How to make an excellent cider?

[BeerClaw]

Hi, Any cider experts out there that can give any advise on making an excellent hard cider?

Last fall I made a couple batches and they have now aged a year. They are very good but kind of thin and flat.

Any tips on adding acid blends or tannins?

What about adding grape concentrate to add body?

Any other suggestions would be great!

Thanks,
Dan

 

[BeerClaw]

forgot to mention the cider I made last fall was a 2 gallon batch with 1lb honey and a 1 gallon batch with 1lb pale ale DME.

 

[manticle]

I'm definitely not an expert and I tend not to ave anything other than sours aged for that time.


However I do make ciders that I enjoy and drink commercial ciders for comparison. Combined with reading hopefully my suggestions/ideas are of some use.

What are you using for your base cider? In order to get character into your cider you need to use a variety of apples. You can add acids. Tannins etc but if you sort out a good variety of apples (or your soft cider supplier does) you should be able to get these flavours happening within your brew.

If you want body, you need some residual sugar (and therefore will have a sweeter finished cider) or some dextrins. I've never deliberately added dextrins to a cider (don't mind dry) so I cannot advise on their use here but you could fiddle with a small batch to see how it works for you. If you're adding dme to cider already, you could try a small batch with carapils or maltodextrin and see how it goes.