First time ciderer, questions about adding to my secondary

[Paradigm]

Hello all,

I'm working on my first batch of cider, it's currently fermenting happily on S-04. Our goal here is to make a pumpkin cider by secondarying on pumpkin, cinnamon sticks, nutmeg seeds and a vanilla bean.

My question is: all of these things are safe in beer, is there anything I need to worry about for cider? Also, do you know how much of each should be used for a 5 gallon batch? (Mostly for the cinnamon and nutmeg, I know I'm only using 1 vanilla bean)

 

[paint94979]

Experiment... Start small and then increase

 

[Paps]

I use 3 full cinnamon sticks for 5 gallon batches but i've not added pumkin to any ciders yet. Many of the pumkin beers people reffer to as `pumkiny` arent actually getting the flavor from pumkin itself but the spices. Slap in some `pumkin pie spice` and see how well you like it.

 

[myndflyte]

Usually for spices, less it more. Start with a few sticks and seeds, wait a couple days and see how it tastes.

 

[Newsman]

Just a suggestion, but on another thread (https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/caramel-apple-hard-cider-292770/) the suggestion was made to use cinnamon extract because the cinnamon was not integrating well with the cider. You might consider that option as well. Or make a tincture of your spices by soaking them in vodka or other "neutral spirits" for a few days, shaking the bottle every time you go by.

 

[Paps]

I've never had an issue using cinnamon sticks. Just don't use powdered cinnamon.

 

[Newsman]

Just offering an alternative way to get good cinnamon flavor, but yeah... definitely don't want to use powdered cinnamon.

 

[bernardsmith]

Never tried making cider with pumpkins but better to use pie pumpkins or cans of pumpkins than jack o ' lantern type fruit. The smaller varieties have more sugar ... and flavor (I make a pumpkin soup inside a pumpkin and the smaller pumpkins produce much better flavor)

 

[Paradigm]

yeah the plan is to puree and freeze some pie pumpkins