Wanna make a blueberry cider

[Husher]

OK, I've made applewine before with Nottingham. Was thinking of doing another 12 litre batch with champagne yeast (lalvin, can't get red star). Thing is, it's an ok drink in my books, it's not beer, but it's ok while filling the gap and occasionally a nice departure. I've made two batches and both are still in my 'library'.

With that in mind I was at costco and saw someone else with a frozen bad of organic blueberries and thought Hey! I could add blueberries. I think I saw a commercial version with blueberries (which I've never tried since I had commercial ciders).

Anyways, I googled and could not find a recipe. Only some guy who was gonna experiment and never wrote back on how it turned out. My thoughts are, to make the cider using champagne yeast, 12 litres, and aerate really well, then after fermentation ceases, rack onto some blueberries that I've sanitized by making a tea out of. 1.5 Kilos (what, 3-4 Lbs?) is a lot but hopefully not too much? or should I make a 24 litre batch instead with 1.5 kilo's of blueberries?

Thanks

 

[Husher]

I think I saw a commercial version with blueberries (which I've never tried since I had commercial ciders).
Thanks

I meant I hate commercial ciders, so there's no point in trying something that's done wrong. They're always WAY too dry and just plain bitter. Sadly, the best cider is the stuff I brew in my kitchen.

 

[sethlovex]

Last summer I took my kids blueberry picking and ended up with like 8 pints, way more then we could eat so I froze about 3pounds. Freezer mishap, blah blah the berrys defrosted at the same time I was making my 5 gal apfelwine and I added these right to the carboy. After about 2 months in the carboy I racked to a keg for another two months. This stuff is amazing, has a nice dark color, but is crystal clear. The dry Apfelwein taste is there with a slight blueberry tinge in the background. If you want dramatic blueberry flavor I would probably go with 1# per gallon. Oh I didn't bother sanitizing the berrys, I tried pasteurizing kiwis and strawberries before and they tasted like ass after. I prefer the fresh fruit and accept the risks of not sanitizing. The good thing about freezing is it breaks the berrys down into a juicy paste when thawed. If you are really worried you could always dunk em in starsan. Good luck!

 

[Husher]

Huh. Ok, well I'm Canadian so lemme do the math. 1.5 kilos is (according to google) 3.3 Lbs. (Canadians can't handle the imperial system). Anyways, 12 litres is about 3.25 gallons, so probably not a bat idea to add them together for a mini test batch. Though I've heard that adding after fermentation maintains more flavour so I think I'll go that route first as an experiment and double up on the volume in the next batch if it's too strong. Though I can't imagine the taste of blueberries being too strong. But probably best to keep my experiments small ones. I've had to drink gallons of crap when experimenting in the past....

Thanks for the input. Maybe it's what I'm drinking at this moment, but I feel braver now.

 

[sethlovex]

Yes your ratio would be similar to mine. If you want a lot of blueberry flavor you could definetly up the amount, like I said mine has a slight twinge of blueberry in the background. I wouldn't worry about adding until secondary, Apfelweins primary doesn't ferment too vigorously so there's no risk of blowoff of flavors

 

[Schott703]

I made Blueberry hard cider last year with great success. Doing it again this year I can't figure out how to refresh the thread from last year, but if somebody could help I would appreciate it. It's titled "blueberry hard cider" from 3-25-13. Has the whole recipe listed

 

[jamrs90]

Just post in the thread and it will pop right back up to the top.
For reference in this thread though, here is the link: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/blueberry-hard-cider-398046/, info in post #9