Cider flavor additives - Primary vs. Secondary? (Lemongrass, hops, etc.)

[Professor5]

Hi all. I've been doing cider for a while, and I'm happy with my results. Yesterday I finally hit a nearby cider house and was inspired with some of the variations.

I have a few sitting in secondary right now. For using things like hops/lemongrass for flavor in a cider, do you normally target primary or secondary and what methods have given success?

I've used hops for beer/ale in the boil, for cider would you boil this and add it to the brew similar to black tea or other things? Or do you put it in directly at a stage and let it sit during fermentation? It seems like working off a boiled infusion would let me balance taste easier.

Thanks,
Dave

 

[HammeredDwarf]

If you want the hops bitter flavor you boil it with part of the juice. If you want the grassy notes dry hop it. Most hopped cider is dry hopped. You can do both if you want a IPC. But it tends to overpower a lot of the apple notes. A lot of cider drinkers tend to shy away from the hoppyness of a IPC but if you love IPAs give the IPC a try.

 

[Professor5]

Thanks!

 

[Northern_Brewer]

Since you say you want the flavour rather than the bitterness of hops, that would point to doing the normal thing of dry-hopping the cider - but most of the flavour compounds come out within a day or two, you don't want to leave them in too long.

Although some people "dry-hop" things like elderflowers, you can struggle to extract enough flavour that way, adding an elderflower syrup can work much better (and give you more control).

 

[bucketnative]

For things like hops, herbs, and other flavorings, I tend to do all of them in secondary/tertiary. I dry hop for about five days, generally at a lighter level than beer (0.25 oz/gal) because I don't want to overpower the cider flavors and aromas. I've done the same with basil, mint, and rosemary. Generally a week is enough to get the level of flavor I am looking for.

 

[bernardsmith]

I wonder if an alternative approach might be to make a small quantity of hop tea (using say 1 pint of water total with 1 oz of hops for every gallon of cider ) and boil the hops for 10 minutes. If you then strain the hops you will have extracted flavor but no bitterness - and the 1 pint of solution will not have a huge dilution effect on 3 or more gallons of cider. However, if you are concerned that the dilution of smaller amounts of cider WILL have a detrimental impact you could always reduce the volume of the cider (either before or after fermentation) by freezing the apple juice/cider and catching the first runnings until you had 7 pints from each gallon. What would still be frozen would be water and so now you are adding the hop tea to replace that water...

 

[Stigmond13]

I always bottle condition my cider and sometimes it can be a little dry and I find that dry hopping somehow gives the effect of a less dry cider (as well as providing that hoppy character) I typically use around 100g of cascade, citra or mosaic or a mixture and the results are typically awesome!!

 

[bernardsmith]

100 g of hops? That's about 4 oz or 4 packets of pellets. How many gallons of cider do you make at a time?

 

[Stigmond13]

Sorry forgot to add. 23 Litres. Not sure what that is in US gallons, probably around 6?

 

[Coriba]

How much basil should I put in my cider (19 L), currently in secondary, and how do I prepare or extract the basil? I could suspend fresh leaves in a mesh bag, muddle with vodka, or brew a strong tea. I think boiling it for tea would blow off some of the goodness. Anticipating something like 4 oz of fresh basil which is a large amount to muddle. Also large amount to ‘dry hop’. Uncertainty in other words.

 

[Ronnb]

How much basil should I put in my cider (19 L), currently in secondary, and how do I prepare or extract the basil? I could suspend fresh leaves in a mesh bag, muddle with vodka, or brew a strong tea. I think boiling it for tea would blow off some of the goodness. Anticipating something like 4 oz of fresh basil which is a large amount to muddle. Also large amount to ‘dry hop’. Uncertainty in other words.

Consider when cooking with basil. If put in at the beginning of the recipe, the basil is expressed far less than if put into the pot (hot), after turning off the heat and letting the plant essence come out at the end.
If you use a tea method, try the same, make sure the liquid medium is not boiling but just hot as if making green tea or a bit less.
I don't think muddling with vodka would help with the extraction.

You were thinking of using hot apple juice for the tea? Using a microwave might work as well.

 

[Chalkyt]

I add anything to secondary. As far as hops are concerned, as mentioned above dry hops give up flavour quite quickly.
I use about 3g/litre (2 tsp) at the very end, just before bottling. And... taste, taste, taste. Three to five days is enough.

A hint is that hops float, so the dry hops need to be in something like a large teabag or wrapped in muslin with a few marbles or stainless steel nuts to weigh it down.