Passion Fruit Cider

[Sessionz]

hey everyone,

I have been trying to find any passion fruit cider recipes online to no avail. I love the rekorgling passion fruit cider, but it’s so expensive. I’ve tried my hand at making several 5 gallon batches with fresh juice from my local Logan, UT orchard, but no more fresh juice is in season. I picked up 4 gallons of honey crisp pasteurized juice and 1 gallon of a blend.

I added the following:
3tbsp acid blend
1tbsp yeast nutrient
One sachet Lalvin EC 1118 yeast (what was on hand) - sparkling wine yeast

SG is 1.054 which should finish at about 7%abv

I picked up one 17fl oz DaFruita passion fruit concentrate and 4oz brewers best passion fruit extract. I was going to add the dafruita at the end of primary fermentation and the extract at the end of the secondary. I’ll keg the batch and hope it turns out well.

Does anyone have experience in making passion fruit ciders?

 

[Blacksmith1]

None at all. but from what I know of the 1118 it will not stop until it runs out of fermentable material. if you top this off with unfermented must or add any other source of sugars it will continue to do it's job.
I'd like to try a passion fruit myself, the Ol' lady likes it.
Do we really not have one in the Recipes forum here? I suppose you could use a wine recipe and not add the extra sugar.

 

[Sessionz]

Quick update - 7 days in and my gravity is at 1.020. It was quite tart from my acid addition, but was very tasty. I’m going to wait till I get to 1.010 and throw in the passion fruit concentrate.

Only thing I’m concerned about is the sorbate in the 16 oz of concentrate. Will that stunt my yeast from finishing close to 1.000? I prefer a dryer cider. I figured I’d do this in the primary, but maybe it’s worth waiting till 1.000 and pitch the concentrate into my secondary fermenter to avoid any stuck fermentation.

 

[Sessionz]

Update:

I racked the cider at 1.002 to my secondary where I added two 16oz bottles of the dafruita passion fruit concentrate. I tasted the last bit of dafruita before I poured it all in and wow...that stuff is tart!! I’m going to let it site for about two weeks and check taste and clarity at the time. Cold crash, then keg with some sort of sweetener (AJ concentrate or similar). I’m excited for the end result!

 

[Miraculix]

You really could have skipped the acid blend. Passion fruit is really sour. I used to make passion fruit wine out of the juice which lots of stores are selling (not the concentrate), when dry it was really really tart. When back sweentend, really really delicious.

 

[Sessionz]

Yes, I definitely agree! I’ll have to back sweeten for sure. I’ll let you know how it turns out. Cheers!

 

[Sessionz]

Update:

I transferred from the secondary to a 5gal keg about two weeks ago. I added 64 oz of sweetened passion fruit juice from the store and 2oz of brewers best passion fruit concentrate. I force carbed for 24hrs and have been enjoying it ever since! It tastes like taking a bite out of a fresh passion fruit! It’s not too sweet, but the passion fruit aromas give an effect of “sweetness”. I added a bit more carbonation than normal which makes this extra bubbly on the pallet. I’ll have to make another batch up for the summer as I know this one won’t last long! Cheers!

 

[Sessionz]

Here are some pictures of the process.

Ingredients for primary

Prepping the secondary with PF concentrate and pectic enzyme before transfer (forgot to add in primary). Primary is on the right.

Finished Product! It came out a bit cloudier than normal, but it tastes great!

 

[bmd2k1]

Here are some pictures of the process.

Ingredients for primary

View attachment 610242

Prepping the secondary with PF concentrate and pectic enzyme before transfer (forgot to add in primary). Primary is on the right.
View attachment 610243

Finished Product! It came out a bit cloudier than normal, but it tastes great!
View attachment 610244

Looks great! [emoji111]

Haven't had passion fruit b4....need 2 try some.

 

[Pizombie]

I made a one gallon batch of passion fruit cider last year that turned out pretty good and plan to do again this summer. My primary used champagne yeast and was fermented out over four months. I added 20 ounces of Vintner's passion fruit puree along with some pectin enzyme and yeast nutrient for a secondary ferment of about a two months before I bottled it up. I like my ciders dry and don't usually take SG readings. Turned out crystal clear and was very tart passion fruit forward.

 

[Sessionz]

Hey all! I just wanted to report back that I have made two more batches of this cider, but cut the Dafruta passion fruit concentrate to one 16oz bottle. It was a bit tart with two bottles added to the secondary. I have had rave reviews and can’t seem to keep this on tap for more than a few weeks!

 

[BreweyMcHops]

I
Not passionfruit but i do LOTS of dark fruit ciders with various ingredients, and my 2 tips would be

• Dont go too high on the ABV wind it back to 5% max . With a stockpile of booze at home thr LAST problem any brewer has is not getting enough alcohol . You will get a better flavour too without adding heaps of sugar , and its better to have a couple of nice ones over ice than 1 rocket fuel 8% that gives you a headache.
• Use apple juice as your base and add most of your other fruit ( be it berries , pears or probably passionfruit) at priming stage and factor that sugar in when calculating your priming shugar. Even if making plain apple cider you still add approx 2L of fresh juice back to 21L as the best primer for bottling

My last caution is for your first batch run...use plastic not glass because you learn how that particular drink/recepie carbonates. Ginger beers for example are famous for making bottle b@mb$

Cheers!