Chamomile Cider

[vnyand]

Going apple picking this weekend. Wasn't planning on doing a cider this year, but as the opportunity has presented itself and my 3 gallon system is sitting idly by...

2.5 gallons UV pasteurized fresh local cider (containing <1% potassium sorbate)
1 lb wildflower honey
.73 ounces dried chamomile (20 tea bags)
1 packet S-04 yeast
2 tsp yeast nutrient (generic stuff from my school's research lab)


Procedure:

2 gallons of cold cider
.5 gallons in the pot

Bring to 160 degrees, flame off, steep chamomile for 4 minutes in muslin bag then remove, dissolve honey. Combined all cider into a glass carboy, less one cup of warm cider. Mix yeast and nutrient in the cup of warm cider before adding to carboy. Stored in closet at room temp (between 68 - 72 degrees) until fermentation stops/yeast flocculates.

The S-04 is well-known for its high flocculation and nice hard packed sediment, so I don't plan on doing a secondary fermentation for clearing. Bottling in flip-top bottles and enjoying in about a month. Not carbonating. I'll update gravity readings and tastings as things progress.

 

[david_42]

That's a lot of chamomile, about ten times what I used in a heather/chamomile gruit.

 

[vnyand]

Yah might be... I can see the bag in my head but for the life of me I don't remember the weight. Let me amend it to "3-4 cups" of dried camomile, which I know is a lot but I used it in a mead once and it takes a lot to get it to come through.

 

[vnyand]

LHBS was out of chamomile, so I grabbed two boxes of straight chamomile tea bags from the grocery store. Ended up only using 1 box (20 bags, .73 ounces) mainly because I was sick of emptying them in the muslin bag. Used wildflower honey. Did not take gravity because I wouldn't have been able to fish my hydrometer out of my carboy.

The orchard's cider contained potassium sorbate, so I made a "starter" by warming a (sanitized) mug of cider and then adding the yeast and nutrient and placing inside a sanitized freezer bag. After only an hour there was a massive krausen almost overflowing the mug.

Pitched the "starter" and fermentation started within three hours. Happily bubbling away between 68 and 71 degrees over the course of the day. Closet smells like sulfur and sour apples. Can't wait to open a little brown jug of this.

 

[vnyand]

I'm not doing a secondary nor am I carbonating, so I'm considering "dry hopping" a growler of this with a muslin bag of chamomile, lemon balm and lavender and seeing what I can get. Really looking for that herbal, grassy feel...