First timer experimenting with cider

[Dyfrgi]

Greetings!
First time brewer here (though not first time fermenting) and I wanted to ask for some guidance on different cider recipes besides the bog standard cider I will be fermenting. I like to experiment!
I have a few recipes in mind, and I want to stick to things I am growing or can forage in terms of flavorings. Everything will be bucket fermented. The apple juice is from my own apples so I am willing to get a little weird with experimenting, as the most expensive investment I'd have into each recipe is the yeast and my time.
I have:
Red Star premier blanc yeast
Blackberries
Blueberries
Staghorn sumac (tannins and sour)
Yarrow
Spruce tip syrup
Honey
Maple syrup
Mint
Rowan berries
Black tea (tannins)
Ground ivy
Cedar
Tomato (?)


Some of these may go better in a beer, like the yarrow, ground ivy, cedar and sumac, but I'm still trying to figure out what kind of yeast I want to try out on an herbal beer.
Any thoughts on combinations would be extremely helpful.

 

[fluketamer]

hi welcome
im jealous, wish i had apple trees i would make lots of cider.
red star is good but iirc very drying i have recently started to make ciders with ale yeast and find them more apply and less drying and more enjoyable
fresh fruits like black berries and blueberries i think are better if you freeze them to kill wild yeasties.
also i have had a hard time getting flavor and color out of fresh fruits when in primary the yeast seem to clean out flavor and color. i have had better results pouring fresh apple juice over fruit wine lees to get color and flavor imparted into my ciders. for example ferment a blueberry wine then when you rack off to another container just pour apple juice onto the cake and next thing you know you have blueberry cider.

honey also would be an easy addition to any cider i think that makes a melomel specifically a cyser type of melomel

i add black tea to all my ciders for tannin just steep 2-4 black teabags in a cup of water and add to primary

i also add fermaid and juice of half a lemon for citric acid.

i dont understand the tomato?

good luck and cheers

 

[Dyfrgi]

hi welcome
im jealous, wish i had apple trees i would make lots of cider.
red star is good but iirc very drying i have recently started to make ciders with ale yeast and find them more apply and less drying and more enjoyable
fresh fruits like black berries and blueberries i think are better if you freeze them to kill wild yeasties.
also i have had a hard time getting flavor and color out of fresh fruits when in primary the yeast seem to clean out flavor and color. i have had better results pouring fresh apple juice over fruit wine lees to get color and flavor imparted into my ciders. for example ferment a blueberry wine then when you rack off to another container just pour apple juice onto the cake and next thing you know you have blueberry cider.

honey also would be an easy addition to any cider i think that makes a melomel specifically a cyser type of melomel

i add black tea to all my ciders for tannin just steep 2-4 black teabags in a cup of water and add to primary

i also add fermaid and juice of half a lemon for citric acid.

i dont understand the tomato?

good luck and cheers

thank you, this is really good information. tomato was put there mostly as a joke, as i have so many in my garden im trying to find ways to use them lol
i didnt know that about ale yeast. i dont have any on hand or i'd use it, and my apples are almost unusable so i have to stick with the blanc. personally i dont mind a dry cider, but i may do some berry wine and freeze some apple juice for later. i freeze all of my berries before hand so no problem there.

 

[Graham H]

What are you using for temperature control? My first dozen-or-so batches of cider were done with some type of ale yeast, and (my) room temperature was too much for them. I rigged up a fermentation chamber, and that eliminated many of my problems. I agree that wine yeast will probably ferment dry, but I found that true of my ale yeast as well—at least, drier than I like. Stabilizing and backsweetening will fix this, but might create another problem—do you intend to make a carbonated cider, or still?

 

[Bobo1898]

I love Red Star Cote Des Blancs yeast for when I make cider. It's dry but still has residual sweetness. I typically use juice and 2-5% honey (or sugar if I feel like it). I don't think I've back-sweetened yet with it. I ferment it at 60 degrees and it lands at 1.006.

Nottingham yeast also leaves residual sweetness---1.008 to 1.010. Although I've only used this without temp control and let it run super hot---75 to 80 degrees.

Agree with @fluketamer on freezing berries and other fruits to kill off wild yeast. I would puree them. You could add them to primary, but I agree that you'll lose color and maybe even some flavor. I've added potassium sorbate to halt the yeast activity when backsweetening or adding fruit. You should get most of the color after this and flavor.

Cedar sounds like a fascinating one.

 

[Jonakr]

My go-to is ginger. Roughly 4 ounces pureed and boiled for a 5 gallon batch, put in a hop bag.

Strawberries, cranberries, cherries also work well.
I use Nottingham and S-04

 

[Rish]

tomato was put there mostly as a joke

https://northeastwinemaking.com/pages/tomato-wine

 

[fluketamer]

I also get better color and flavor backsweetening with juice after k sorb like bobo

 

[fluketamer]

I backsweetened this cider with blackberry juice and it was one of my favorites. Taste and color were on point

 

[fluketamer]

and this one was with bilberry juice a dark wild Eastern European blueberry the clarity was better than the picture shows.