Best thing to increase gravity of cider

[Srimmey]

I’m looking to make a pure outstanding apple cider.

I want to use an oak spiral in secondary while it’s clearing. Let it finish dry and stabilize. Then backsweeten and carbonate in the keg.

Challenge is, I like the abv to be around 10%. What is the best kind of sugar to add without taking away from that beautiful mouth full of apples flavor?

Things I was thinking of…
Brown sugar
Table sugar
Honey
Apple juice concentrate
Something better?

 

[HANKfxr]

I’m looking to make a pure outstanding apple cider.

I want to use an oak spiral in secondary while it’s clearing. Let it finish dry and stabilize. Then backsweeten and carbonate in the keg.

Challenge is, I like the abv to be around 10%. What is the best kind of sugar to add without taking away from that beautiful mouth full of apples flavor?

Things I was thinking of…
Brown sugar
Table sugar
Honey
Apple juice concentrate
Something better?

Table sugar, or corn sugar.

 

[pvtpublic]

Adding sugar, or weighing it on Jupiter

 

[madscientist451]

I’m looking to make a pure outstanding apple cider.

What is the best kind of sugar to add without taking away from that beautiful mouth full of apples flavor?

If you want outstanding cider, it all starts with what apples you are using, tree ripening, and then "sweating" them for 30-90 days after harvest.
Two weeks ago, I pressed some Ashmead's Kernal apples I sweated for 90 days and the juice came in at 1.080 so I'll get to 10% ABV without adding anything.
But back to your original question, I've found that refined sugar produces more of a "hot" alcohol note that is OK in small amounts but generally something I avoid, your taste preference will likely be different.
Perhaps try some 1 gallon test batches with Frozen apple juice concentrate, Honey and sugar and see what you like best. You also may prefer to blend the results.
If you want a bourbon barrel effect, soak Jack Daniel's barrel chips (sold for barbeque use) in bourbon for a few weeks or a few months, and add that to your cider to taste. That method will provide flavor as well as increase your ABV.

 

[Srimmey]

Adding sugar, or weighing it on Jupiter

Going to Jupiter sounds fun!

 

[Srimmey]

If you want outstanding cider, it all starts with what apples you are using, tree ripening, and then "sweating" them for 30-90 days after harvest.
Two weeks ago, I pressed some Ashmead's Kernal apples I sweated for 90 days and the juice came in at 1.080 so I'll get to 10% ABV without adding anything.
But back to your original question, I've found that refined sugar produces more of a "hot" alcohol note that is OK in small amounts but generally something I avoid, your taste preference will likely be different.
Perhaps try some 1 gallon test batches with Frozen apple juice concentrate, Honey and sugar and see what you like best. You also may prefer to blend the results.
If you want a bourbon barrel effect, soak Jack Daniel's barrel chips (sold for barbeque use) in bourbon for a few weeks or a few months, and add that to your cider to taste. That method will provide flavor as well as increase your ABV.

I’m with you on aging apples but not so much on the chips.

How do you store them so they don’t get funky?

 

[Chalkyt]

I have to agree with madscientist451. I get a better result using AJ or AJC for priming etc. I usually keep about 10% of juice back for this or even make my own AJC. It is fairly easy to do... just freeze the AJ then let it thaw, collecting the juice concentrate which drips out before the ice melts and makes it too watery. Generally, I get a SG above 1.012 or so which is nowhere near the concentration of commercial AJC but fine for may needs.

Our local commercial AJC is about 70g of sugar per 100g so you would only need this much per litre to increase your SG to over 1.070 which is what you need for an ABV approaching 10%. I imagine that your AJC would be a similar concentration.

 

[JulianDave]

I have to agree with madscientist451. I get a better result using AJ or AJC for priming etc. I usually keep about 10% of juice back for this or even make my own AJC. It is fairly easy to do... just freeze the AJ then let it thaw, collecting the juice concentrate which drips out before the ice melts and makes it too watery. Generally, I get a SG above 1.012 or so which is nowhere near the concentration of commercial AJC but fine for may needs.

Our local commercial AJC is about 70g of sugar per 100g so you would only need this much per litre to increase your SG to over 1.070 which is what you need for an ABV approaching 10%. I imagine that your AJC would be a similar concentration.

I agree. Making your own AJC is easy and it's something everyone should try at least once. That's about the only way OP can make a higher ABV but still have pure apple.

 

[Kickass]

For simplicity, I add brown sugar. Not purest path forward but works for me.

 

[CKuhns]

As mentioned above Apple Juice Concentrate for the win or in a pinch honey.

I do a faux ice cider with thanks to @bmd2k1 for the recipe. Using FAJC that turns out really well. See his recipe below. You can start with Apple juice and add FAJC to get to the Gravity desired.

Call it faux or cheaters ice cider...whatever the terms - it's some of my fav stuff!

Just firing up a fresh batch using D47, 28cans FAJC & 2gals Sams 100% AJ. Should be ready for cold crashing in about 4weeks & looking for an ABV in the low to mid 14% range. OG was 1.132. Using my 5.3gal speidel & will keep room temp in the low to mid 60s

 

[JulianDave]

Just firing up a fresh batch using D47, 28cans FAJC & 2gals Sams 100% AJ. Should be ready for cold crashing in about 4weeks & looking for an ABV in the low to mid 14% range. OG was 1.132. Using my 5.3gal speidel & will keep room temp in the low to mid 60s

This sounds awesome. I'd love to try making an ice cider with your own AJC made from freeze/thawing fresh cider. Not an inexpensive batch.

 

[Chalkyt]

Making your own AJC to increase the SG of juice isn't difficult so here is an insight to what can be achieved.

I guess I am always in a hurry when making my own AJC and probably don't leave it long enough for all the concentrated juice to steep out. But I have had a first pass produce a small quantity at around SG 1.120 (not the 1.012 that I said above... my typo fingers at it again!). After that, although it is still concentrated the remaining juice gets contaminated with melted ice and so it becomes a trade-off between concentration and volume so the "efficiency" of the process suffers. Nevertheless, it isn't hard to increase the sugar concentration (and hence the SG) by more than 50% to get a sugar concentration of around 300g per litre compared with the typical 130g/L from straight juice.

I note that Jolicoeur reports an example of SG 1.125 after two passes of partly frozen 1.055 apples by doing an initial pressing to get 1.086 then freeze concentrates this to get over 50% yield at SG1.125. I haven't gone to that effort, only bothering to get enough concentrate from one pass for my immediate need.

FYI the AJC that I can buy uses a different approach and is much more concentrated.

"Melrose Juice Concentrates are produced in Australia by extracting the juice from sound, mature fruits. The juice is then pasteurised and evaporated under vacuum.

The Organic Apple Juice Concentrate is certified organic by BFA.

Concentrating the juice by evaporation retains the natural sugars and minerals. There are no preservatives, artificial flavours, colours or sweeteners added. Concentrated apple juices contain approximately 72% natural sugars".
I

 

[Dland]

Back when I was putting up hard cider in 50 gal whisky, barrels I used honey. That is how my uncle taught me how to do it, and he made some darn good cider. Not fancy honey either, just the 5 gal/60# buckets one could buy from commercial bee keepers.

Higher gravity/ABV can be helpful when making cider in kegs, as it makes it less likey to go to vinagar, at least in short term.

No doubt other sweeteners make good cider too, and the cider's taste will vary depending on sugar type used. But if done well, it can all be good.

If raising ABV in naturally fermented cider, it is not a bad idea to add champagne or other higher alcohol tolerant yeast, as some of the natural yeast on apples can't ferment extras sugar all the way out.

At the peak of my cider production, a lot of it off went into champagne bottles with a charge & carbonated, made some pretty nice beverages. Would do it again if I ever have access to plenty of cider grade apples.

I guess most of this info is of no use to most, but if your read it, thanks, I enjoyed reminiscing as I wrote this.

 

[JulianDave]

Making your own AJC to increase the SG of juice isn't difficult so here is an insight to what can be achieved.

I guess I am always in a hurry when making my own AJC and probably don't leave it long enough for all the concentrated juice to steep out. But I have had a first pass produce a small quantity at around SG 1.120 (not the 1.012 that I said above... my typo fingers at it again!). After that, although it is still concentrated the remaining juice gets contaminated with melted ice and so it becomes a trade-off between concentration and volume so the "efficiency" of the process suffers. Nevertheless, it isn't hard to increase the sugar concentration (and hence the SG) by more than 50% to get a sugar concentration of around 300g per litre compared with the typical 130g/L from straight juice.

I note that Jolicoeur reports an example of SG 1.125 after two passes of partly frozen 1.055 apples by doing an initial pressing to get 1.086 then freeze concentrates this to get over 50% yield at SG1.125. I haven't gone to that effort, only bothering to get enough concentrate from one pass for my immediate need.

FYI the AJC that I can buy uses a different approach and is much more concentrated.

"Melrose Juice Concentrates are produced in Australia by extracting the juice from sound, mature fruits. The juice is then pasteurised and evaporated under vacuum.

The Organic Apple Juice Concentrate is certified organic by BFA.

Concentrating the juice by evaporation retains the natural sugars and minerals. There are no preservatives, artificial flavours, colours or sweeteners added. Concentrated apple juices contain approximately 72% natural sugars".
I

A technique I've used to make AJC may be different than others. I don't drain the concentrate after it's frozen the first time. I let the container completely thaw out. The sugars will naturally collect near the lower half of the container. Then carefully I put it back into the freezer (without stirring it up). By the second freeze you have almost all of the sugars at the bottom, so I thaw only enough to get the big ice plug off of the top. Don't have any SG data to know if doing it this way is any better.

 

[Chalkyt]

Thanks for that suggestion. It sounds worth trying because draining the concentrate takes a while and you need to keep watch or you might get too much melted ice which dilutes the concentrate. For me, the actual SG of the concentrate doesn't matter too much since I prime etc by adding the concentrate and measuring the resulting SG of the mixture to achieve whatever SG I am aiming for.

 

[Old Medic]

If you want outstanding cider, it all starts with what apples you are using, tree ripening, and then "sweating" them for 30-90 days after harvest.

We picked a couple bushels of Pink Ladys before Thanksgiving, and our fresh batch of juice was 1.056.
We pressed out the rest yesterday, and the this is dropped to 1.050.

 

[JulianDave]

Thanks for that suggestion. It sounds worth trying because draining the concentrate takes a while and you need to keep watch or you might get too much melted ice which dilutes the concentrate. For me, the actual SG of the concentrate doesn't matter too much since I prime etc by adding the concentrate and measuring the resulting SG of the mixture to achieve whatever SG I am aiming for.

Update. I took 1.5 gallons of store bought juice at 1.050 and freeze/thawed it according to my directions above and ended up with ~0.8 gallons of 1.078 cider. I think I could probably continue, but like you mentioned, you start to loose efficiency.

 

[epicarmyman101]

A technique I've used to make AJC may be different than others. I don't drain the concentrate after it's frozen the first time. I let the container completely thaw out. The sugars will naturally collect near the lower half of the container. Then carefully I put it back into the freezer (without stirring it up). By the second freeze you have almost all of the sugars at the bottom, so I thaw only enough to get the big ice plug off of the top. Don't have any SG data to know if doing it this way is any better.

If you froze it in a jug, but upside down, and then do the thaw/refreeze procedure, do you think it would drain out of the jug without too much dilution?

 

[SanPancho]

Something better?

This.
British Bittersweet Apple Cider Concentrate | MoreBeer

Absolutely delicious.

 

[sgreene820]

This.
British Bittersweet Apple Cider Concentrate | MoreBeer

Absolutely delicious.

It is. They should sell a 2-liter pack. I usually only make one or two ciders a year. Local apples can be sharp enough, but they are invariably not tannic enough to make aging your cider interesting. I bought the larger (5-liter?) pack. I used it all at once, and I'm afraid it will dominate that batch. Probably will need to blend.

 

[SanPancho]

I used it at 30% and it was pretty prominent. But it lacked acidity I think. Don’t do a lot of ciders but need to do that one again, maybe like 20%.

 

[madscientist451]

This.
British Bittersweet Apple Cider Concentrate | MoreBeer

Absolutely delicious.

I bought some, but never got around to using it, did you follow the directions on the More Beer Website?

 

[SanPancho]

I bought some, but never got around to using it, did you follow the directions on the More Beer Website?

No. Don’t recall seeing any. Posted a question here- most folks said blend it with regular juice. I’m not up on finer details of cider making, but I think some addition of acid would be enough to produce a great cider. Flavor was great, just a bit flat.

 

[cmac62]

This.
British Bittersweet Apple Cider Concentrate | MoreBeer

Absolutely delicious.

This sounds like a great addition to store bought AJ. I wonder if they have it in store? Next time I'm in the Riverside location I'm gonna ask.
Saturday, I put up 2 gals of cider. I used the Motts gal jugs and put 1 can of FAJC into each gal. If I recall it bumped the SG up about 20 pts to 1070 or so.

 

[KevinsCider]

I’m looking to make a pure outstanding apple cider.

I want to use an oak spiral in secondary while it’s clearing. Let it finish dry and stabilize. Then backsweeten and carbonate in the keg.

Challenge is, I like the abv to be around 10%. What is the best kind of sugar to add without taking away from that beautiful mouth full of apples flavor?

Things I was thinking of…
Brown sugar
Table sugar
Honey
Apple juice concentrate
Something better?

For my imperial-style ciders, I like to use 100% apple juice concentrate to raise my ABV. About 2 cans of concentrate per gallon of apple juice should get you around 10% ABV.

 

[SanPancho]

This sounds like a great addition to store bought AJ. I wonder if they have it in store? Next time I'm in the Riverside location I'm gonna ask.
Saturday, I put up 2 gals of cider. I used the Motts gal jugs and put 1 can of FAJC into each gal. If I recall it bumped the SG up about 20 pts to 1070 or so.

Can’t recall for sure but I think I got it by mail. Shoot an email or give them a call tomorrow if you don’t wanna waste a trip. I do that now as SOP since our store up here seems to be a bit iffy on stocking the more low volume items. Not sure if it’s an option for retail account but I usually have my online orders held for will call pickup at the local store if I’m not in a hurry. No shipping fee, truck usually comes from warehouse on Thursday.