Malted Apple Cider

[jguy898]

I'm looking for a little advice on a proper amount of DME to use in a 5 gallon batch, and what types of DME 'could' be appropriate.

I've never personally used Malt in anything, yet, and I wouldn't like Brandon O'graffs (I HATE hopps and most grains), but I do like the flavor of a good Vienna Malt or Caramel Malt in lighter Beers. The more Malt in them the better, in fact.

I'm thinking maybe I could try some Caramel 40L, would probably add a nice 'Reddish' color, too. Probably try a Vienna, or Munich, as well.

I have no idea what I'm doing though, so any help would be great!

 

[Vance71975]

I'm looking for a little advice on a proper amount of DME to use in a 5 gallon batch, and what types of DME 'could' be appropriate.

I've never personally used Malt in anything, yet, and I wouldn't like Brandon O'graffs (I HATE hopps and most grains), but I do like the flavor of a good Vienna Malt or Caramel Malt in lighter Beers. The more Malt in them the better, in fact.

I'm thinking maybe I could try some Caramel 40L, would probably add a nice 'Reddish' color, too. Probably try a Vienna, or Munich, as well.

I have no idea what I'm doing though, so any help would be great!

Ok Caramel 40 you could just steep in Hot water or cider if you prefer. Vienna or Munich require a mash to convert which is simple for the small amount of grains you would be using. None of those however is DME, DME is an extract Powder that you would just need to boil in some water or cider to dissolve it. Hops are not needed unless you want them. I dont know how high of an ABV your looking for but i would do something like this.

2.0lbs Munich
2.0 lbs Vienna
1.0 lbs Caramel 40
Cover the grains with 7.5 quarts of water that is 160 degrees, the temp will drop dont worry about that, let it sit covered for 30-60 mins, Strain the grains out while adding the liquid to your brew pot. Pour 1 gallon of 170 degree water through the grains to rinse the sugars from them.

You will now have around 2 gallons of water in your boil pot give or take. Bring this to a boil and add 4lbs Extra Light DME ,stir to dissolve,and boil for30- 60 mins. Depending on your evaporation rate this should leave you with between .5 and 1 gallon of wort. Now all you have to do is Add slightly chilled apple cider to bring your volume up to 5 gallons, this will also cool the wort drastically. Then it is a simple matter of taking your gravity reading and pitching your yeast. You can use either an Ale Yeast or a Wine yeast, that is really a personal call, If you use an ale yeast i would go with 2 packages of Nottingham Dry yeast re-hydrated per the package instructions. If you are going to use wine yeast i would go with a Champagne yeast and also re-hydrated per the package instructions. Hope this helps!

 

[jguy898]

Sorry I didn't define things a little better, I knew the differences between the Specialty Grains, Mash Grains and DME, I just kind of threw them all into one lump.

So what kind of Post Boil gravity would that give you? (say the cider alone is 1.06) I did some more reading on Maximum Extraction Percentages but I'm still just plugging through the start of all this. 3 lbs. of various malts seems like quite a bit more than I was originally thinking, but then again I have never used it before.

Very interesting learning material. I've never liked beer, but I love the malt in it so in order to learn more I'm going to sign up for a beer brewing class this coming weekend to learn as much about it as I can.

 

[Vance71975]

Sorry I didn't define things a little better, I knew the differences between the Specialty Grains, Mash Grains and DME, I just kind of threw them all into one lump.

So what kind of Post Boil gravity would that give you? (say the cider alone is 1.06) I did some more reading on Maximum Extraction Percentages but I'm still just plugging through the start of all this. 3 lbs. of various malts seems like quite a bit more than I was originally thinking, but then again I have never used it before.

Very interesting learning material. I've never liked beer, but I love the malt in it so in order to learn more I'm going to sign up for a beer brewing class this coming weekend to learn as much about it as I can.

Well i highly doubt Cider alone would have that high of a SG, but i could be wrong. With the grains and extract alone in a 5 gallon batch your looking at a starting gravity of around 1.062 give or take. So if we figure 20 points for the cider(dont know how many points it is so this is a ball park guess) that puts you at around a starting gravity of 1.082 which is a bigger "beer" But without an SG reading on the cider i am just guessing. Also if you do it the way i said above, make sure it is VERY well mixed before pitching the yeast.

 

[jguy898]

Well i highly doubt Cider alone would have that high of a SG, but i could be wrong.

The last cider that I did (100% Cider, no preservatives, only UV Pasteurized) had a specific gravity of 1.072.

All the information provided sounds good, I will do more reading and learning and post my recipe here when I believe I have something good enough to sink some money into.

 

[Vance71975]

The last cider that I did (100% Cider, no preservatives, only UV Pasteurized) had a specific gravity of 1.072.

All the information provided sounds good, I will do more reading and learning and post my recipe here when I believe I have something good enough to sink some money into.

Was this including added sugar or was that just how it came straight out the package? If it is that high then i suggest you cut the grains and extract in half unless your planning on using wine yeast, also i would add yeast nutrient and yeast energizer, Just to be sure the yeast have all they need to work their hardest!

 

[jguy898]

Was this including added sugar or was that just how it came straight out the package? If it is that high then i suggest you cut the grains and extract in half unless your planning on using wine yeast, also i would add yeast nutrient and yeast energizer, Just to be sure the yeast have all they need to work their hardest!

That is straight out of the bottle, I never add sugar anyway. I always use Nutrient and Energizer when making ciders, or Mead, so all the bases are covered.

I figured that those malt amounts would need to be halved because of the Starting Gravity, the cider is Martinelli's Gold Medal apple cider, filtered, but absolutely no sugar added, I've heard that they have their own Hybridized apple trees that make their ciders super sweet and I believe it. It is really good stuff, though, very tasty and makes a great sweet carbonated hard Cider. It makes an even better Cyser, and I use Safale-s04 almost exclusively with it.

 

[Vance71975]

That is straight out of the bottle, I never add sugar anyway. I always use Nutrient and Energizer when making ciders, or Mead, so all the bases are covered.

I figured that those malt amounts would need to be halved because of the Starting Gravity, the cider is Martinelli's Gold Medal apple cider, filtered, but absolutely no sugar added, I've heard that they have their own Hybridized apple trees that make their ciders super sweet and I believe it. It is really good stuff, though, very tasty and makes a great sweet carbonated hard Cider. It makes an even better Cyser, and I use Safale-s04 almost exclusively with it.

Well if you do make this i sure wouldnt mind tryin a bottle of it! lol

 

[jguy898]

Well if you do make this i sure wouldnt mind tryin a bottle of it! lol

Yeah, I don't get to try other homebrews very often, so I'd love to have a 'brew-swap' sometime. Funny thing is I was just up by Bryan, up in the sandusky area last week.

I'm thinking about .5 lb Vienna, and 1.5 lb. Caramel 40L Crystal. I'll do a little bit more research and learning on malts and let you know what I'll be making here soon. I cant' wait to try it!

 

[NiteBeest]

I just did a double apple cider about a month ago. 4 gal Tree Top apple juice, 1# light DME, 2# light brown sugar, and 16 12oz cans of frozen apple juice concentrate. Not to much malt flavor, but has a nice medium body and good mouth feel. Bottled half and oaking the other half with hungarian med+ oak cubes. So far pretty tasty. Probably not as much malt as you're looking for, but you could always bump it up a pound or two.