Rum soaked chips for an Amber Cider?

[Brewkowski]

I'm thinking about doing a 3 gal batch with the following and then using maybe a really dark rum to soak the chips in (Gosling Black Seal) or something that's really rich, or maybe some spiced rum.


3 gal of Apple cider

1 lb Dark Brown Sugar

1 12oz jar of molasses (black strap if I can find it)

Not sure on yeast but I think i have some US-05 on hand, but sounds like some people have tried a Belgian yeast with good results.

1-2 oz of rum soaked oak chips

I was thinking of putting maybe a pound or two of raisins to add some extra character

or maybe steep some darker raisiny grains (which ones), maybe at a higher temp to add more unfermentables for added body?

I'd like to bottle condition it, or maybe prime it with some apple juice concentrate in a keg and transfer it to bottles for storage. Would that work?

 

[HopHead24]

Subscribed...Can't wait to hear how this turns out. I have a rum barrel for beer but don't think I'll put cider in it. LOL

I'm playing around with
2 gallons fresh apple cider
1 gallon pear wine base

fermented with Belgian yeas fermented at 80F to cause more ester production. Not sure if I'll add any sugars until I get a gravity reading.

 

[jddhammer]

Last season I did a batch with and without oak chips and substituted raw honey for the molasses. The batch with the oak had great scotch-like taste (without any alcohol soak) and the the one without was more like a richer apfelwein. Both were done with dry ale yeast. The oak has faded at a year though. Personally, I'd stick with the chips and let them do their own thing.

Neither could touch my natural yeast batch with honey. Hoping to get lucky again this year.

 

[Brewkowski]

Well, for a test sample I took a few oak chips and soaked them in Bacardi Oakheart for a few hours and threw them in a Woodchuck 802. The taste was pretty good, a little rough of course, but I think it might be on track. Carb'ng with apple concentrate to get a little more apple flavor though and kegging. Not exactly the rum I was thinking of but it was on sale for like $14 so I had it on hand.

 

[Brewkowski]

OK, started this the other day with the following

4.5 gal Indian Summer Natural Apple Juice
1 lb Dark Brown Sugar
12oz Grandma's Robust Molasses ( I think it's a second boil molasses)
US-05 ale yeast
1oz Med toasted French Oak Chips (soaked in 2/3 cup Bacardi Oakheart)

Heated some juice with the brown sugar and molasses to dissolve. Mixed sugar mixture with all juice in bucket and shook and stirred. Rehydrated yeast with dilute must and pitched at about 71 degrees then put on the back porch. First night got a little cold and was down to 57 degrees so I brought it in and it's steady between 66-69 so far with pretty good airlock activity within 24 hours.
OG was 1.064 so it's going to be maybe 7%-8% ABV depending on how things go, but the plan is to let it sit in primary for a couple of weeks and then add the oak chips and rum for another week or two before moving to the keg where I will add some (between 1/2 and full can )frozen apple juice concentrate to carb it.

--Just got home and stuck my head over the airlock, and it's the best smelling fermentation I've ever had. Was expecting the rhino farts, but it's more like bubbling applesauce.

--10/23, Was mostly fermenting in the low 60's till a cold front came through (bucket is on the back porch) and dropped into high 40's for a few days, but after a warm up yesterday I see the yeast have been rejuvinated and some new airlock activity. I thought it was done before it even got cold, but guess I need to wait another week at least before racking to keg.

--10/31 Tasted it the other night and it was pretty good, but not much oak and the gravity was still a little high (1.010), guess the cold temps on the porch stopped it sooner than I thought. So set it inside, around 60 degrees now and it bubbled for two days, so I'll give it a few more days while I plan on adding more oak. Not much for oak or rum flavors, so I'm going to toast some Jack Daniels smoking chips since I can't get to the brew store till next week, and then soak 2oz of chips in 1 cup of Myer's Rum.