GinKings,......Do you have anything you've consistently been doing with the concentrated cider? I'd love to hear exactly how you are utilizing this cider concentrate....
I think you can do a lot of different things with the concentrated cider (traditional cider, ice cider, etc). The thing I make most often with the concentrated cider is an apple port. It's a fairly sweet after-dinner type drink with plenty of apple flavor. I make it similar to the way a port wine is made from grapes. Grapes have an OG up around 1.090. To make a port wine, the grapes are fermented about halfway. Then, a high proof brandy or grain alcohol is added, which halts fermentation, retains some sweetness, and raises the ABV to about 18%. I wanted to do the same thing with apple cider. My concern was that apple cider has a much lower OG, so it would barely ferment before adding the alcohol. I wanted to raise the OG. The first time I did it, I made two batches. In one batch I raised the OG with sugar. The other batch was frozen to raise the OG. The batch with sugar was good, but the freeze concentrated batch was much, much better.
My basic procedure: I use cider pressed at a cider mill. Cider has an OG around 1.050. I typically freeze concentrate it to 1.090-1.100, but it doesn't have to be that high. After freezing, I add potassium metabisulfite (campden tablets). 24 hours later I pitch yeast. I typically use Cotes de Blanc or D47, since I want a yeast that will stop fermenting when I add the alcohol. I avoid yeast with a higher alcohol tolerance. When the gravity gets down to around 1.045, I add a high proof alcohol, such as Everclear, which is 190 proof to bring it to 18% ABV. You can use a lower proof alcohol, such as vodka or brandy, but you need more of it, so it dilutes the apple profile more than a smaller volume of a higher proof liquor. This kills the yeast, so fermentation stops and you retain sweetness. Sometimes, I add oak cubes in the secondary. I usually bottle after about 6 months. The apple port I made last fall was still a little hot, but was crystal clear and quite good after only 3 months.
The freezing concentrates the apple flavor. It also concentrates the malic acid. The apple port is fairly sweet, so the extra acid helps balance the sweetness, so it's not cloying.
Calculating ABV is pretty easy. The fermenting cider gets approx. 1% ABV for every 7 1/2 point drop in gravity. If it starts at 1.090 and I add the alcohol at 1.045, then the gravity dropped 45 points (90-45=45). A 45 point drop divided by 7 1/2 means that the cider is 6% ABV when the alcohol is added (45/7.5=6). Make sense so far? Figuring out how much alcohol to add isn't hard if you paid attention in high school. It's basically a weighted average.
5 gallons @ 6% ABV + 3/4 gallons Everclear @ 95% = 5 3/4 gallons @ ?% ABV
(5 x 6) + ( 0.75 x 95) = (5.75 x ?)
30 + 71.25 = 5.75 x ?% ABV
101.25 = 5.75 x ?% ABV
101.25 / 5.75 = 17.6% ABV (close enough to 18%)
Hopefully, that makes sense. Using an 80 proof vodka would work, but you'd need over 2 1/2 gallons, so it would dilute the apple flavors more than 3/4 gallon of Everclear.
