Adding Flavors

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D-west

D-west

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I searched and haven't come up with anything, I recently had a Ace pineapple hard cider and enjoyed how different it was. I have kegs and I was thinking about experimenting with some frozen pineapple concentrate.

I have never used frozen concentrate, I am about two weeks away from racking to my keg with some aj concentrate and trying that out. Here is my cider:

1.049 og Langers Apple juice
pectic enzyme
yeast nutrient
1/2tsp acid blend
Cote de blanc yeast
1/7/15 it was at 1.002
1/16 I racked to secondary
Tasted it and it had a strong alcohol kick, obviously very dry, not much apple flavor to it and it was still a little sweet.

Has anyone here experimented with any other flavors of frozen concentrate? If so what were your results?
 
I use frozen apple juice concentrate (FAJC) in most of my ciders/graff. I like to add it thawed, but not reconstituted, to the juice instead of plain sugar. It effectively "juices up" the juice. It adds more sugar of course, but also adds more apple flavor. I usually add 2-4 cans of FAJC to a 6 gallon batch, depending on the recipe.

How much concentrate you add is dependent upon how much of that flavor you want in your end product. Usually 1 can will make 48 oz (3 pints) of juice when reconstituted. Will you be able to taste that in 5 or 6 gallons of apple juice? Will you want more pineapple flavor than that?

You can do taste tests on a small scale if you do the math, or you could simply add the pineapple concentrate to the apple juice in the fermentor & sample it, adding more till you reach your desired flavor profile. Then add the rest of your ingredients & begin fermentation.
Regards, GF.
 
Thanks for the reply! Correct me if I am wrong but you are talking about adding the concentrate to your primary?
 
Worried? No. Aware? Yes. 1st thing to do is find out how much pineapple flavor you want. You can always use juice instead of concentrate & you can dilute the pineapple with water if you feel the need. You can also reduce some of the acid if you feel the need by using calcium carbonate or you can reduce the malic acid by using 71-B yeast, which will metabolize some of the malic acid during fermentation. You could also try a malolactic fermentation to further reduce acid.

A few years ago I made a cherry/apple/black currant wine using only fruit, juice & sugar. At 1st it was VERY tart, but as time went on it got better & better; until it was quite tasty. The primary acid in black currants is citric acid, the same primary acid in pineapple. Both are also high in ascorbic acid (vitamin C), Some of the ascorbic acid (which is also an antioxidant) will age out.

I used apple juice as a base & added the fruit (sweet cherries), a qt. of tart cherry juice & 1.5 qts. black currant juice. The black currant dominated, the cherry was barely noticeable & the apple flavor was completely undetectable. I only mention this to point out that the pineapple flavor will likely dominate the apple flavor, and that some of the acid you're concerned about will age out.

Do a taste test with some apple & pineapple juice, it won't be exact, but it'll give you a pretty good idea as to the ratio that will work best for you. Do the math for whatever size batch you want to make & have at it. I'd suggest you use the 71-B yeast & be sure to add DAP (diammonium phosphate) & yeast nutrient, keep the fermentation temp on the low side for the yeast strain & let it work for you. I'll bet you get a tasty end product. Might take a bit of aging, depending on the ratios, but I think you'll be happy with the results.
Regards, GF.
 
gratus fermentatio said:
Worried? No. Aware? Yes. 1st thing to do is find out how much pineapple flavor you want. You can always use juice instead of concentrate & you can dilute the pineapple with water if you feel the need. You can also reduce some of the acid if you feel the need by using calcium carbonate or you can reduce the malic acid by using 71-B yeast, which will metabolize some of the malic acid during fermentation. You could also try a malolactic fermentation to further reduce acid.

A few years ago I made a cherry/apple/black currant wine using only fruit, juice & sugar. At 1st it was VERY tart, but as time went on it got better & better; until it was quite tasty. The primary acid in black currants is citric acid, the same primary acid in pineapple. Both are also high in ascorbic acid (vitamin C), Some of the ascorbic acid (which is also an antioxidant) will age out.

I used apple juice as a base & added the fruit (sweet cherries), a qt. of tart cherry juice & 1.5 qts. black currant juice. The black currant dominated, the cherry was barely noticeable & the apple flavor was completely undetectable. I only mention this to point out that the pineapple flavor will likely dominate the apple flavor, and that some of the acid you're concerned about will age out.

Do a taste test with some apple & pineapple juice, it won't be exact, but it'll give you a pretty good idea as to the ratio that will work best for you. Do the math for whatever size batch you want to make & have at it. I'd suggest you use the 71-B yeast & be sure to add DAP (diammonium phosphate) & yeast nutrient, keep the fermentation temp on the low side for the yeast strain & let it work for you. I'll bet you get a tasty end product. Might take a bit of aging, depending on the ratios, but I think you'll be happy with the results.
Regards, GF.
Click to expand...

Thank you! Sounds like a pineapple cider will be my next batch, along with a batch of skeeter pee. Probably start off with one gallon and see how it turns out. I will keep a log on here, seems to be more fun than my brew notebook :)
 
D-west said:
Thank you! Sounds like a pineapple cider will be my next batch, along with a batch of skeeter pee. Probably start off with one gallon and see how it turns out. I will keep a log on here, seems to be more fun than my brew notebook :)
Click to expand...


How has your pineapple cider progressed? I tried the ACE pineapple on tap at The Yard House restaurant and it was tasty. I may wait until I have a nice batch of neutral dry cider to experiment with. Just wondering if you were able to keep the pineapple funk from getting out of hand. :D
 
It was not what I expected. It was drinkable, but a lot of the pineapple flavor I was looking for was lost.

I am going to attempt this again with the same process I make my sweet ciders.

Let them ferment dry, I rack to secondary, add sulfites and let it clear

Once clear, I rack to my keg, add my concentrate and force carb. and bottle about 2 weeks later.

I will let you know how that turns out, I have a cyser in primary right now that I am going to attempt this with. Should be interesting!
 
I have a pineapple apple cider (see recipes called pineapple apple apple cider). Smells great. Check out the thread
 

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