reducing apple juice instead of adding sugar?

[KBentley57]

Hey guys,

While making the Apfelwein last week, I had wondered if instead of adding two lbs of Brown sugar to raise the SG, I could have bought more juice, and reduced by boiling? Has anyone tried this? Would it have too much tartness?

 

[UpstateMike]

Why not just add some thawed to room temperature frozen apple juice concentrate. I am not a fan of boiling apple juice / cider, I feel it changes the flavor.

 

[smegger]

Actually I am curious about this idea too. I'd love to use apple concentrate but it doesn't appear to be readily available in Australia these days.

 

[sashurlow]

Boiling will set the pectin and create a very cloudy cider and even make jelly. Add Pectic enzyme if you choose to boil.
It seems to be going the long way around to boil your cider.

 

[smegger]

I understand that boiling can set the pectins. But does anyone know of other methods of concentrating apple juice into a strong appley syrup or something?
Preferably without setting the pectins.

My reasons for this are to get a strong natural apple flavour to boost the flavour and sweetness of the cider at the end (and yes I realise I may need to pasteurise to prevent it from all fermenting out).
Unfortuntely I cannot purchase ready made concentrate in any form here in australia because it is just not available anymore for some unknown reason (altho if anyone can tell me where to buy some locally or cheap import I'd appreciate it).

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Well, if there's no frozen apple juice concentrate in AU's supermarket freezer section, you could try evaporation concentration. You could either invest in some expensive freeze-drying equipment, or you could heat the juice, but NOT to boiling, not even to a simmer, just a good, steady heat of say 100*F (37.77*C) and let it slowly reduce. You might consider using a double boiler to avoid any possible scorching & by all means cover it with a screen; a solid lid would defeat the purpose.

You might also Have a look at this thread:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/making-apple-concentrate-347175/
GINKINGS has a good post about freeze concentration there, just scroll down.
Just my 2 cents worth. Regards, GF.

 

[Bobby_M]

Freeze concentrate it. I second the recommendation to check out the other thread.

 

[GinKings]

I've tried all three of the methods previously mentioned to concentrate cider. So, here's my two cents.

Boiling requires the least effort and the cider concentrates easily. One time I tried concentrating till it had a syrup consistency. When it cooled, it was so thick that I couldn't even pour it. I've used concentrated boiled cider to make cider a couple times. I used pectic enzyme, but no finings. The cider was a bit cloudy, but nothing too excessive. My issue was with the cooked apple flavor. I doubt I'll ever do it again.

Last year, I tried heating to about 180 F. There were wisps of steam coming off, but not near boiling. I don't recall exactly, but I think it took about 4 hours to reduce it by a little less than half. It's still in a carboy, so I'm not sure of the results. It seemed to change the flavor a little, but nowhere near the boiled cider.

I've found freezing to be a much better method. I posted the basics of my method in the thread that GF mentioned. Concentrating gets harder as the gravity goes up. Getting up to 1.090 is pretty easy. I've gotten my cider up to 1.140 (32 Brix) for ice cider without too much trouble. A commercial ice cider maker has to look at labor costs. They probably freeze a cider once and they only save 1/4 to 1/3 of it. The rest gets dumped. My labor is cheap, so I refreeze the middle third of my melted cider. The cider water that I dump typically has a gravity of 1.006 or less.

 

[KBentley57]

Thanks for the great advice guys! I Hadn't thought about the pectin issues when boiling. It would probably be the fastest, but would probably change the flavor. I'm curious about the freezing method. I see from the thread that you basically freeze it, and as it thaws, the "cider" or sugary part melts first? Then you wait for the first third of the mass by weight to melt, keep it, and discard the rest? That seems to be a pretty good idea, even if only to do for one gallon, as to get a little higher gravity liquid to blend with the rest.

What are your thoughts on cider with concentrate to boost the OG vs cider with brown sugar to boost the OG? What are the taste difference between the two?

 

[smegger]

Yeah, thanks for the info as well. I might experiment a little with these ideas for my next batch