Apple Blueberry hard cider

[Schott703]

Back in October I fermented 5 gallons of fresh pressed cider. I then fermented with English cider yeast. Once fermented out, I racked into another Carboy and filled the headspace with 5 lbs if frozen blueberries. One month later I racked a third time. As of Now, Very blue, and clean. This weekend I want to keg carbonate and later bottle. Has any body ever tried this before? I'm wondering what I should expect for taste as it ages. I found some pure blueberry concentrate and now I wonder if I should add that as a back sweetener

 

[avocadopit]

Mmm no matter what I think that'll be very tasty combo!

 

[bleme]

Try a sample.

I haven't tried blueberries in cider yet but at a pound per gallon they were barely detectable in my wheat beer. Everyone thought it tasted kind of fruity but not enough flavor to pin down what kind of fruit.

 

[WilliamSlayer]

Yes, good point. Have you given it a taste test? What does your palate think of it?

 

[Schott703]

I tasted it when I pulled it off the blueberries 2 months ago. It tasted different then a hard cider with the same yeast and no blueberries, but not even a hint of blueberry. It just tasted "different". I have read that with fruit in the secondary it can take months for that flavor to pop back out. What I'm really trying to avoid is adding flavor by concentrate, if 6 months from now it will be there naturally.

 

[Verge]

I would personally refrain from backsweetening in this case. I've never made anything where I've added berries in the secondary stage, but I've made some very berried meads. I never expect the berry flavour to hit me like a ton of bricks, but it changes the flavours of the brew in more subtle ways that may take some long aging to appreciate.

 

[Schott703]

That's the answer I was looking for. I don't like a sweet cider, I don't want a blueberry shake. I was looking for more if a typical hard cider with a twinge of something in the background of blueberry, we will see

 

[Verge]

I look forward to hearing how it turns out

 

[Schott703]

I racked 3 gallons of my apple blueberry into a bottling bucket over the weekend. Not drinkable yet, very harsh no hint of blueberry in the taste. I'm a little concerned I may have wasted 5 gallons of cider. I added 8 oz of pure blueberry concentrate I found at the health food store. This gave the background a "hint of blueberry" I'm keg carbonating it now. I have the same type of experiment I kegged as well with rasberry. Color looks great - hint of red. I could taste a faint flavor of raspberries, hopefully as it ages it stands out. I added 1.5 lbs of cane sugar when I fermented to boost ABV, and right now the alcohol comes through way to strong. I added 1 can if apple juice concentrate to the 2.5 gallons before I kegged. It did take some of the harsh edge off.