thankful for. It isn't perfect, but certainly drinkable and what's more, my wife has been drinking it. These 5 gallons won't last for long, it's time to start something new.

For subsequent batches, until I can pick apples again next fall, I'll be using storebought juice.

I decided I'd like to experiment a bit with adding raspberries (I'm looking for both color and flavor) to apple cider. After digging through these forums, I've come to the conclusion that I'm going to do the typical process of primary fermentation for a couple weeks or as long as it takes to achieve a stable specific gravity, and then rack onto about 5lbs of mashed/macerated /previously frozen raspberries in the secondary (I'm doing a 5 gal cider batch).

I have two questions to ask about my method this time:

1. I've read that the cider can become bitter if the raspberries (with seeds) are left in contact with the cider for too long in either primary or secondary. Does anybody have any anecdotal experience with this? The reality is that I'm in school right now and would prefer to have something that can potentially be left for a couple extra weeks at a time as needed when I get busy with peripheral responsibilities (ie. life). I don't necessarily want to HAVE to emergently re-rack when I don't have the time.

2. I also decided I'd like to experiment with slightly increasing the ABV to somewhere around 8%. I've seen recipes that suggest using brown sugar, white sugar, dextrose, honey, etc. On a whim, I picked up a few extra cans of FAJC from the grocery store. My thought is to add FAJC into the must until OG is somewhere around 1.060 or slightly better. My thought was using the FAJC purely as a simplifying/streamlining measure (as opposed to melting sugar down into a simple syrup). Should I have any concerns with how the early FAJC might alter the final product (flavor, body, etc.), as opposed to just using straight-up sugar?

On a side note, I am trying out EC1118 on this one (used Cote Des Blancs on first batch). Thanks again for all the advice and opinions.

I use FAJC upfront as my standard methodology for raising SG...it adds both natural sugars & apple flavor/aroma. For Me it's the best way to go [emoji16] It's a more expensive approach than white/brown sugars...but it's well worth it in my book.

Cheers & Good luck [emoji111]

 

[Chalkyt]

My experience along those lines was to add 5% frozen pitted cherries and their juice (from our trees) to an experimental batch at secondary and then leaft it for a month or so until it stabilised around 1.002 before bottling. No nasty issues, in fact next year I will increase the cherries to 10%. The colour was spectacular as was the flavour. I use our own FAJC (freeze the juice then partly thaw to recover SG 1.100 concentrated juice) to increase the FG by .002 or .003 for carbonation when bottling.

BTW sometimes the seeds can add to the flavour profile, for example I use cherries with pips for making cherry liquour as they add a slightly bitter after taste a bit like dark chocolate.

 

[primerib]

Thanks for the replies! Still kind of hoping someone might reply with their thoughts on the raspberries in the secondary and possible excess bitterness - almost all the added-fruit cider posts I’ve seen have concerned fresh/frozen blackberries or mixed berries so I’m almost considering doing the more tried and tested mixed berry thing to cut down on the potential for bitterness from ~5 lbs of straight up raspberries. We’ll see! It’s kind of funny how many times your strategy can change even once the must is in the fermenter.

 

[primerib]

Put it in primary 2 days ago and for kicks added 5 cans of the old orchard frozen apple/raspberry concentrate getting an OG of about 1.060. Should be interesting, whatever berry additions I end up making from here on out.