Caramel Apple Hard Cider

[TheNewGuy2]

Knowing how water reacts with oil I am not sure this would be great. Though as a solvent alcohol might help with that. I would advise no make the extract man! but I have zero experience so you should probably wait for the experienced!

 

[ajohnson153]

Knowing how water reacts with oil I am not sure this would be great. Though as a solvent alcohol might help with that. I would advise no make the extract man! but I have zero experience so you should probably wait for the experienced!

Since alcohol is a solvent I had also considered making my own cinnamon extract by adding the oil to vodka, thinking that perhaps the oil would dissolve in the vodka better than adding it directly.

 

[brewski09]

Since alcohol is a solvent I had also considered making my own cinnamon extract by adding the oil to vodka, thinking that perhaps the oil would dissolve in the vodka better than adding it directly.

I do this with ground spices. You still have oil if you add the oil to the alcohol but you can strain off the ground spices after extraction with the alcohol.


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[ajohnson153]

I do this with ground spices. You still have oil if you add the oil to the alcohol but you can strain off the ground spices after extraction with the alcohol.


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So, should I make a tincture with ground cinnamon and vodka and just run it through a coffee filter to get the ground cinnamon out? I'm just worried that I won't have time for flavor to develop using the ground spice and alcohol method. I'm sort of on a time crunch to get this done in time for holiday parties.

 

[brewski09]

The cinnamon kicks in quite quickly. I think I had enough overnight. I also probably used more cinnamon than I needed. I keep it in a mason jar now for spice additions in clones/spin offs of beers like Mexican cake and bomb!

Just make sure you don't use too cheap of vodka/rum. I've used the super cheap vodka and run it through a brita about 30 times and it was okay, but a smooth starting product will always be better.

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[TexasWine]

I'd recommend making a tincture with cinnamon sticks and vodka. You can add it to taste after it's done fermenting. That should be plenty of time to make the tincture.

 

[cdoebler]

I've been using cinnamon extract and putting a lot more than the recipe calls for since I like cinnamon flavor. Everyone who's tried it loves it. Says it's similar to the "Fireball" whiskey.

How much more are you using? I'm trying to make mine closer to the angry orchard cinnful for the wife but scared I'm going to overdue do it.

 

[CorwinGraves]

Maybe a silly question and possibly answered somewhere within this massive thread, but I assume you don't need to add the apple juice concentrate if going for a still cider or if kegging, correct? I'm assuming the concentrate is to provide sugar for natural carbonation.

Appreciate someone confirming this for me. Thanks.

 

[brewski09]

Or just to back sweeten the final product which can be done with a still cider too.


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[spclarke]

Made my second batch of this last week using fresh unpasteurized cider. Added more sugar and my target is 10.5% abv

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

Maybe a silly question and possibly answered somewhere within this massive thread, but I assume you don't need to add the apple juice concentrate if going for a still cider or if kegging, correct? I'm assuming the concentrate is to provide sugar for natural carbonation.

Appreciate someone confirming this for me. Thanks.

The brown sugar and cans of FAJC are for backsweetening and providing sugar for carbonation if desired. If you want a still cider, either 1) kill the yeast, or 2) immediately refrigerate the cider (it must be kept cold from then on) or 3) immediately pastuerize (I prefer the dishwasher method).

 

[CorwinGraves]

The brown sugar and cans of FAJC are for backsweetening and providing sugar for carbonation if desired. If you want a still cider, either 1) kill the yeast, or 2) immediately refrigerate the cider (it must be kept cold from then on) or 3) immediately pastuerize (I prefer the dishwasher method).

Great - answers my question. Thanks.

 

[pfowl01]

What is the dishwasher method?

 

[Hop_Head_from_Connecticut]

Run the bottles through the dishwasher. The heat kills the yeast so they won't over carb.

 

[Hop_Head_from_Connecticut]

It works well. I didn't run them right away, and I had a couple of blowouts.

 

[TwoJollyRanchers]

Hi guys,

Sorry for what is most likely a repeat question but I'm a little bit confused about the last few steps in this recipe. I'm just about two weeks in and ready to move on to the bottling bucket part.

I'm going for a carbonated cider so I was planning on simply transferring to a bottling bucket, adding the 5 cans of frozen concentrate and the caramel syrup, and then bottling.

Would I be ok just doing this? The recipe talks about carbing bottles and stovetop pasteurizing and I'm not quite sure if I need to do this (or how aside from following the linked stovetop pasteurize method) and what the benefits of each would be.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

First off, welcome to the forum

Are you sure it's done fermenting? That'd be the first step. Since you'll be pasteurizing (more on that in a second), it's not as crucial as it is with beer that you be sure it's done, but it is definitely best practice.

If you plan on backsweetening with the FAJC and caramel, and you want it carbonated, you DEFINITELY need to pasteurize.

Even if your fermentation is complete, adding more food for yeast (sugar) will cause fermentation to kick back up again. The problem is, when you've capped your bottles you don't allow CO2 to escape, which could (and with that amount of sugar probably will) cause bottle bombs. You want it to ferment a little bit (that's how carbonation happens), but if you allow it to ferment dry without pasteurizing, you will likely get bottle grenades.

My advice is to leave it in your carboy for as long as you can stand it. This recipe gets pretty good after it's been aged for a few months, and a few months after it's been in bottles it gets to be outstanding.

Hope that helps.

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

First off, welcome to the forum

Are you sure it's done fermenting? That'd be the first step. Since you'll be pasteurizing (more on that in a second), it's not as crucial as it is with beer that you be sure it's done, but it is definitely best practice.

If you plan on backsweetening with the FAJC and caramel, and you want it carbonated, you DEFINITELY need to pasteurize.

Even if your fermentation is complete, adding more food for yeast (sugar) will cause fermentation to kick back up again. The problem is, when you've capped your bottles you don't allow CO2 to escape, which could (and with that amount of sugar probably will) cause bottle bombs. You want it to ferment a little bit (that's how carbonation happens), but if you allow it to ferment dry without pasteurizing, you will likely get bottle grenades.

My advice is to leave it in your carboy for as long as you can stand it. This recipe gets pretty good after it's been aged for a few months, and a few months after it's been in bottles it gets to be outstanding.

Hope that helps.

+1 on all that is said here. And if it helps any, I usually only leave it in the primary for a total of a month, and then move onto bottling. I havent aged it much, but many have with great results!
If you have refrigeration room available for all the bottles: once my test plastic bottles have shown me my carbonation is where I want it, I take all of my bottles and put em in my lagering chest freezer at 38 deg. This does a real good job of putting the yeast to sleep (not dead). Which means, you cant take em out and store em at room temp later. Also, I used Nottingham yeast only for this process, but its worked for 5 batches so far. Enjoy!!

 

[TwoJollyRanchers]

Thank you for the replies! I really appreciate it.

Well, to be honest I'm not sure if its done fermenting since I don't have a hydrometer (working on a student budget unfortunately). However, I haven't gotten any bubbles through my airlock in the past day.

As for the fermentation and bottling process, where do you guys usually get your bottles (I was planning on using wine bottles originally, thankfully I read the first 20 pages of this thread)? I've looked online at different options and found its usually around $1 per bottle. Since I'm looking at ~50 12 oz bottles for 5 gallons (larger growlers would be better but I can't seem to find them), it seems like it could get pricey very fast.


Refrigeration room...now that would be perfect! Unfortunately my apartment complex doesn't come equipped with that feature.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Well then you need to move

Knowing whether or not fermentation has stopped is a bit tricky without a hydrometer. They're not overly expensive (I think I picked up mine for about 5 bucks) and are crucial for beer, but again, it's not essential for cider when you're pasteurizing.

As mesmerizing as the airlock is (I find myself looking over my shoulder at the airlock on my next batch of cider as I type), it's not the best way to tell if fermentation has stopped or not. It's a good indicator, but the only way to know for sure is to take at least two readings (3 days apart is a good standard most follow). If they're the same both times, fermentation has stopped.
BUT, that there are advantages to leaving it bulk age in the carboy. The flavor gets cleaner, and yeast falls out of suspension, settling at the bottom, among other things.

It's worth noting that you could use wine bottles, but you would need to stabilize it before you backsweeten, and you wouldn't have carbonation.

As for where people get bottles, if you drink beer with pop tops keep saving them for a while, and before you know it you'll have too many and you'll need to brew more. It's a vicious cycle
I would stay away from growlers though. They're not made to handle pressure for carbonation, and it will make pasteurization more of a guessing game than with bottles.

 

[nesbit6363]

Has anyone used cinnamon extract on this? I was wondering how much to use.


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[cdoebler]

Has anyone used cinnamon extract on this? I was wondering how much to use.


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Post #420

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

Has anyone used cinnamon extract on this? I was wondering how much to use.


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Per post #420, 1/2 tsp. but I now use 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon extract and 3/4 tsp vanilla. Really adds to the "apple pie" flavor concept. And last batch, I had no cinnamon extract at kegging, so I put 2 cinnamon sticks in a stainless steel "tea ball" and suspended it in the keg. Worked great!! FWIW, I use the original 5 cans FAJC with syrup for backsweetening.

 

[TwoJollyRanchers]

Looks like its bottling day for me. How many days do you guys wait before pasteurizing?

I'll be setting a plastic soda bottle aside as a measure of carbonation, but I just wanted to get an idea of the average wait time.

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

Looks like its bottling day for me. How many days do you guys wait before pasteurizing?

I'll be setting a plastic soda bottle aside as a measure of carbonation, but I just wanted to get an idea of the average wait time.

I usually do 2 plastic bottles, open the first one at 72 hours (if it seems pressurized enough), then the next 12 hours later, and then open another every 12 hours. It kinda doesnt do anything at first, then really accelerates from undercarbed to overcarbed very quickly. It you open a gusher, the only option remaining is to cold crash em to put the yeast to sleep.

 

[Cheesy_Goodness]

Ambient temp has a lot to do with this. During the summer we have our house set around 75F and I usually do it after just 2 days, but I like mine with pretty light carbonation.

This past time I think I waited 4 days, with a much colder ambient temp. All about preference really.

 

[MarkKF]

How long it was in the secondary also effects it. The past couple years I've let my cider age 6-9 months or more. It can take a couple weeks to carb.

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

Ambient temp has a lot to do with this. During the summer we have our house set around 75F and I usually do it after just 2 days, but I like mine with pretty light carbonation.

This past time I think I waited 4 days, with a much colder ambient temp. All about preference really.

+1 on temp affecting this. FWIW, I keep my home around a constant 73 deg

 

[spclarke]

Per post #420, 1/2 tsp. but I now use 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon extract and 3/4 tsp vanilla. Really adds to the "apple pie" flavor concept. And last batch, I had no cinnamon extract at kegging, so I put 2 cinnamon sticks in a stainless steel "tea ball" and suspended it in the keg. Worked great!! FWIW, I use the original 5 cans FAJC with syrup for backsweetening.

Hey I'm about to bottle my second batch of this stuff. And was thinking about using some vanilla in addition to the Carmel and juice concentrate. Do you think 3/4 tsp is enough to come through in a five gallon batch?

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

Hey I'm about to bottle my second batch of this stuff. And was thinking about using some vanilla in addition to the Carmel and juice concentrate. Do you think 3/4 tsp is enough to come through in a five gallon batch?

At 3/4 tsp vanilla, I can taste it, but its not real strong.