hopped cider experiences, advice needed

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mike_57401

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Hey ya'll,

I've got a cider fermenting currently, consisting of 4.5 gals Great Value apple juice, Safale S-04 dry ale yeast, and 1/2 tsp yeast nutrient. I'm fermenting in a keg this time around, so there will be less transferring, and if I do need to transfer, I'll just push with CO2. It's a few days in, fermenting happily.

I plan to dry hop this cider (pellets in nylon bag in the keg-fermenter) and then stabilize and back sweeten with a can or 3 of apple juice concentrate at kegging.

I've never dry hopped a cider before. I'm curious as to your experiences with hop varieties and rate of hopping, etc. I've got a lot of hops on hand, many of the common IPA varieties as well as some lager hops and standbys, so variety is whatever I want, for the most part.

I was planning on around 1-2 ounces, maybe citra or galaxy or centennial blend or something like that. What do you think?
 
I have done a couple of hopped ciders using both citra and galaxy. They both work fine.

A word of caution is that the cider takes up the hop flavour quite quickly, so taste, taste, taste, then get the hops out of there, is the way to go... tasting every day if necessary since it will only take about 5 - 7 days before the hop flavour overwhelms the cider.

I work on 3g/L (in a bag as you plan because the pellets disintegrate very quickly and are hard to get out if not contained), so your one to two oz seems about right for 4.5 gallons (at 3g/L you would need 1.8oz for 4.5 gallons). However, you might consider starting a bit lower until you get the feel for how quickly the hop flavour is taken up. This will give you a bit more time to get the taste where you want it without overshooting.

Have fun!
 
I have used Citra pellets as well, but prefer whole leaves. Yes, use a nylon bag and anything over 7 days gets you a dirt geass flavor. (Dont ask how i know.) As @Chalkyt suggested taste at least daily. Hop flavor does not really diminish with age.
 
Ok, a late update on this:

I added 2 cans AJ concentrate at kegging, together with sorbate and k-meta.

Sampling in March showed it hadn't dropped bright, but more surprising than that: the flavor was very orange-juice citrusy, with tartness to match. I tried another glass this week, still orangey.

Certainly the hops contribute flavor, but the acidic flavor? The juice did have ascorbic acid in the ingredients, could that be the source?
 
I guess that if it fully fermented all the way down to 1.000, all the sugar will be gone, just leaving water, flavour compounds, alcohol and acid. So, the tartness isn't surprising. I find that sometimes S04 will stop a bit above SG1.000 and leave a bit of sweetness to offset the tartness. What is your final gravity?

This is getting a bit "technical" but have you tried to measure the total acidity (TA) or pH. I find that with eating apples such as in "drinking juice" there is a rough correlation between pH and TA. Of course, this doesn't always apply with some of the special cider apples but generally the lower the pH, the more acidic the juice (most of my eating apples are around pH 3.6 - 4.0 with a corresponding TA 3-5 g/L and need something like higher acid Crabs, Cox's Orange Pippin or Granny Smith to give the cider a bit of bite). The generally accepted range for cider TA is 5 -7 g/L and less than pH 3.3 gets you into crab apple territory.

Measuring pH is reasonably easy with test strips... they aren't terribly accurate but near-enough. TA needs titration (i.e calculate the acid level by neutralising it with a base), usually with a wine acidity test kit adjusted to measure Malic Acid, but again you can get near enough using caustic soda (sodium hydroxide) with a common pool water indicator like phenyl red or bromo blue if you want to go down that path. There are plenty of "how to titrate" instructions via Dr Google, or Andrew Lea's web site.
 
As @Chalkyt suggested chech pH adjust accordingly. Consider adding some apple juice concentrate to SG of between 1.004 and 1.008. Then pasteurize.

A little sweet goes a long way.
 
Hey guys, thanks for the replies.

It stopped short, only down to 1.010, which is similar to my last experience with cider with S-04 yeast. (That was good cider, though). This still hasn't dropped bright, refrigerated since March. (And I added gelatin, too).

Another relevant detail I forgot:. I fermented in the keg, spunded it to carbonate naturally, and dry hopped with 2 ounces centennial pellets (a very orangey hop, to my taste). It's still in the fermentation keg!

As to pH:. I do have test strips, and a cheap Amazon meter and might even have a TA test kit, I can't remember offhand.

At this point, I'm thinking I need to get it to drop bright first, probably by transferring to a second keg. (Maybe another gelatin addition too?)
 
Didn't add pectic enzyme, thinking I wouldn't with juice. I do have some on hand, however. It's it too late to add it?

Azacca, sounds nice. How'd that turn out? Did you use apple juice?
 
Didn't add pectic enzyme, thinking I wouldn't with juice. I do have some on hand, however. It's it too late to add it?

Azacca, sounds nice. How'd that turn out? Did you use apple juice?
It turned out pretty good . Great Value apple juice.
 
Nope not too late to add pectic enzyme. I almost always add it in secondary as I don't always need it.

Consider adding KC Super Kleer. It works on both positive and negative charged particles.

KC Super Kleer, cold crash and time always have worked for me.
 
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