Vanilla-Spice Pumpkin-Apple Cider

[tokerlund]

My plan for some holiday cider to bring/give away during the holidays:


4 gallons of Walmart apple juice
1 packet yeast (Notty)
Leave fement for 5-10 days

Rack onto
1 vanilla bean cut in half
2 cans Pumpkin Pie Filling
1 tablespoon of Pumpkin Pie Spice
Leave for 5-10 days

Rack onto 1 gallon of Walmart apple juice

Rack into champagne bottles

Dishwasher pasteurize
1/3 of the bottles at 3-4 days (sweet)
1/3 of the bottles at 5-7 days (Semi-Sweet)
1/3 of the bottles at 10 days (Dry)

 

[WinterWarrior]

Did you check the ingredients on the Pumpkin Pie filling? I've never used it, so I'm not sure if it has any chemicals in it that would mess up your fermentation.

I was advised to add shredded sweet potato to the pumpkin to enhance the pumpkin flavor. Being that I don't want to shred up sweet potatoes by hand, I found that Wegman's has frozen diced sweet potatoes and they aren't treated with anything, so I'll probably use those instead.

 

[tokerlund]

I ended up using:

4 gallons of Apple Juice fermented for one week on S-04

Then I adde
4- 29oz cans of Libby's Pumpkin (Nothing but pumpkin in there)
1 tbls of Pumpkin Spice
96oz of Apple Juice
Mixed up then racked the already fermented Apple Cider on top
Gave a good stir, then capped and fitted an air lock

I plan to let this sit for 7-10 days, Then add 2 vanilla beans to is and let it sit another 5-7 days.

I will then rack to a bucket with 96oz of apple juice and then rack into bottles.

Let it sit for 7-14 days and enjoy. I should have some ready for opening of pheasant hunting in South Dakota. I will for sure have some for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

 

[JuiceyJay]

Sounds tasty!

 

[thirstydeerbrew]

I ended up using:

Let it sit for 7-14 days and enjoy. I should have some ready for opening of pheasant hunting in South Dakota. I will for sure have some for Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Have you tasted this yet??

 

[thirstydeerbrew]

bump for the question (i am making this today i think)

 

[Satch12]

Does the pumpkin fall out when you cold crash or does it dissolve pretty well when added to the secondary?

 

[tokerlund]

It tasted a lot like Pumpkin Pie. I could definitely taste the spice, but to my taste the vanilla didn't come out as strong. My wife says she could taste it, but the beans I used were a bit older. I used three beans cut up, but I made a mess of that process.

I backsweetened the 5 gallons with 96oz of apple juice. . . So it was a bit sweeter than I tend to drink. Dishwasher-pasturized about 1/3 of it after 3 days of carbing. I plan to do the next 1/3 after about 6 days and then let the rest of it go all the way dry. Our goal is to have some ready for Halloween and then again for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

As far as the pumpkin settling out. . . are you talking about once it is done and bottled of in the primary/secondary? I added the pumpkin to the secondary bucket. Then I racked on 96oz of apple juice and then whipped it into a solution. Then I racked over the already fermented cider. The yeast took about 24-36 hours to re-start fermentation on the pumpkin-juice mixed with the cider.

The pumpkin had pretty much all settled out and I was careful when racking. There was a bit of haze when racking, so I would guess a bit more of that will fall out when cold-crashed. As of now, they are all sitting in the basement carbing up.

We have a wedding this weekend, I plan to bring one bottle and get some non-biased opinions.

 

[b-boy]

Follow-up on the recipe? How did it turn out? I have 5-gallons of freshly fermented cider looking for a home.

 

[TheNewGuy2]

I second b boy

 

[tokerlund]

It is good. I should have put more pumpkin pie filling in there or I should have tried the sweet potato that people suggested instead. The pumpkin flavor was less than I expected. The Vanilla was just a hint, probably do to me freezing the beans for long term storage. The spice, was just right.