Crystal Malt Cyser?

[msmylie]

So I have a pound of crystal malt and trying to think of how to use it in my next five gallon batch of cider/cyser. I plan on using a pound of fermentable sugar per gallon of cider. This will consist of honey and brown sugar. I like the idea of adding the caramel flavor to the cider by utilizing the crystal malt. Couple of questions:
1. What is the best way to add the crystal malt to the apple juice without heating the juice to avoid peptic haze?
2. Does a pound of crystal malt equal a pound of fermentable sugar?
3. If I mash the malt in a gallon of water can I then add the honey to that wort and combine with four gallons of apple juice and begin fermentation?...Is this an ideal route?
4. The yeast I will be pitching is Wyeast 3864 Canada/Belgium Ale, liquid form...any thoughts on this recipe?

Thanks ahead of time for all who read and participate.

 

[jja]

1. see 3
2. no, it will be a bit less since there will be some unfermentables. Crystals will be about 35 pppg, sugar 45. http://howtobrew.com/section2/chapter12-4-1.html
3. Sounds like a good plan. After removing the grain, you may want to boil the wort to kill any latent bacteria, then add the honey and cider while still hot but not boiling to sanitize those too.
4. haven't used this yeast...

 

[unclejimbay]

sounds like a good plan, I just did something similiar. Steep your crystal in 1G of water, top it off with your other sugar and Apple Juice.

FYI. I typically never put more than 1 LB of any sugar in a 5 gallon batch of cider. More than that comes out to over 8% and get s abit boozy. If you keep it to about 1 LB of extra sugar, it does not require extensive aging.

Also, I have tried many yeasts, and Nottingham still seems to be my favorite in ciders, especially malted ciders.
Wheat beer yeasts are worth a try, anything else is not worth the time for me. I have tried 6+ yeasts to date, and I still love the clean profile and quick clearing/floc of the Notty.

Hope this helps, cheers!

 

[wgentzel]

I agree with unclejimbay on the yeast comment. If you are worried about clarity, which you mentioned in #1, I'd go for a high floc yeast (Nottingham or S-04).

 

[madbaldman]

msmylie,

Did you ever give this idea a go? I think I'm going to try it on my next cider. Sounds interesting.

 

[msmylie]

Not yet. Still another month to go before I rack into the corny for backsweetening and carbonation on the five gallon of spiced cider I have now. My six gallon fermented is empty but I plan on using it next for a high gravity lefse ale. My current batch of cider is on a champagne yeast and had five pounds of fermentables. It took quite some time to finish up. I still plan on using the crystal malt but haven't had the time. I will update this post when I do start. I think I will use some peptic enzyme this time to aid in the clarification down the road. I plan on bottle conditioning this batch as well. I'll keep you posted though.
MFS

 

[madbaldman]

Looking forward to hearing the results. I don't keg so backsweetening is not easy for me. I like my cider dry but was hoping the crystal would round things out a bit. Not sure whether to run 60L, 90L, or 120L though.

 

[ribbon]

120 seems nice for store bought juice.

 

[Yan]

If you want a really sweet finish when using malt, you can use a wine yeast, which cannot digest some of the sugar (maltotriose specifically) in malt; about 10 percent of it on average. Beer yeasts are more effective at metabolizing longer-chain sugars. I've had good results from using wine yeasts with braggots to get a sweeter sort of brew.

 

[msmylie]

i'm going to post a new thread with the recipe i made.
msmylie