Chard-like cider (on purpose)

[quietglow]

Hi all. First time poster, long-time brewer, new cider maker.

Some time back, I had an apple wine/cider from Pomona winery in Illinois that could have easily been mistaken for a chardonnay with apple overtones. It was oaked and better than lots of chards I've had.

I'd like to try making something like that. So: dry, wine-like, good mouthfeel, subdued apple taste. The one I liked had .8% residual and was aged for awhile on american oak.

Starting with juice, I know I'll have to add sugar to get into the 10-12% range. Ideas for the best sugar to do that with? How about yeast? The two gallons I have going now are both on champagne yeast, but I wonder if maybe wine yeast might be a better idea?

I'll experiment, of course, but I thought maybe I'd check here to see if anyone had a recipe that met this style. Seems like most cider brewers are trying to avoid this kind of thing (i.e. to have more apple taste and sweetness).

 

[Pezedorado]

Cant confidently help, but I thought you were putting swiss chard in this cider based on the title. Haha. My 2c is you should use/make invert sugar. I found cheap ascorbic acid in the foreign grocer.

 

[Guden]

Don't have any experience with it myself but you might want to look into WLP718 Avize Yeast based on the description:
This yeast contributes to the complexity of white varietals, especially in barrel fermented Chardonnay.

Oaked apple wine sounds delicious, good luck.

 

[quietglow]

Cant confidently help, but I thought you were putting swiss chard in this cider based on the title. Haha. My 2c is you should use/make invert sugar. I found cheap ascorbic acid in the foreign grocer.

Ha! I thought someone might think that. And what's funny is that I just had a long conversation with someone about making this type of wine with very subtle flavor hints from garden things (i.e. maybe use a small amounts of fresh herbs etc). Mmmmm chard flavored apple wine

 

[quietglow]

I am seeing that if you search for apple wine, you can find more information on this style. This looks like a pretty good start:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/

I like the idea of the invert sugar though, instead of the corn sugar. I think the idea would be to add anything that would add complexity -- the danger in this style is that it ends up dry and boring (like really bad chardonnays). The oak would prob help with that too.