Blueberry Apple Cider

[roblloyd]

I made a batch of hard cider for a friend of mine about 6 months ago. Now he's hooked and making a couple gallons every other week.
I tried one of his latest - blueberry apple cider. It was really good with just a bit of blueberry flavor.

This is his recipe:
2 gallons and 1 quart of Organic apple juice from BJ's. 1 quart of Wymanns blueberry juice from BJ's, 4 cups of sugar, 1/4 packet of yeast. Let it ferment for 5-7 days, rack unfiltered. Let it sit in the bottle for about 2 weeks and refrigerate as needed...

I asked about SG and he doesn't test that - "too scientific for me". Do you see any improvements to this?

 

[joebrady]

I don't know about his recipe, but the flavor combo just sounds good. Will have to try something like this.

 

[roblloyd]

I will say that after letting it sit for a couple months in the bottle it's fantastic. Even my wife likes it. I'll be doing another batch soon so it's aged for summer drinking. I think it's going to go fast!

I can post my notes I took while doing this so it's more of a real recipe if anyone is interested.

 

[Deezil]

Were it me, i would measure SG & TA just to make sure. This would change the recipe slightly with the sugar additions & timing the racking. The little time it takes to do the tests would ensure both the final aged product is going to be consumable with 100% confidence.

I'd also use the whole packet of yeast instead of 1/4, even if its only a 1-gallon batch. I'd also go for a yeast that chews on the malic acid - i'm tired at the moment (and i lost my 1.5yrs of notes in the last couple hours) but i wanna say its K1V-1122 thats the one for that (hopefully someone corrects me if im wrong). Malic acid has a sharp bite to it, and the yeast im thinking of will lower the level by 30-40%ish - again, kinda hazy, but its in that ballpark.

Maybe toss in some yeast nutrient & yeast energizer, so the yeast dont produce any unwanted characteristics.

I would imagine over the years, your friends final product will vary slightly from batch to batch but might be so slight they'll hardly tell the difference. Not that theres anything wrong with it, whatever floats your boat