Cider FNG

[Wovensummers]

I know there are a million and a half "first cider" posts. I have read through them all plus looking for the answer to my question and can't find anything. So here goes. Kids and I picked 95# of apples, 3 different varieties. I have pressed 22# so far getting about 2 gal of juice. The other 70+ #s will be pressed this coming weekend. Once I taste test for best blend, I will be starting several seperate batches fermenting..one with no added sugar, one with 1/2 brown 1/2 white sugar and one raspberry. My question is specifically about the raspberry. I have a homemade raspberry syrup (it is actually raspberry jelly that never jelled). Would it be best to add the raspberry syrup into secondary or use it as priming sugar while bottling? I want to be able taste the raspberry and the apple. I saw where people used maple syrup at a rate of 1.5 oz per gal for bottling. Am I on the right track with that? Thanks in advance.
Jenni

 

[MindenMan]

Raspberries are interesting beasts; they are supposed to be tart as least a bit anyway, and if the sugar/pectin they are in gets all of the sugar fermented out, depending upon the residual sugar in your cider, the whole thing may just be too tart to be enjoyable. The flip side of this is if you are using tart apples to begin with you may want to do really pre-think the yeast you use. There is a yeast that is good for softening the Malic acid in apples, so if your cider is very tart right after bottling, in six months it may become something magical and just the tartness of the berries will be left. I can only speak in terms of using frozen berry concentrates for my berry ciders, and the results are very tasty, so tasty I have done berry ciders multiple times. I hope this helps. MM