hopped cider brewing

[mike_57401]

Hello.

My brother in law has gluten issues, and so avoids beer these days. He does drink a fair amount of Angry Orchard (AO) cider. I recently brewed a 1 gallon trial batch with Mott's apple juice and S-04 yeast, stabilized, and backsweetened to about 1.020 with apple juice. He liked it as much or more than AO.

He also mentioned that AO's "Hoppin Mad" hopped cider is his favorite (not made anymore). I think the hops maybe remind him of beer? Inspired by my earlier success, I figure I'll try to brew a hopped cider.

It looks like AO used strisselspalt (classic lager type hop) and galaxy hops (fruity). I'm guessing their hopping rate was pretty low, from my distant memory of tasting it.

My instinct is to brew a 5 gallon cider, with store bought juice as before, but then dry hop with about 2 ounces of some hops. Maybe mosaic/el dorado? Maybe cascade/citra? This would probably add more hop flavor than AO, but don't know their hopping rates. I'd chemically stabilize, and then backsweeten (probably half as much as before, to about 1.010, due to rumored effect of hops enhancing sweetness of a cider).

Anyone have thoughts on this?

 

[RPh_Guy]

I would start with 0.5oz to 1oz of dry hops with 1.010 to 1.015.
It's not difficult to add bitterness using a hop tea, if you want.
Everyone has different tastes. I would like the Spalt you mentioned, and Saaz is my favorite. Maybe Kent Goldings or Challenger (you're using an English yeast). The American hops would be fine too, if you guys are into those.

You could also consider brewing some GF beer.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/forums/gluten-free-brewing.164/

Or mead or wine.

Cheers

 

[mike_57401]

RPh, Thanks for the thoughts. Have you made hopped cider with Saaz? Just curious, as I'm having difficulty imagining how it would taste. I've mostly seen hopped ciders made with IPA type hops (galaxy, citra, mosaic, etc), which I why I was headed in that direction.

I'm well acquainted with the beer side of things, having homebrewed for 20 years now. As far as GF brewing, I did brew an extract batch with sorghum syrup, which I found disappointing. I add clarity ferm to reduce gluten in all my brews these days, but my BIL can't drink too much of these type beers without issue.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Czech Saaz are described as spicy, herbal, earthy, and have that tasty noble character.
I'm definitely not a hop head. The one time I dry-hopped (a beer), I used Saaz and it was very good for my taste.
I like spicy apples in cider and so I think spicy herbal hops would work, and they won't overpower the apple taste.

My point was that there are a lot of options for hops depending on the flavors you want. Fruity, spicy, floral, herbal, earthy, citrus, grassy, resiny, etc.

If it were me I would split the batch after fermentation and try different hops in each before bottling

 

[mike_57401]

Split batch is a good idea. Might have to keg in two kegs and split dry hops that way.

I'm thinking "fruity" like citra/el dorado would complement, especially with a yeast that throws some esters. However, I think you're right about using a smaller dose in any case.

 

[ten80]

I've had bad luck hopping very dry ciders (FG <1.002) with high acid as the hop flavor is just too intense and there's little sweetness to balance it out. I think I learned that the drier the cider, the less hops should be used.

For example, I used 1 oz citra in 3 gallons and it was pretty grassy, vegetal, and bitter in my "French-style" cider. 1 oz of Pekko in a malted cider with a FG around 1.005 was much better with fruity notes and a decent balance.