I want to make my cider look more golden

[Robin Rastle]

I ve made some agreeable cider with plain wine yeast (works fine) start at 1050 - I wasnt going for headbanger hooch by adding extra sugar up to 1080. To start it looked rather rough 1st week and smelled a bit off, but I left it in my warm box 25C another week and it was settling down not smell. 3rd week I was pleasantly surprised how it has ceased fermenting and had settled out really well. OK on the nose. So I left it in a cool room ca 15C another week and ready for a racking. This was very easy. The FG was 1.000, it had a dry taste - if you like that - but I back-sweetened to med sweet with ca 4ml syrup/100ml

In a high ball glass it had a real apple nose - very surprising as you dont get that in s/market gut rot. Indeed its a classic taste to be cultivated IMO. The clarity was slightly cloudy - like a weiss beer - not at all disagreeable - but the colour was pale and I thought I might like to try what the big boys do and add some food colour to make it more golden

So brewmeisters - any ideas?

Firstly I though of making caramel syrup (easy) but I think the small amount needed for back sweetening wouldnt justify this trouble. I am way about these food colouring Ebay Enos. What do you think?

Is there something I can use to macerate with my product - without ruining the fresh apple taste - which is growing on me

OBTW I am trialling putting some ginger wine in for a kick and I will try my Sodastream to see what its like when carbonated (maybe come out like Babycham - I would call it Ginger Pomme ? Gimme a break the juice was 99p/litre to get a 5% gargle in 4 weeks.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Perhaps back sweetening with frozen apple juice concentrate would add the color you want.
Welcome to the forum by the way.

 

[Maylar]

You can only blame the cheap juice that you used. This is what I get from orchard cider -

 

[Chalkyt]

Not exactly what you want, but adding strong black tea will gold/brown it up a bit and also add some astringent tannin, which usually isn't a bad thing. One teabag (2-3 grams) of black tea in boiling water added to a gallon of cider should add 50ppm of 'tannin'. Up to 100ppm doesn't result in anything unpleasant. Anyhow, try playing around with a glass or two to get the colour you like with a side benefit of flavour improvement.

 

[DuncB]

If you wanted it sweeter you could try some monk fruit extract that has a bit of an orangey colour to it.

 

[Raptor99]

The clarity was slightly cloudy - like a weiss beer - not at all disagreeable - but the colour was pale

If it is still slightly cloudy, that will give is a lighter appearance. I've noticed that once it is completely clear, the color is darker. So maybe the first thing to do is to let it bulk age for a month or two and see how it is then.

When I make cider, I augment grocery store apple juice with some malic acid and powdered tannin. The tannin will give it a slightly darker color as well.

 

[Robin Rastle]

Will try some caramel made from dark brown sugar. I havent found a source yet for the powdered caramel used in food industry - bit of a secret? anyone know? I dont want to add sugar sweetening to my dry cider (but I regulate the pH to ca 4 using sodium bicarb so it doesnt rot my gut, a small amount ca1/16 tsp per litre is very effective at blunting that sharpness yet retaining an apple flavour. So far store fresh juice is very cheap with an OG of 1045, so I add 50g sugar/L to bring it to ca 1065 to give a pleasant quaff at ca 6%abv. Will try a bit of gas with my soda stream to see how bubbles boost the taste buds. Of course priming my bottling will need some thought. If its still fermenting slightly then this will make it a cloudy pour. IMHO I think the Brew Corps use ways to filter and sterilise the drink then add CO2 from a bottle. Its a lot of trouble and departs from a natural farmhouse brew just to get a golden drink from cheap apple juice. heh heh. the answer is drink out of a pewter style tankard or goblet (no lead used of course)

 

[Robin Rastle]

You can only blame the cheap juice that you used. This is what I get from orchard cider -

View attachment 877553

thats an exhibition product for sure

 

[DaveDiamond]

I've been brewing for quite a while now, since Tuesday, so I feel I'm more than qualified to offer a suggestion.
I'm going to try using one of my B Complex vitamins instead of a dedicated yeast nutrient mix, from what I've read online it should work.
It makes me pee neon yellow radiator fluid that looks like it should glow in the dark, perhaps some Riboflavin (vitamin B2) will give you that golden glow you're looking for.

 

[Raptor99]

I've been brewing for quite a while now, since Tuesday, so I feel I'm more than qualified to offer a suggestion.
I'm going to try using one of my B Complex vitamins instead of a dedicated yeast nutrient mix, from what I've read online it should work.

Yeast need a lot more than just B vitamins to be healthy. By analogy, look at a multivitamin bottle. There are many different vitamins and minerals in there, all of which are important to human health. Yeast have somewhat different requirements, but they also need quite a few different vitamins and minerals.

 

[DuncB]

@Raptor99
I think the B vitamin is to " colour" the cider.
Not for yeast health.

 

[Raptor99]

@Raptor99
I think the B vitamin is to " colour" the cider.
Not for yeast health.

Oh, I see. My cider has a great color without any special effort. I do like a light oak finishes, so I add a few oak chips in secondary. That probably contributes to the beautiful color.

 

[DaveDiamond]

@Raptor99
I think the B vitamin is to " colour" the cider.
Not for yeast health.

Just a few results from the top of the page, but it does seem like B vitamins can be used as a yeast nutrient. I haven't read all these though, some are behind a pay wall. I actually first came across the idea on this forum I think, someone fermenting sugar water but they didn't like the colour.
So jokes aside it seems like adding a B complex capsule wouldn't adversely effect the cider and it may well provide the colour he's looking for.
They taste a bit funny to me though, so maybe not. I'm going to try it though, I'm just fermenting 2 litre bottles of Apple Juice in the bottles it comes in at the moment so a failed experiment here and there is not much of a big deal. Every bottle I prepped last week has a variation in the amount of or type of sugar used (notes taken), and this week I'll be trying quite a few variations and additions, the B vitamin will be one of them, so in a few weeks I'll know first hand if it works or not.