Ice Cider

[ryankelley]

I made an improvised ice wine from cider, sugar, and apple concentrate. I used 1/2 a gallon of cider, 3 tubes of frozen concentrate, and sugar to bring the brix to 32. Added pectin enzyme, nutrient, and champagne yeast.

After one week, I have 12% alcohol and I just cold stabilized half of it...I wanted it to be 10-11% but didn't check it soon enough. The other half I let go to see what happens...If I get a simulated porte or brandy I'll be happy about it.

I see this champagne yeast is supposed to tolerate 13-15%... We'll see what happens. I'm wondering if the 12% alcohol is going to throw this simulated ice wine/cider out of balance...

 

[SouthernChemist]

I made an improvised ice wine from cider, sugar, and apple concentrate. I used 1/2 a gallon of cider, 3 tubes of frozen concentrate, and sugar to bring the brix to 32. Added pectin enzyme, nutrient, and champagne yeast. After one week, I have 12% alcohol and I just cold stabilized half of it...I wanted it to be 10-11% but didn't check it soon enough. The other half I let go to see what happens...If I get a simulated porte or brandy I'll be happy about it. I see this champagne yeast is supposed to tolerate 13-15%... We'll see what happens. I'm wondering if the 12% alcohol is going to throw this simulated ice wine/cider out of balance...

How much sugar and water did you end up having to add? What was the SG of the half you cold stabilized?

 

[ryankelley]

How much sugar and water did you end up having to add? What was the SG of the half you cold stabilized?

I added no water...just cider from the farmer's market. I didn't measure the amount of sugar I added by weight or volume...I'm guessing it was 2-2.5 cups plus the concentrate. I used my hydrometer to get the sugar where I wanted it. The SG of the cider which is different from jug to jug, orchard to orchard plays a part in all this. So I thought there was no point to measure the sugar when the hydrometer reading is what matters.

Starting SG: 1.135
First Rack SG: 1.05 (cold stabilized at this point)

I see air is still pushing through my airlock on the batch I didn't cold stabilize. Could be just dissolved CO2 leaving the wine...could be it's still fermenting. In other batches of cider I've done the bubbling slowed down a lot when it dried out. I'll wait till the end of the week to take another SG reading.

After a couple weeks of cold stabilizing, I'll de-gas the ice wine and clarify it for bottling.

 

[SouthernChemist]

Well sounds like it has the potential to be pretty tasty!

 

[ryankelley]

Well sounds like it has the potential to be pretty tasty!

I just looked at Jack Keller's hydrometer page. The cider's starting SG was 1.05. According to what's listed, I added just under 2 pounds of sugar to get the SG from 1.05 to 1.135. By volume, I'm not sure what that equals...probably varies based on the size of the sugar granules...powdered sugar might be less volume, rock sugar would be more.