My cider isn't finished yet , I just put it in secondary today and added 1 oz. cascade hopps. But I tasted some when transferring ( before hopps addition ) and it was really good. I also made a 1 gallon batch over to the side so it would finish earlier, added a few pellets of the hops two days ago , when I tasted that it was awesome. My first batch of hopped cider and my first batch with tea added and Ive got to say Im glad I tried it so far. I didn't use fancy tea though , just about 8 regular plain Lipton tea bags steeped in about 4 cups of water from boiling until cool. The tea seems to minimize some of the tartness of the apple you get since the sugar has been converted. And it adds some nice color. Never can tell for sure until its all finished but so far so good. I cant wait to taste the finished product.
Hopped cider with tea...
- Thread starter ohiochris
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ohiochris
Well-Known Member
I bottled the cider this past week. Flavor going into bottling is good but not yet what I was expecting. The hops is a pain , it was floating on the top and mixed all through the cider. I filtered a few bottles but gave up on it , all the rest still has hops floating around in it , what a pain. I used 3 cans of frozen concentrate to carb and thought Id have a few days for it to carb up like the last batch , but the next day I opened one bottle and it foamed up and out all over. So I carefully opened all the bottles a little at a time to release the pressure slowly and recapped them all , then pasteurized. Drinkable , even though its early , but I dont think I am gonna hop cider anymore until I figure out how to do it without it being a mess.
You could always cold crash for several days- 1 week before bottling. For me, crashing always settles the dryhops(in my ales).
ohiochris
Well-Known Member
Most likely. But it is strange that I made a five gallon batch before this one only I didnt add tea or hops , and used the same 3 cans of concentrate for carbonation , yet it took 3 days to get carbonation on that one with no overpressurization. I guess it just shows that even changing the recipe just a little can make a big difference.
