Critique my recepie

[Ashrack]

Batch #1 - came out well - yummy, carbonated, mostly dry.
Batch #2 - Dry as the Sahara, heavily carbonated, but not bad.

Now time to plan for batch #3 - learned a bit, have a plan, and looking for any input. Goal is a dry bold carbonated bottled cider using the components I have. I'm impatient so I'm avoiding a long aging that I've seen some post about.

5 Gallons good pasturized Jersey apple cider.
5 Gallon white bucket fermenter (I have a 2 gallon little fermenter also if needed)
White Labs English Cider yeast
French Oak chips

Remove 1 gallon for use later
Take OG measure
Add Brown sugar - stir in
Take OG measure - brown sugar should get it up to 1.08 - (edit: drop to 1.07)
Create must using original cider
Add Yeast
Cover with mesh cover (let high oxygen get the fermentation started)

2 days later
Remove mesh cover
cover with lid and bubble lock

12 days later
Take OG measure
Goal is 1.000
Decide how long to leave
repeat this step until goal is reached

Secondary day
Move cider to secondary bucket
Add Oak chips
Cover and leave for 2 weeks

Bottling day
Add 1 gallon of original cider
Take OG measure - goal of no more then 1.01
Add brown sugar to reach goal if necessary
Bottle Cider
Leave bottles out for 1 week then refrigerate.

Flavor judgement - if it comes out super dry - I'll add a shot or two of farmers-market honeycrisp cider when serving a bottle.

 

[Maylar]

It'll work.. but -

1.08 is really high for cider - you're making apple wine.

 

[Ashrack]

That was one of the points I was debating. 1.08 is probably too high. Looking for probably an 8% abv?

 

[Maylar]

To each his own, I guess. I never add sugar to my ciders. Orchard juice starts at 1.050 and if it ferments dry will be 6.5% which is fine for me. I've found that increasing ABV just makes it take longer to mellow out.

 

[Ashrack]

Maylar, thanks for commenting - this is what I've been wrestling with - adding to fermentation, or working on flavoring later. Perhaps I'll take a measure at the start, and if it is 1.050 or around that, I'll give it a shot as is. Would you still do some flavoring in a secondary?

 

[Maylar]

Sure, if you want. I've added fruit (berries), oak cubes, cinnamon... whatever. If you add anything fermentable (like fruit) you'll have to rack again.