Mango Cider

[jgallaher]

I have done my fair share of research on making ciders from apples (21g of sugar) but I have never seen one made from mango's (32g of sugar). I have about 10 gallons juiced in different ways (juice w/pulp, pureed & pure juice) and would like to see if this is even possible. I have the Camden tablets & White Labs cider yeast but I feel like this is still not possible.

I have a gallon of the juice with pulp in its 3rd clarification stage (took a while to separate) and now I am ready to bottle. It went from 3 gallons down to about one... and it smells more like a mead.

Q1: Should I cut the mango with water and some cane sugar?
Q2: Is 1 tube of yeast too much for 3 gal of mango?
Q3: Is this retarded and should I just mix the mango with rum and be done with it?

I will be trying the first batch in 2 weeks... Likely will let it age to mello.

 

[Texconsinite]

Ive been trying ciders lately with just about any 100% juice that strikes my fancy at the store, and so far everything has fermented so I don't see why mango wouldnt work. If you can make wine from it, then why not cider?

1) I dont know why you'd NEED to cut the mango juice. Many people add sugar to apple juice when making cider, so you could just ferment as is and get a strong brew. I certainly wouldn't add sugar to make it stronger, as that higher ABV makes it age MUCH slower and have a winey taste in the meantime. Have you checked the SG of the juice as it is right now? The store juice i use is around 1.047-1.051, and makes 5-5.5% ciders with only priming sugar added. The only thing you might do is save a little juice for backsweetening at end.

2)1 tub of yeast is NOT too much for even 5 gallons of cider, however I have never used a cider yeast before. I generally use US-04 ale yeast, which leaves more of the fruit flavor and wont ferment quite as dry as the wine yeast I initially used for cider. Why not use cider yeast.The only challenge with using mangos vs Apple juice is there might be different amounts of nutrients in the mangos. This is easily solved with a little yeast nutrient.

3) I think this is a GREAT idea, and glad someone is trying it! If you can make cider from apples and pears, why NOT mangoes!! Im excited to hear how this turns out. IMO, if you want Mango mixed w Rum, go buy Mango Jack or Parrot Bay from the Liquor store and mix w orange juice. Use the good mango juice for homebrewing!!!

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi jgallaher, What makes fermented mango a cider and not a wine? I've made mango wine and it tastes delicious. I wouldn't dilute it with water but you might want to add some additional sugar to increase the ABV. You might use cane sugar or honey. Assuming that your mangos will result in an ABV of about 5 or 6 percent then you should be able to ferment this with a single dose of yeast. I would choose from a selection of wine yeasts rather than ale or lager (most - all? - wine yeasts are sold dry).
What you will find is that about 1/3 of your juice (perhaps even more) will end up as lees, so your 3 gallons of liquid will result in not much more than 2 gallons of wine. You say that it is just about ready to bottle. Mango wine (or cider if that is what you really want to call it) ferments clear and golden and certainly clear enough to read a newspaper through - if you have the patience.
You may want to add pectic enzyme to help break down the pectins and so help clear the wine.

 

[jgallaher]

Thank you Texconsinite & BernardSmith for your input. I was hesitant to start this chain as I have never posted on any forum before. It seems from your thoughts that I am on the right path just need a few trial batches to refine the process.
I will be sure to post all findings to this thread so y'all know what progress (or lack of) I have made.

Thanks again for posting a response.

 

[FNQAlex]

I'm interested to follow this...have just picked a wheelbarrow full of mangos and am keen to make a mango cider as my first cider....would pure mango juice be better than mango pulp and water? Am new to this so please excuse my ignorance....

Cheers guys...

 

[UncleRusty]

I made a mango cider last year, but it was more of a true cider in that it was 5 gallons of Apple juice base, that I racked onto a secondary fermentation of ~9lbs of mango puree. Turned out really great, though I ended up adding a little mango juice to the keg to keep it slightly sweet and to bring out the flavor a bit. I typically use Nottingham for all of my ciders and they turn out great with that yeast.

 

[AkTom]

Too bad mangoes don't grow in Alaska. I'd try it in a heartbeat if I had the juice.

 

[jgallaher]

I tried the mango cider 3 times and failed each time. Trial 1 was pulp, purée, trial 2 was purée only, the last was just the juice as filtered as possible. I think the last was my best attempt but I cut it with water and had a heavy mead yeast starter which tipped the booze scale up too high. The result was a kick in the face without the flavor. If I were to give it one more go I would do a 50-50 apple cider blend with heavily filtered mango juice, no water & a more moderate yeast starter.
I appreciate the other input on this thread. It gives me the motivation to try again, especially since my mango tree has been a living mockery of my failure.

 

[jgallaher]

Uncle Rusty, How did you filter after secondary?

 

[UncleRusty]

Uncle Rusty, How did you filter after secondary?

I had to use an ungodly amount of pectic enzyme, and also a fair bit of gelatin. If I recall correctly, I think I used 5-6x the amount of enzyme as recommended for 5 gallons. I then cold crashed it for 10 days and it finally came out mostly clear. I also was using "raw mangoes" that I got from the store, which like you I turned into puree the old fashioned way.

The pectic enzyme works better without the presence of alcohol, but I'm thinking that adding it to the puree first wouldn't really work since it's so thick unlike juice.