Pumpkinman
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- Oct 20, 2012
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After attempting to make a high octane hard cider last season that ended up needing to age 9 months before it started to mellow out and ultimately resulting in more of a semi sweet Pinot Grigio than an apple cider or even an apple wine.
I decided to try it again, this time changing the recipe and going back to basics.
I use 5 gallons of fresh pressed apple cider straight from a local apple farm, Regular table sugar to bring the SG to a nice mild 1.070, I fermented with Nottingham yeast, and used Fermaid K.
My thoughts were that the Notty would ferment to approx. 1.010 giving me an ABV of 7% and a little residual sugar without stripping the apple flavor, in theory, it looked great....
In reality, the Notty fermented down to .994 giving the cider an ABV of 10%, the higher alcohol made it have the typical young wine/green taste that will correct itself with aging.
Fast forward a few months, I decided to taste it, it wasn't bad, but the apple was not very strong, and since I didn't want to end up with another batch of lack luster apple wine, I decided to add more apple flavor by adding 2 cans off 100% apple concentrate and a 64 ounce bottle of 100% pure apple juice, neither had sorbate added, and I back sweetened with light brown sugar and fresh wildflower honey.
The cider actually tasted like cider, but I felt that it was lacking something, I tried a few different samples adding ginger to one, cinnamon to another and ground cloves to the third sample, unfortunately, they weren't was I was looking for, however, I took a half oak infusion spiral, medium toast french, and 2 ounces of untoasted oak (untoasted oak can help to tone down harsh flavors and strong vegetal characteristics in wine), I let it sit over night and tasted it today, PERFECT!
The cider is great, the oak actually added a slight bourbon like taste on the back of your tongue that stays with you.
I'm going to prime and bottle in beer bottles, when it is carbonated, I think just a mild carbonation will work with this cider, I'll pasteurize it to kill off the yeast and stop any further carbonation.
Update:
I bottled today, the flavor was amazing, I cannot wait until it is ready to drink!
I decided to try it again, this time changing the recipe and going back to basics.
I use 5 gallons of fresh pressed apple cider straight from a local apple farm, Regular table sugar to bring the SG to a nice mild 1.070, I fermented with Nottingham yeast, and used Fermaid K.
My thoughts were that the Notty would ferment to approx. 1.010 giving me an ABV of 7% and a little residual sugar without stripping the apple flavor, in theory, it looked great....
In reality, the Notty fermented down to .994 giving the cider an ABV of 10%, the higher alcohol made it have the typical young wine/green taste that will correct itself with aging.
Fast forward a few months, I decided to taste it, it wasn't bad, but the apple was not very strong, and since I didn't want to end up with another batch of lack luster apple wine, I decided to add more apple flavor by adding 2 cans off 100% apple concentrate and a 64 ounce bottle of 100% pure apple juice, neither had sorbate added, and I back sweetened with light brown sugar and fresh wildflower honey.
The cider actually tasted like cider, but I felt that it was lacking something, I tried a few different samples adding ginger to one, cinnamon to another and ground cloves to the third sample, unfortunately, they weren't was I was looking for, however, I took a half oak infusion spiral, medium toast french, and 2 ounces of untoasted oak (untoasted oak can help to tone down harsh flavors and strong vegetal characteristics in wine), I let it sit over night and tasted it today, PERFECT!
The cider is great, the oak actually added a slight bourbon like taste on the back of your tongue that stays with you.
I'm going to prime and bottle in beer bottles, when it is carbonated, I think just a mild carbonation will work with this cider, I'll pasteurize it to kill off the yeast and stop any further carbonation.
Update:
I bottled today, the flavor was amazing, I cannot wait until it is ready to drink!