Italian soda flavoring

Hi all,

As I was cleaning the kitchen up a bit yesterday I was putting away our Italian cream soda flavorings (Torani brand I think) and wondered if anyone here has tried adding a different flavor to the cider with these? They're sugar-free except for the non-fermentable sucralose.

 

I say try it and let us know

 

A bit of a resurrection here but...

I tried it and was very happy with the results. I was donating to a local brewfest and didn't have time to make a beer so I decided on a cider. I found Tree Top 3 Apple Blend juice on sale so I picked up 5 gallons worth.

While my S-04 yeast was rehydrating, I added 2 teaspoons of yeast nutrient and 4 gallons of juice in the fermentor. I would pour in a pint, shake the bottle till it was foamy, and pour in the rest. A couple days later when fermentation was booming, I did the same thing for the last gallon except I added 2 cups of table sugar. I let that go 2 weeks at 62F then ramped it up to 70F over the next week before cold crashing for 4 days.

I had wanted to back-sweeten with a frozen juice concentrate but wasn't inspired until my mom came back from a baby shower talking about how much everyone loved the mangos in the fruit salad. Good luck finding frozen mango juice concentrate though...

I finally settled on Torani's Mango syrup. I've used Torini's before to make soda for my kids but I had never put it in a beer or cider before. I thought I was being conservative adding a cup of Torani's as I racked the cider to my keg but it was quite a bit sweeter than I like.

It seemed to really hit the spot at the brewfest though. I have never heard a crowd rave about any tap like that in the 5 years I have poured at brewfests. We had 8 brews at our booth and 80% of the people were asking for Mango Burstin' Cider. Several people were getting a glass and going directly to the end of the line so they could drink it in line, then order it again. 90 minutes into the event, the keg emptied and you could hear the collective groan as word spread through the crowd. :rockin: