Noob Question

[tooomanycolors]

I just got into making mead, I have my first 2 about a month from bottles, hopefully. Also my roommate has been brewing beer for over a year.

Anyway, I want to make a hard cider but I want it to still taste like apple cider when Im done, my roommate tried one with 5 gallons of cider and I dont know what yeast but it tastes like a weak wine with a little apple flavor. Can someone share some experiences where the cider still tasted like cider and some possible recipes. remember any advice will be awesome

 

[Crazytwoknobs]

I would think, and don't trust me without consulting other peeps, that you could achieve this by using as many different types of apples/ciders as possible, and using a bit of each kind of suggested sugar (table, brown, dextrose, honey, concentrate).

Read around in this forum, it'll help a lot.

 

[Tusch]

I am interested to see what someone says about that suggestion. Newbie here too, but I'm just not sure where that came from.

 

[Adolphus79]

If you don't want you cider to finish too dry, try stopping fermentation when it reaches your desired flavor. Depending on your recipe, give it a couple weeks, then taste test it, and if you like it, then stop the fermentation right there. Otherwise, if you are wanting to carb it in the end, I think priming with AJ concentrate would probably put back a good bit of the apple flavor.

 

[Drunkensatyr]

Unless you are force carbing there is very little you can do to add the apple back. Dumping in concentrate will work, but it is fermentable, so as it ages, it too will dry out. Sweetening is easy (add unfermentable sugars) but apple flavor is a bit harder to do if you want sparkling bottle conditioned cider.

 

[Drunkensatyr]

table, brown, dextrose, honey, concentrate

Those are all fermentable and will lead to an even drier cider.