Watermelon Hard Cider

[robert_heat]

Hello everyone,

Been a while since I have posted, but in the meantime I have been slowly building my gear and getting a few batches under my belt. And now I turn to the community once again for some help.

My wife is due with our first child (a baby girl) in the next couple of weeks here, which puts the baby's baptism around summer of this year. Inevitably we will have a bbq/pool party afterwards and I want to brew a celebratory concoction. That got me thinking...might as well try a cider as it will be more popular with the women at the party.

So, I would really like to make a Watermelon Hard Cider. Yes yes I know, feel free to post attacks on my masculinity and whether I am a true homebrewer, but after you get that over with help me!

Since I have never brewed a cider I have absolutely no clue what I am doing but have done some research and have a tentative plan. I was thinking the first thing I would do is juice some watermelons, probably enough to have a few gallons worth, and then simmer the juice for 30 minutes to an hour to cook off any yeast or wild bacteria. After that, should be as simple as throwing in some brewer's yeast and putting it into primary right? I know ciders tend to have a longer aging time in the bottles, so I would like to get going as soon as possible. Any tips? Thoughts?

 

[goose1873]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/edworts-apfelwein-33986/

 

[goose1873]

the problem with cider is that making a sweet cider without kegging equipment is a little tricky...you need to use non-fermentable sweeteners so that the yeast can't just dry it out again...

Also if you are worried about "wild strains" just add a little k-meta (potassium metabisulfate)...no need to boil the melon juice imo. It will only allow the strong (added yeast) to thrive.

Watermelon juice is not very sweet (fermentables), if you can keg...i would suggest making a strong cider ferment dry, then shut down the fermentation with potassium sorbate and k-meta (they are cheap) and sweeten with a bunch of watermellon juice...then toss it in the keg and force carb...(you can always bottle from the keg if you desire)...

i might have to try this one myself...

 

[Teromous]

Just a suggestion but if you're using watermelon you might want to boil out much of the water and make a concentrate to increase the flavor as well as the SG. Watermelons are supposed to have low levels of pectin so I wouldn't worry too much about pectin haze, but you can always use pectic enzyme to reduce it.

I could have missed it, but I didn't see you mention any apples. Without apples it is not a cider, just a watermelon wine. I'm not trying to be prude or elitist, it's just that if you look up recipes online you'll have better luck with "watermelon wine".

I'm not sure exactly what flavor profile you're shooting for but I would expect it to have very little mouthfeel, and you might consider adding tannin to the mix. This is a preference thing though...you might want it to be a lighter bodied drink. I would also suggest adding yeast nutrient to your recipe. I've found that it always helps and have never had a problem with it (and it's cheap).

ABV is another consideration. I saw that your recipe didn't include sugar, which I think is a good choice. Sugar will increase the ABV but will likely overpower the watermelon flavor.

I hope that you might get some assistance from what I've posted. Good luck!

 

[pimento]

Jack keller has an interesting looking recipe for watermelon wine
http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/watermel.asp

He also includes some tips for working with watermelon juice, since it spoils quite easily.

 

[scinerd3000]

you could try a mead with watermellon juice instead of water. Could be interesting

 

[doghousechef]

For inspiration, listen to Tom T. Hall's "Old dogs, children, and watermelon wine". Great song.

 

[MrAllen]

I once bought some watermelon spears from a major market, and was THRILLED to find that they had turned hard! They had all the wonderful watermelon taste, with all the bite of hard cider, with a slight beer taste! Amazing!
Apparently if you refrigerate watermelon spears for a perfect amount of time (haven't devoted enough time to this yet, but I'm gonna!), you'll end up with a heavenly brew! All that would be needed is juicing (cold press, please! I'm certain any heat would compromise the flavor), filtering (although some pulp may be good), and bottling.

 

[Radboud]

Thread CPR! It's alive!

I'm making this just now for a party the weekend after next. Started late so I'm gonna cheat a bit. Some research suggested boiling watermelon juice gives you a nasty mess that tastes like rotten carrots so I decided not to do that. Just pushed 2 fairly large melons through my juicer, got about 1.3gal of juice. Added some suger and half a gram of k-meta. Tomorrow I'm planning to add a bit of pectic enzyme to see if it will clear.

And the cheating part... If it clears I will keg it and add some 97% abv (used for preserving, we get this crazy stuff from Poland!) to it so I will end up with a 5% abv drink, put it on co2 and let it carbonate for a week. I'll post the results!

 

[TechFanMD]

Thread CPR! It's alive!

I'm making this just now for a party the weekend after next. Started late so I'm gonna cheat a bit. Some research suggested boiling watermelon juice gives you a nasty mess that tastes like rotten carrots so I decided not to do that. Just pushed 2 fairly large melons through my juicer, got about 1.3gal of juice. Added some suger and half a gram of k-meta. Tomorrow I'm planning to add a bit of pectic enzyme to see if it will clear.

And the cheating part... If it clears I will keg it and add some 97% abv (used for preserving, we get this crazy stuff from Poland!) to it so I will end up with a 5% abv drink, put it on co2 and let it carbonate for a week. I'll post the results!

I figured if you can revive one thats a few yeats old....I'll come back in a couple of months

How did it turn out? How much watermelon slurry/juice did you have per gallon of apple juice?

 

[Radboud]

When it was fresh it was ok-ish but wouldn't win any prizes. After a few days it started to smell and taste like boiled vegetables so I had to dump it. if you really want to make a good tasting melon cider in the least amount of time I think the best option would be to get hold of some lemonade syrup instead of using fresh watermelon.

 

[TechFanMD]

Thanks @Radboud Much appreciated. I wonder why it went all vegetal on you? I heave heard that watermelon is unstable after juicing.....My wife bought a commercial example of a watermelon cider with a saison yeast and it was to her liking and she asked me to make her some. She absolutely hates fake watermelon flavor (ie Jolly Rancher flavor) that watermelon 'extracts' and watermelon vodka use.

I am considering buying a concentrated watermelon meant to be watermelon wine base, or just pressing my luck and adding watermelon to see what happens. I will be adding watermelon to the already fermented cider and will stabilize and clear, so the fruit will be going into ~8% alcohol cider.

 

[6th Street Brewer]

I made a watermelon mead a few years back by juicing and stabilizing. I have now decided it will never turn into a drinkable product. No infection or anything it just tastes like rind and stinky socks. Horrible stuff I tell ya.

 

[TechFanMD]

I made a watermelon mead a few years back by juicing and stabilizing. I have now decided it will never turn into a drinkable product. No infection or anything it just tastes like rind and stinky socks. Horrible stuff I tell ya.

Was the watermelon in with the honey st the start of fermentation or added later.

I'm getting scared......but I'm hoping that adding the melon after the alcohol is up will work. I've read (Jack Keller) that watermelon juice turns really quickly and may spoil before CO2 is blanketing it and fermentation gets the alcohol up.

 

[6th Street Brewer]

It was in at the beginning of fermentation.