Hello there, I'm fairly new to brewing (only have 1 batch of beer, and 2 of cider under my belt) and have been looking around for some decent hard cider recipes that seemed pretty easy to throw together, and after comparing a few, I've come up with the below:
5 gallons of AJ
Nottingham yeast
1 pound(?) of dextrose
I was going to combine them in my 5 gallon primary, keep it there for about a month, then transfer to a bottling bucket, add a can (or two if it's not a bad idea) of FAJC, and some apple flavoring in case it's lost its taste, then bottle.
I just have a few questions about this...
1. Does this seem like it'd be pretty decent? The only "cider" I've made in the past was essentially just apfelwein, and I wanted to try to come up with something more bubbly, crisp, and lightly sweetened (and drinkable, as the "apfelwein" was essentially just apple-ish hooch... Didn't taste too great, but after some Splenda, and some courage it knocked you on your butt)
2. Should one lb of dextrose be enough? I don't want it to be too high, maybe like, 8% tops
3. Would only one can of concentrate be enough to carb it at all without worrying about bottle bombs?
4. Doing all this, and adding the concentrate, in order to keep it semi sweet should I add an artificial sweetener? I know I could suspend the yeast, but I'd like at least SOME carbonation, and I don't fully grasp bottle pasteurizing
5. Should I add any enzymes/pectin in this? I wasn't sure if they're nice for a way to assist with taking a cider from "eh" to better, or if they're more of a "I've already got this cider pretty decent, and they help to make it better" thing
Sorry for the long post! I just thought I'd try to get everything listed at once
5 gallons of AJ
Nottingham yeast
1 pound(?) of dextrose
I was going to combine them in my 5 gallon primary, keep it there for about a month, then transfer to a bottling bucket, add a can (or two if it's not a bad idea) of FAJC, and some apple flavoring in case it's lost its taste, then bottle.
I just have a few questions about this...
1. Does this seem like it'd be pretty decent? The only "cider" I've made in the past was essentially just apfelwein, and I wanted to try to come up with something more bubbly, crisp, and lightly sweetened (and drinkable, as the "apfelwein" was essentially just apple-ish hooch... Didn't taste too great, but after some Splenda, and some courage it knocked you on your butt)
2. Should one lb of dextrose be enough? I don't want it to be too high, maybe like, 8% tops
3. Would only one can of concentrate be enough to carb it at all without worrying about bottle bombs?
4. Doing all this, and adding the concentrate, in order to keep it semi sweet should I add an artificial sweetener? I know I could suspend the yeast, but I'd like at least SOME carbonation, and I don't fully grasp bottle pasteurizing
5. Should I add any enzymes/pectin in this? I wasn't sure if they're nice for a way to assist with taking a cider from "eh" to better, or if they're more of a "I've already got this cider pretty decent, and they help to make it better" thing
Sorry for the long post! I just thought I'd try to get everything listed at once