Southern Sweet Cider

[sceneater]

Ingredients:
2 Gal Publix Greenwise Apple Juice
8oz Publix Pure Clover Honey
3oz Publix Molasses
2 teaspoons potassium sorbate
1.5 cups Domino Dark Brown Sugar
Yeast:
Fermentis Salfale S-04
Directions
Pour 1.75 gallons apple juice into primary. Heat the remaining apple juice on the stove top(low setting) and add honey and molasses. Stir until combined well. Cool down and add to primary. Rehydrate yeast and pitch. Ferment at 70 degrees for ten days. After ten days, transfer to secondary and add potassium sorbate. I let mine sit for about another ten days then added brown sugar. Heat 1.5 cups of water and add brown sugar to water. Stir until sugar is diluted. Add to secondary. I kegged mine about 5 days later. The sample was delicious, real sweet and appley. Carbing it up now.

O.G.:1.068
Final Gravity:1.012

 

[JMSetzler]

This sounds delicious and I might try it out myself. Question...

You say you kegged... How would I go about bottle carbing this if I wanted to bottle it instead? I'm curious if the 1.5 cups of brown sugar added in the secondary 5 days prior to kegging would provide enough priming for bottle carbonation...

Edit:

Hmm... I guess the potassium sorbate would kill the additional fermention for carbing in bottles.

 

[sceneater]

Yes indeed the potassium sorbate killed the yeast. You could bottle condition if you didn't backsweeten it with the brown sugar and it would still be good just not as sweet. Initially I had not intended to backsweeten this but I let it go longer in the primary than I had intended too(life got busy) and it got a bit dryer than I wanted. If you racked it after 3 to 5 days it would finish sweeter without the brown sugar. Give it a shot and let me know.

 

[sceneater]

Holy Sheet this stuff is good!!!!! Can't stop drinking them! Do it!

 

[sceneater]

 

[sceneater]

 

[JMSetzler]

What's the alcohol content like?

 

[sceneater]

The ABV is right around 7% but it's not real dry cause of the backsweetening. They're real easy to put down so pace yourself.
I'm gonna do a bigger batch here real soon because I drank them up real quick.

 

[NomNom]

My girlfriend has been bugging me to do a sweet cider so I think this may be the one to try. Just out of curiosity, if you are kegging it, why do you only do a 2.5g batch?

 

[sceneater]

I did a small batch because it was my first time working with potassium sorbate and then back-sweetening. Also, I too have been trying to make something my girlfriend would drink and didn't want another 5 gallons of a cider she didn't like. Plus, bottling out of a keg with the counter pressure bottle filler sure beats the bucket! I'd keg a one gallon batch to avoid that thing!

 

[NomNom]

I went ahead and made a double batch of this today (a little over 4 gallons). Publix had buy one get one Motts apple juice (100%, no additives) so I used 8 64oz bottles. It looks great and my OG came out to 1.065. I used the Publix brand Orange Blossom honey to see if it gives it an interesting flavor. I also aerated with an airstone. Will let you know how it turns out!

 

[TheBrewingGator]

i just drank the bottle you gave me. this concoction turned out to be really good.

 

[chefchris]

I will also chime in and say that this is a very good cider. Well done, Jeremy. Well done.

 

[sceneater]

Thanks guys!

 

[corexcore]

I have two questions about this recipe.

One, does anyone have any experience using fresh-pressed apple cider for this? The apple season is coming up real quick here in Maine and it'd be swell to have some sweet, hard cider made from local apples.

EDIT: My second question was about bottle carbing, but I've done a bit more research and used some common sense and see that you can't really carb a sweet cider without fake sugars or a co2 setup, which I lack. It'd be cool to have it bottle carbed and sweet, but oh well.

 

[tange1]

I have a batch of this in progress now - upped the recipe to 5 gallons. My OG was only 1.060 (close enough, i think) and I used wyeast cider yeast. After about 5 days in a warm space the cider is at 1.025. Hopefully it continues to drop.

 

[flyweed]

sceneater

Your cherry bomb cider sounds interesting too...could you post that recipe, and possibly describe the tast, color, texture, etc as well??? I'd love to make a cherry flavored cider.

Dan

 

[Arby]

Sorry,
Browser error caused a post on the wrong thread...

 

[Wyldjim]

So, updated recipe for 5 gal? I have never used potassium sorbate. Want to know how much to use for 5 gal. I have drunk a lot of commercial ciders over the years. I like the sweet ones as well as the dry ones. No one seems able to make a sweet one naturally, so I look forward to trying this one.

But, if it's good enough to make, it's good enough to make 5 gal

 

[flyweed]

just read the bottle of Sorbate..it tells how much for 5 gallons. I think it's a half teaspoon per gallon (2 1/2 teaspoons for 5 gallons)

Dan

 

[Wyldjim]

Thanks, I had a hard time finding any. My home brew store does not carry it. I had to find it on a wine website. It was giving directions on the website for wine and said to use with Meta-Bisulphite. I'm guessing that is for wine preserving and not needed for cider.

Jim

 

[Bush_84]

I assume that this is a 2 gal recipe. Anybody mind double checking my math and telling me that this is the accurate form of a 6 gal recipe? That seems like a lot of brown sugar for sweeting.

6 gal cider.
1 ½ lbs honey
9 oz molasses
4 ½ lbs brown sugar.
Potassium sorbate

 

[flyweed]

NO..thats wrong...

6 gallons cider
1 1/2 pounds of honey
9 oz molasses
Pot. Sorbate
4 1/2 CUPS of Brown sugar...NOT POUNDS

 

[cbrychcy]

Yes indeed the potassium sorbate killed the yeast. You could bottle condition if you didn't backsweeten it with the brown sugar and it would still be good just not as sweet. Initially I had not intended to backsweeten this but I let it go longer in the primary than I had intended too(life got busy) and it got a bit dryer than I wanted. If you racked it after 3 to 5 days it would finish sweeter without the brown sugar. Give it a shot and let me know.

Hey guys just to clear up a question I had
I was planning on making twice as much so I was going to double the recipe
I was going to let the cider ferment for about a week in the primary and then siphon into secondary since i plan on bottling instead of kegging will I still need to add the potassium sorbate? This is my third homebrew very excited about the cider my finance wont get off my ass basically i guess I'm looking for a more defined step by step with time frames and instead of kegging what I would need to do for bottling, Sorry for the newb questions thanks for any help you guys rock!!!!

 

[flyweed]

just follow the OP directions..10 days in primary...add your K-meta and let sit another 10 days. Then bottle. you don't necessarily need the brown sugar...it is plenty sweet without it. I just did a new batch of this. was at 11 days yesterday, when I racked it off the lee's and added my bisulphite...and my OG was at 1.010..and it was very good. I may just add some cinnamon extract to spice it up just a bit and call it good.

the Salfale so4 is a great yeast for this one....if you want it it drier then backsweeten using sweet mead yeast or other.

Dan

 

[jmorriso]

Just started up a 5 gallon batch of this last night. Only change is I threw in a cinnamon stick to the juice we heated on the stove and then dropped it in the fermenter with the honey/juice/molasses mixture. It was fermenting steadily within a couple hours. Here is what we used:

-24 oz honey (We measured out 20oz which would be the correct amount according to recipe, but there was just a little bit left in the container so we just used all of it)
-7.5 oz molasses
-1 cinnamon stick
-5 gallons Always Save brand Apple Juice (3 qt jugs were on sale for $1.50 each)
-1 packet salfale s-04
-5 tsp. potassium-sorbate
-7.5 to 8 cups brown sugar and apple juice mixture for back sweetening

I plan on siphoning onto the p-sorbate in a couple weeks, then back sweetening a week later. Then moving it to the keg a week or so after that. I've only got a single tap keg and its in use, so it'll have some conditioning time before I'm able to fully hook it up and start drinking it.

I've got 2 thoughts:
1. I've got lots of juice left (bought 10 gallons, planning on making this and edworts, but then realized I didn't have enough carboy space!) so I was thinking about back sweetening with a juice and brown sugar mix instead of water. Anyone see a problem there?

2. When I let this condition in the keg should I go ahead and apply co2 and let it carb, or should I leave it still until right before I'm ready to start drinking? Or is there any difference?

3. What psi do you keg it at?

 

[rpg]

3. What psi do you keg it at?

I kegged a similar batch of cider under 12 PSI at 40 degrees F, and that worked out well for my tastes.

 

[400d]

can I bottle carbonate this? what is the recommended level of carbonation for cider?

if I carbonate in bottles I assume I should add some yeast before bottling? am I right?

 

[codeblue2k]

can I bottle carbonate this? what is the recommended level of carbonation for cider?

if I carbonate in bottles I assume I should add some yeast before bottling? am I right?

I haven't tried this recipe, but from other replies it looks like you can. You just wouldn't add the brown sugar. I would assume that after letting it sit for another 10 days in the secondary, you would rack it and add follow the same steps for bottling any other beer, bottling sugar. Am I right?

Is there anything we can use to replace the brown sugar, so we can keep the sweetness up?

 

[Old_E]

This stuff is awesome. Wish I had brewed 4-5 gallons. SWMBO wants more!

Finding juice with no preservatives is always a problem.