First Hard Cider - Help

[DjinnNTawnik]

Wanting to break into the world of cider. I've had some successes with beer, and experimented with JOAM and other mead. Now I'm going into the world of Cider so here goes

1 Gal 100% Apple Juice, no preservatives
1/2 cup toasted Oats (mostly for color and flavor not really any additional fermentables and no enzyme action)
1/2 cup light brown sugar (again mostly for color and a little bit more abv)
1 2in cinnimon stick

Procedure, going to heat about 3 cups of the juice up to 160 or so so as not to set the pectins, and toss the cinnistick in with the oats. (figure ill probably loose about 1/2 - 1 cups of liquid doing this)
after about 1 hr ill disolve the sugar, remove the grain and boil approx 3 min.

Add back to slightly chilled rest of juice and pitch yeast starter ( 1 pack muntons dry ale yeast and honey.) also put cinni stick in primary.

brew calculus says Og should be 1.085
SG should finnish about 1.020
ABV about 8%
SRM 8.

Thoughts, suggestions before i make my brew?

 

[nukinfuts29]

the oats is a nice touch, very cool idea. I would suggest going with a dark brown sugar though.

 

[DjinnNTawnik]

forgot to add, i want to put one cut up apple into the primary as well thankx

 

[DjinnNTawnik]

Had a brain fart on the way home and came up with some good ideas.

Going with the same procedure as above, except going to mash the grains and stick with filtered water and about 1 oz grated ginger because the amalayse in the ginger will actually conver the oats., also thinking about adding 1tsp each of corriander, and lemon zest to primary. Thought?

 

[nukinfuts29]

>>adding 1tsp each of corriander, and lemon zest to primary. Thought?

I'd never do this, but I'm interested in your results if you do.

 

[DjinnNTawnik]

what about the ginger?

 

[nukinfuts29]

Ginger might be a nice touch.

This is just one mans opinion, mind you.

 

[Greghark]

There are a few ciders on the market with ginger that aren't bad. Really depends on what you like. With small batches like you are making (1 gal) expirement away and try a bunch of variations.
Only recommendation is go eay on the spice. Less is more. Alcohol will also make some spices much more noticeable, so go easy at first with strong spices. One good method is to use while spices (cracked) in a small mash bag or tea bag. I soak mine in alcohol to sterilize. Then check every day to two to find what strength you like. Adding ground spice works but can be really overpowering if not careful.

 

[Greghark]

Should have said use whole spices

 

[Griffin10]

This sounds fascinating, and really good. I'd love to hear how it goes, because it sounds like a really yummy little experiment batch. I wonder how much of a difference here will be between the "simple" version (what you originally posted) versus the "complex" one (with the later additions of ginger, coriander, lemon zest, and apple chunks). The simple one sounds safe, but if something doesn't go wrong with the complicated one it could be much more interesting.

 

[bottlebomber]

Sounds good. There's no way its going to finish higher than 1.005 though, but likely it will finish even lower.

 

[DjinnNTawnik]

Here's how it went

toasted 1 1/2 c oats for 15 min till golden
Mashed (160) with 5 c water mixed with instant apple cider (no preservatives) 1 cinni stick and 1 oz grated ginger for 30 min

Removed oats and disolved 1 c brown sugar heated till sugar disolved

Added remaining juice to top to 1 gal

added 1/2 tsp ea corriander, grated ginger and lemon zest + 1 new cinni stick to primary.

pitched with 1 packet muntons dry ale yeast

 

[DjinnNTawnik]

So after 14 days in primary, grav has gone from. 1.075 to .999 which means about 10.1 percent abv. Flavor is extremely smooth with a hint of the spices and some of the apple left over. Was gonna sparkle it, but had a freak freeze up here and while in secondary my cider turned to apple jack. Its nice