Cranberry Orange Cider

[thehesitantchef]

I made this a couple of months ago and I loved it. You can see pictures of it on my site. http://www.thehesitantchef.com/cider/2016/1/11/cranberry-orange-cider Here's the recipe, let me know what you think. Next time I make this I will add in some more orange zest so it's more pronounced.

Ingredients:
6 Litres of Cranberry Juice
14 Litres of Apple Juice
3 Cans of Frozen Apple Juice Concentrate
1 Package of Nottingham Ale Yeast

Orange Syrup:
Rind of 1 large Orange Chopped and blanched
Juice of 1 Orange
1 Cup Sugar
1 Cup Water

Directions:
In a 6 Gallon Carboy pour in Apple Juice and Cranberry Juice. Pitch yeast and let ferment for 2 weeks.

In a medium sauce pan mix orange juice, zest, water and sugar together and bring to a simmer. Cook until zest is translucent, making sure that the syrup doesn’t get too thick or caramelize. Once zest is translucent take off heat and cool to room temperature.

Rack Cider into secondary and add the orange zest syrup to cider. Ferment for another 2 weeks.

After this 2 week period its time to bottle. Rack cider into bottling bucket and add 2 cans of frozen apple juice concentrate. Mix well and bottle. Let carbonate for 2-4 days or however long it takes. To ensure you have reached your desired carbonation use a plastic pop bottle. When the cider is ready the pop bottle will be firm like pop is before you break the seal. Place into fridge immediately or pasteurize.

 

[ErickJ]

I'm going to make this in two weeks. It sound delicious. What's the name of the drink?

 

[thehesitantchef]

Thanks! I hope you like it. I'm lazy and called it Cranberry Orange Cider. If you come up with something better let me know!

 

[letter18]

Looks great, curious if you have any tips/ suggestions for alterations of the recipe? Still shooting for 5 gallons — usually bottle bomber size bottles.

What might serve as a fresh (unfrozen) substitute for the 3 cans of frozen concentrate?

If I was to add fresh, organic whole cranberries to this recipe — what ratio of cranberries to juice (less than 6 Liters) would you recommend?

Thinking of using an attenuative yeast strain: 3711 french saison yeast. I've had trouble with Nottingham stalling out.

Thanks bud

 

[thehesitantchef]

Great questions. I think you could possibly get the same level of cranberry flavour using fresh cranberries. I'd through them into secondary. Make sure you soak them in vodka for an hour or so to sanitize them or use frozen. The only thing I could see that could go wrong with that is that cranberries have a very tough skin that is tough to break down, which may take a long time for the flavour to come through. Maybe cook the cranberries down? I would experiment a bit with it. I would start with 1kg.

For the concentrate, I don't know what you could use. I use it to back sweeten because it adds more apple flavour and sugar. It makes the most sense to me to use that compared to other sugars. Maybe try honey? That might be good?

I've never had a problem with nottingham, but experimenting is half the fun, so let me know how it goes!

Looks great, curious if you have any tips/ suggestions for alterations of the recipe? Still shooting for 5 gallons — usually bottle bomber size bottles.

What might serve as a fresh (unfrozen) substitute for the 3 cans of frozen concentrate?

If I was to add fresh, organic whole cranberries to this recipe — what ratio of cranberries to juice (less than 6 Liters) would you recommend?

Thinking of using an attenuative yeast strain: 3711 french saison yeast. I've had trouble with Nottingham stalling out.

Thanks bud

 

[USMCMatt]

wrong thread

 

[letter18]

Any idea what the original gravity reading was?