1 Gallon Cider Experiments

[wmcc75]

I just made my first small test batch of apple cider yesterday going well so far. Its just store brand juice with a packet of munton and fison ale yeast I had laying around. If it goes well I will definitely be trying some of these recipes out thanks for the great info and ideas.

 

[Safa]

Good luck guys!

 

[robbyhicks]

Ok so wife and I were talking last night on the way home and she reminded me that I needed to get making the caramel apple cider that I made last year... she wanted a batch to celebrate our new one in october plus a well aged one for the holidays and a friend asked me to make one... anyway I diverge from this topic...

I mentioned I thought it would be interesting to do a pumpkin spice blend... I was thinking actual pumpkin spice blend you add to the pumpkin filling hut she informed me that she had recently seen a "recipe" for which whole spices and ratios were used so I could get a better reaction/absorbtion in secondary with them... so im thinking 1gal experiment, thats why I bought the stuff right...

Then, I dont know where this came from, but doing a java cider... either making a 2-4 oz esspresso shot as bottling or cracking beans and soaking in secondary...

Thoughts comments etc?

 

[Safa]

I would be careful with the spices just because sometimes those pumpkin spices can leave a bitter aftertaste that I'm not fond of. Otherwise sounds like a great plan!

Also, java cider sounds incredible.
I like the beans idea more than the espresso, but not sure why. Hell, a vanilla stick an coffee beans sounds good too!

 

[robbyhicks]

Thanks safa! Have you used the pumpkin spice or similar blend before?

I love the vanilla idea...

 

[Safa]

Thanks safa! Have you used the pumpkin spice or similar blend before?

I love the vanilla idea...

Only in beers I'm afraid. I have had a pumpkin spiced cider once before though, and it was pretty decent, just not really my cup of tea!

 

[DisplacedSailor]

Got 4 one gallons jugs out of primary this morning. 10 day primary (forgot to take initial gravity) that left me with 1.010, 1.015, 1.000 and 0.990. Three were the same juice, winn-dixie brand and one was musselman's apple cider. All got the same yeast, 2g Mangrove Jack's M02 cider yeast with 1lb of white sugar stirred in to varying levels of dissolution. I figure that I added to much sugar and didn't do a good job of ensuring it was properly dissolved. The two with higher FG's actually taste really good and I'm going to try doing the caramel cider with one and backsweeten with frozen raspberry concentrate in the other. The other two will be aging experiments with the 0.990 one getting 4oz of dried sweetened cranberries and the 1.000 one getting 4oz of honey and 1oz of fresh sliced ginger, both racked to secondary. 3 of the primary jugs I just poured another gallon of juice on top of the yeast with 4oz of honey each. Gave good swirls to each for better distribution.

Any thoughts or ideas for improvement or flavors?

 

[Safa]

Those all sound very interesting DisplacedSailor! Let us know how they turn out!

Started a new experiment yesterday, a gallon cider with cinnamon and crushed coffee beans. Who knows whats going to happen!

 

[robbyhicks]

Experiments all sound great! Very interested in the one primed with honey and the coffee... I've been kicking around the idea of a secondary with some cold brewed strong coffee, I've got some that my wife picked up in jamacia... I'm also gonna try some of lallemands belle saison for yeast...

 

[DisplacedSailor]

Those all sound very interesting DisplacedSailor! Let us know how they turn out!

Caramel cider: came out great, the wife's personal favorite.

Raspberry cider: it was good but overpowering with sweetness from using one can frozen concentrate for one gallon cider. I felt it benefitted from carbonation, the wife dislikes any carbonation. When I make it again, it'll be at least 2 gallons to one can of concentrate.

Cranberry cider: another favorite of the wife's, not bad but not a favorite of mine. Very tart and dry. If you really like cranberries, give it a shot.

Honey Ginger: by far my personal favorite. This one could probably benefit from some bottle aging in order to mellow the ginger heat but I enjoyed it after immediate bottling.

You can find specifics about the cranberry and honey ginger here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/honey-ginger-cranberry-429638/#post5475480

 

[Safa]

Just finished a coffee cinnamon cider, it has potential. Stay tuned for updated recipe and results as I churn out a few more of these tests to find the right balance.

Also be on the look out for a bastard version of a graff - a coffee milt stout cider

 

[StoutLover]

Sorry if I missed it, what were the caramel and maple recipes you used?

 

[rocketsan]

Also be on the look out for a bastard version of a graff - a coffee milt stout cider

Milk stout cider???? Do tell; I'm all ears!

 

[TheClairvoyant138]

Also be on the look out for a bastard version of a graff - a coffee milt stout cider

Finish the story, Man!

 

[robbyhicks]

Bottled my apple juice with lallemand belle saison yeast... no sugar before og nothing to back sweeten... 1.052 og finished at 1.004 for an abv of about 6.4%... well that's the good news... bad news is I had my second daughter a month ago now and basically forgot the batch in the closet for 6.5 weeks... I don't think there is an infection... just dry and sour... I think the sour is from the saison yeast... I'm gonna do another batch and try to be more dilligent in a 10 - 14 day ferment...

 

[Safa]

Afraid the milk stout cider was a complete disaster from beginning to end. I will revisit it again someday, but for now I'm just tired of trying!

As for other experiments in the works:

1)
Cinnamon coffee cider has been coming along nicely. After a few itterations we are homing in on the *right* way to add coffee flavouring. Adding beans straight to the fermenter is a serious no no for flavour. Cold Brewed is the way to go. Will report back once I have a recipe locked down.

2)
My original test batch of my new favourite was 1/2 a gallon apple juice, a cup of maple syrup, a handful of untoasted american white oak chips, an ounce of rum, and 6 ounces of lactose.

It turned out too sweet (6 ounces of lactose in 1/2 a gallon adds around 22 gravity points, way higher than I like), but overall it was fantastic. a little boozy because I added the rum in straight, and the oaky flavour was there but too light to be truly enjoyed.

3)
I have a 10.5% cider on the go now, and the original test batch was beyond wonderful. I have super high hopes for this full sized and slightly tweaked batch. Now, this one is special, a little expensive, but special.

5 gallons generic apple juice,
64 ounces of grade b maple syrup,
champagne yeast (fermented at 60 in order to slow it down and hopefully preserve a lot of apple and maple flavour).
Now heres the kicker: I roasted some oak chips to a deep dark beautiful vanilla smelling hue, and then proceeded to soak them in dark Caribbean rum for two weeks. I will then be 'dry hopping' my cider with this oak (after letting the booze dry off of course, otherwise the cider would end up tasting very boozy).
I have pre-sweetened with lactose. I added 1.5lb to give me an estimated FG of 1.009, right around my favourite level.

I'll post back with results!

 

[robbyhicks]

Sounds great safa... im asumimg your using the lactose so you can let the cider ferment out and not worry about the final product being too dry... does it seem to pair up pretty well? Does ot seem to add body to the cider? Do you think Malto would have the same effect? Very interesting for sure...

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[Safa]

Personally I think it pairs wonderfully, it definitely adds some body and allows some sweetness to remain like you mentioned. Once this full size batch it being served to long time cider drinkers I will report back with their reactions.

Maltodextrin would add body, but from what I've heard (no personal experience) it doesn't add any sweetness. Might be worth a try though. As far as I know, you could add lactose or malto at any point, so maybe do a small test batch of regular cider, split it and stir in varying amounts of each to determine which you prefer.


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[Paps]

subdiggity

 

[mbtmm]

I'm interested in that coffee cider recipe. Sounds odd and interesting.


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[StoutLover]

Sorry if I missed it, what were the caramel and maple recipes you used?

Thought I'd bump my question up.

 

[robbyhicks]

If you were refering to my post about the caramel... the one I prefered was...
5gal batch
5.25 gal apple juice
2 lbs sugar
1 packet nottingham yeast
Ferment 10 days, rack to secondary with 2 packets mulling spices for 5 days, bottle
Backsweeten @ bottle with caramel syrup (1c. Water & 1c. Brown sugar simmered down to ~3/4c.) And 3 room temp frozen apple juice concentrate

If you want sparkling keep bottles @ room temp for 1-5 days (use a pet indicator bottle) and either pasteurize or cold crash

I usualy do still ciders and just cold store my bottles

If I left anything out let me know

 

[robbyhicks]

Safa or whomever was doing the coffee experiment... what did you think? Do you think adding cold brewed coffee with the primary must, add to secondary or add at bottling? Or do I need to get off my butt and brew some coffee cider?

 

[Safa]

Robbyhicks, thanks for the recipe! Stoutlover, I assume that's the caramel one you were talking about? Not sure which maple one you are referring to?

As for the coffee cider, I'll let you know when I've made one I like!


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[Safa]

Well, unfortunately my coffee cider experiments are halted for the moment, life got in the way and my cider developed some mold! I didn't want to mess with it, so I just dumped it . Moving to Alabama in about two weeks, so all brewing is completely stopped until settled.

I do however have excellent news regarding my imperial cider.We kicked the keg in one day, and everyone was delightfully hammered!

Recipe:
5 gallons cheap crappy apple juice
1.5lbs lactose
64 fluid ounces of grade B maple syrup
1lb dark toasted oak chips (into primary 1 week before kegging)
Champagne Yeast
Fermented at 60 degrees for three? weeks. Maybe four. Cant remember!

*oak chips were soaked in water ovnernight, then toasted in the oven at 400 until deep brown/slightly singed in places (deep vanilla smell). They were then thrown into a mason jar and covered up with some dark island rum to soak for a few weeks. I dried the chips out before adding to primary by straining and then putting them in a brown paper bag to waft until completely dry.

The lactose dd its job beautifully. It raised FG by 9 gravity points in theory, and the sweetness of the cider was absolutely spot on. Not too sweet, not dry, right in the middle where drinkability is at its best. I will say though, that the maple syrup flavour was not noticeable at all. I dont know if it contributed any complexity to the taste, but there was zero colour or flavour that I could personally pick out.

The theoretical ABV was 10.5 I believe (if I did my calculations correctly), and it certainly played out that way. A few buddies had three glasses of the stuff and were absolutely flying.

The biggest surprise for me, was that this cider was delicious within a month. Usually high gravity stuff needs to age out, but this came out of the primary swinging. Not sure why, but I'm not arguing! Maybe the oak chips? Anyway, happy brewing.

 

[tom83]

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