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Hey everyone! After posting about my first try and receiving lots of useful help I decided to have another go at homemade refreshments! The first batch...well, as alot of people said it sort of turned out like a wet bread flavor or "plain" beer if it could be called that. This time I'm trying something different and hope to get some feedback and more helpful tips. This time around I have the same setup; (2) 5 gal containers with yeast/sugar/water mix but added raisins (nutrients) and a bunch of peeled apples to each. The process is going strong which is good. Hopefully with the plan I have it will come out as a kind of "light cider" after I add more apples and apple juice/cider down the line. I know this isn't standard cider procedure. Anyone have any tips or recommendation for a second timer? Thanks in advance!
 
Peeled apples aren't going to do a whole lot for you. Even plain apple juice, once fermented dry, doesn't have a lot of 'appley' flavor. Even with raisins, this probably could have used some yeast nutrients. I bet the gas coming out of the airlock is very sulfur smelling, and the final product may retain that.

If you want cheap and easy, look up the Apfelwein recipe here
 
I wasn't completely sure about the apples, as I've read conflicting things. If anything it's more sugar and maybe nutrients for the yeast at least? Once I find (around me) some non pasteurized apple juice/cider I was gonna add that into mix as well, hoping for more sugars/fermentation and taste. Then maybe again before the "bottling" phase.
 
That recipe looks pretty great! I think I'm gonna try that asap. Would it be worth it to try using a reduced cider/juice with sugar as a primer? To try and help with the dryness?
 
That recipe looks pretty great! I think I'm gonna try that asap. Would it be worth it to try using a reduced cider/juice with sugar as a primer? To try and help with the dryness?

You could. I keg, so I backsweeten it with some cranberry juice concentrate. With kegging there is no worry of bottle bombs. With bottling, I doubt the amount of juice used for priming would change flavor much, and yeast are just going to eat that too.
 
So far the batch is going well, new batch (just juice, cider, sugar S0-4) is going slow but going. With the first two I figure I'll heat some juice with sugar, cinnamon, anise then mix it with different ratios when I bottle, then sample over time to see how they turn out.
 
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