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Southern Sweet Cider

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if you like this simple one, you'll love this next I brewed up. I used some advice from CvilleKevin and came up with a super simple, and tasty hard cider

5 gallons tree topp AJ
2-3lbs of raw Orange blossom honey to take the O.G. to 1.065

add 4 gallons of Tree Top AJ to primary. Warm a quart of AJ (not boil) and add honey to mix it and dissolve it. add this a bit at a time until you reach your OG of 1.065

Make a yeast starter, and use Nottingham yeast. Add this to to juice, when juice is room temp. Over the course of the next 4-5 days take a gravity reading daily..until you get it dropped down to 1.020...cold crash it...and then add 1 tablespon of cinnamon extract..and then keg and carb.

It's an awesome tasting hard cider that is ready quickly! Good stuff

Dan
 
I have this fermenting in the Primary now... I had a question about the Potassium Sorbate though. I thought you had to combine the k-Sorbate with k-Meta (Campden Tablets) in order to insure halted fermentation? Was planning on kegging this and bottling from the keg, but I don't want to run into bottle bombs if the bottles were stored warmer.
 
This stuff sounds great. I don't keg, so tell me if this would work.

I was thinking of back sweetening as stated, then bottling. After bottling, I will let it sit at room temp for a day or two then stick it in the fridge. This should make it partially carbed and partially sweet I would think.

Now, if I do this, would it ever be safe to take out of the fridge for an extended period of time? In other words, would this ever permanently stop fermentation? Maybe if I freeze it? (no idea what that would do to taste)

Oh, and I of course would then use no preservatives for this.

EDIT: Never mind, I just discovered the wonderful world of bottle pasteurization. Wish I would have known about this method earlier!
 
will adding the cinnamon extract before pitching the yeast prevent fermentation?

I have a similar brew, but it doesn't seem to have started fermenting and I wonder if it is because I added the cinnamon extract the same time I pitched the yeast.
 
This is my favorite recipe. I've bottled and drank two batches, I have one in the primary, and one in the secondary. The one in the secondary I included fresh pineapple juice from the start. I'll let you know how it turns out. Cheers!
 
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.

How would not adding the Brown Sugar in the secondary condition the brew for carbing in bottles?

I would think adding the brown sugar would give it the fizzle for carbing?!
 
I don't have potassium sorbate. Could I just cold crash it and then back sweeten it?
 
How would not adding the Brown Sugar in the secondary condition the brew for carbing in bottles?

I would think adding the brown sugar would give it the fizzle for carbing?!

I'm curious too. I want to do this recipe but I don't keg so bottling is the way for me. If I don't add the brown sugar and then bottle, will it carb?
 
I scaled the original post down to one gallon and started it today. OG was 1.060 and the molasses turned this very dark. I'm looking forward to this one. I used a yeast pack from a Brooklyn Brewer Everyday IPA kit.
 
If potassium sorbate kills the yeast, how would you get carbonation?

I'm guessing if you are bottling you would not want to use the potassium sorbate. I think for us bottlers, the best way to go would be to add the brown sugar into the bottling bucket, bottle, test a bottle every day til primed, then pasteurize. This should back sweeten I'm assuming because there would be more than enough brown sugar for carbonation and pasteurizing would keep the sugar still in the cider giving a sweeter overall taste.
 
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