Hi,
I've been brewing beer for ten years, but I've only tried one cider (apple) that was OK, but nothing special (I think it finished too dry). My wife is a fan of ciders, and a couple of years ago she had a plum cider while we were traveling, and swears it was the best cider she's ever had.
I wanted to try another cider this winter, and I'd like to give plum a try, but finding ingredients for that are next to impossible around here. I get most of my brewing supplies from Northern Brewer, and I came across two products when I searched for plum on their site. Neither product is specifically for cider, but I was wondering if they would work.
The first one I saw was this plum puree. I know I'd have to start with a base juice (probably apple) and use the puree to infuse plum flavor. There are obvious issues with this as I wouldn't know how much puree to use per gallon, etc.
The second product I saw was for making plum wine. It's a one-gallon concentrate which makes five gallons of wine at 10% ABV; higher than I'd want for cider so I'd have to dilute it more than 5:1. And if contains a mix of juices and corn syrup, so I'm not totally enthused on that.
As far as the dryness of my first cider, I used champagne yeast and let it fully ferment. I see SafCider offers several yeasts, including AB-1 (balanced) and AS-2 (sweet). Has anyone had success with these? I've messed with stabilizing, and back sweetening when I made a hard root beer, and I'd prefer to avoid that if possible.
I greatly appreciate any advice you can provide. Thanks!
I've been brewing beer for ten years, but I've only tried one cider (apple) that was OK, but nothing special (I think it finished too dry). My wife is a fan of ciders, and a couple of years ago she had a plum cider while we were traveling, and swears it was the best cider she's ever had.
I wanted to try another cider this winter, and I'd like to give plum a try, but finding ingredients for that are next to impossible around here. I get most of my brewing supplies from Northern Brewer, and I came across two products when I searched for plum on their site. Neither product is specifically for cider, but I was wondering if they would work.
The first one I saw was this plum puree. I know I'd have to start with a base juice (probably apple) and use the puree to infuse plum flavor. There are obvious issues with this as I wouldn't know how much puree to use per gallon, etc.
The second product I saw was for making plum wine. It's a one-gallon concentrate which makes five gallons of wine at 10% ABV; higher than I'd want for cider so I'd have to dilute it more than 5:1. And if contains a mix of juices and corn syrup, so I'm not totally enthused on that.
As far as the dryness of my first cider, I used champagne yeast and let it fully ferment. I see SafCider offers several yeasts, including AB-1 (balanced) and AS-2 (sweet). Has anyone had success with these? I've messed with stabilizing, and back sweetening when I made a hard root beer, and I'd prefer to avoid that if possible.
I greatly appreciate any advice you can provide. Thanks!
