Bought fresh cider. Open to suggestions.

[Fixmy59bug]

Okay I drove up to the local apple orchard and picked up some fresh pressed apple cider. It is cloudy, unpasteurized, and honestly quite tasty.

But after making a couple different types of mead, I would like to do something with at least one of the two gallons of cider. They are already in glass carboys, so fermenting should be easy.

I am open to suggestions and recipes if you would be so kind.

I already have a bottle if apfelwein fermenting using regular apple juice. Would cider as a base make a drastic enough difference to warrant another bottle of apfelwein?

 

[GinKings]

My suggestion would be to try something a little different than apfelwine. I would suggest adding raw or brown sugar, instead of corn sugar, and possibly a different yeast.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

You might try a graff: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/graff-malty-slightly-hopped-cider-117117/

Or you might try a cyser. Or, like ginkings mentioned, try some brown sugar, or even a wee bit of molasses (a little goes a long way) Maybe adding sugar in the form of frozen apple juice concentrate (thawed) or even some spice, like a cinnamon stick (avoid powdered spices) placed in your secondary for a week or so, depending on your desired level of spice flavour.

Changing up the yeast can give you different results too, try an ale yeast for a cider/graff, or a wine yeast for a cyser. You could also add some other fruit or juice, like raisins, or even fresh cranberries. Just some ideas.
Regards, GF.

 

[Wvbrewer77]

I made a recipie one time from the Wine Makers Recipie Hand book by Raymond Massaccesi for cider. I cannot remember the whole recipie, but you used pectic ensyme to aid in clearing before you pitched the yeast. I think it said to add metabisulfite at the same time to kill any wild yeast. Natural cider has plenty of wild yeast in there. then 24 hours later pitch your yeast. I used Ec-1118 champagne yeast. Ferment to dry and secondary to clear. Bottle as you wish still or prime for carbonation. The book has the complet recipie. I hope this helps.

 

[Revvy]

I got great advice several weeks ago in my thread of the same topic...$40 worth of Cider (2-gal honeycrisp/2gal blended.)