bigmick91
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- Joined
- Oct 23, 2014
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That time of year is coming around again soon, and usually this time of year I rack off one of my reds from the year to make into mulled wine. A firm favourite among friends and relatives but the wife can't stand the stuff! She's recently gotten into real cider, even made her first batch, so decided to give it a crack with the same flavor components. We're lucky enough to live next to a farm, and be very friendly with the farmer, who happily supplies apples from his orchard.
For the spiced cider i pressed 4 bin bags full (didn't weigh unfortunately but gave me around 7 gal of fresh juice) the apples where a mixture of granny smith, coxs and an unknown cooking apple, that may i add in the hands of my good lady make a fine pie or crumble! But i digress. The juice was a little sour but had a great fresh aroma. After the juicing i divided it equally between 2 5 gallon sterile fermentation bins. I boiled up enough water to top up with the juice of 3 lemons (and 1 stray lime but it worked just fine!) and added 2 pounds of muscavado sugar and a good glug of maple syrup. For the spice, into muslin bags, i placed 3 cinnamon sticks, 1 vanilla pod, 1 piece of star anise and a few cloves in each. I let it boil up for a while to infuse into my sugar mix and topped off the bins.
As a yeast culture i decided on Lalvin EC-1118, its my go to cider yeast, can't fault the stuff if im honest but can be a little temperature picky, i always cold ferment cider, and that isn't too hard where i live! After i added the culture to bin number 1, i realised it was actually the last of the packet. So decided to break my own rule, and used allinson fast action bread yeast (i know, and im sorry) but sealed the buckets with the spice bags still inside.
As expected the bread yeast cider bubbled and foamed like crazy for 4 days, the cultured yeast took a little longer to start. After 2 weeks i checked the flavor, bread yeast had stayed semi sweet, EC-1118 had fermented to dryness, a little too dry in fact so have had to back sweeten.
I transferred to pressure barrels and am in the process of aging, some in demijohns with oak chips for an extra edge.
Result, a bloody good spiced cider so far, the wife loves it, and all of our friends have earmarked a bottle when its totally finished! Apparently its especially good with a drop of navy rum, according to our friendly farmer why supplied the apples.
Anyone else had such success with spiced cider or any suggestions for future?
I almost don't want to say it, but i have to admit the one using bread yeast if anything has more depth of flavor although its a little harsher on the nose.
For the spiced cider i pressed 4 bin bags full (didn't weigh unfortunately but gave me around 7 gal of fresh juice) the apples where a mixture of granny smith, coxs and an unknown cooking apple, that may i add in the hands of my good lady make a fine pie or crumble! But i digress. The juice was a little sour but had a great fresh aroma. After the juicing i divided it equally between 2 5 gallon sterile fermentation bins. I boiled up enough water to top up with the juice of 3 lemons (and 1 stray lime but it worked just fine!) and added 2 pounds of muscavado sugar and a good glug of maple syrup. For the spice, into muslin bags, i placed 3 cinnamon sticks, 1 vanilla pod, 1 piece of star anise and a few cloves in each. I let it boil up for a while to infuse into my sugar mix and topped off the bins.
As a yeast culture i decided on Lalvin EC-1118, its my go to cider yeast, can't fault the stuff if im honest but can be a little temperature picky, i always cold ferment cider, and that isn't too hard where i live! After i added the culture to bin number 1, i realised it was actually the last of the packet. So decided to break my own rule, and used allinson fast action bread yeast (i know, and im sorry) but sealed the buckets with the spice bags still inside.
As expected the bread yeast cider bubbled and foamed like crazy for 4 days, the cultured yeast took a little longer to start. After 2 weeks i checked the flavor, bread yeast had stayed semi sweet, EC-1118 had fermented to dryness, a little too dry in fact so have had to back sweeten.
I transferred to pressure barrels and am in the process of aging, some in demijohns with oak chips for an extra edge.
Result, a bloody good spiced cider so far, the wife loves it, and all of our friends have earmarked a bottle when its totally finished! Apparently its especially good with a drop of navy rum, according to our friendly farmer why supplied the apples.
Anyone else had such success with spiced cider or any suggestions for future?
I almost don't want to say it, but i have to admit the one using bread yeast if anything has more depth of flavor although its a little harsher on the nose.
