Crispin honey crisp clone

My wife and I love this cider. Does anyone have a clone recipe?

moosebrew10 said:

My wife and I love this cider. Does anyone have a clone recipe?

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Sorry Moose, but though I've tried it, I've not seen a good clone of this one. :-(

Read this, https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/i-am-exciderd-cider-404282/, as the OP thinks it tastes like Crispin.

Their stuff is made with fresh pressed apples, better than your average store bought. If I were trying for one I would add some malic acid and bottle condition with honey as your priming sugar. If I had to guess apples I'd say grannys, galas and empires might work.

Ok so here I come to necro another old post. 6 years this time but what can I say, I am drinking this right now and it is quickly becoming my favorite commercial cider. Crispin makes a few varieties and I am specifically talking about the "Honey Crisp" one. The label says made from Pressed American apples, wine yeast, and pure honey.

So lets break this down a bit. Is a Cyser? Or is the honey used for priming? It is definitely bottle conditioned as some sediment is present on the pour. Color is extremely pale, almost a col shade of straw if that makes sense. ABV is 6.5 % so what yeast could they be using? What wine yeast. The label says it contains sulfites as wel as malic acid, so that accounts for some of the flavor. I think why I like this is it is sweet, but just barely. If I can clone it I will go dryer for sure. Maybe around 9 or 10% while retaining all that perfect carbonation and smoothness.
Also the back label says they use pears. From what I can gather, it is an apple pear wine, racked onto honey and bottled as such. I think replication would be straight forward if one were to get he yeast right.

Maybe loveofrose will chime in on this one. I wonder if his BOOM method and yeast selection will work wonders on apples and pears....

I did a 1 gal cider with store bought juice, 2 lbs of crushed crabs to add tannins, and honey to raise the SG. I used Notty yeast. I don't remember how much honey, but I raised it to SG 1.070 or 1.075, which will get you in the 9-10% range. It ended up with a nice bit of honey/floral in the background and just a tiny bit sweet which is the way I like my ciders.

So, I would suggest something like this in a 1 gal test batch. Might get the clone you want, and at the very least it would give you some very drinkable cider in 2-3 months.

Also, the addition of pears or pear juice would help add some unfermentable sugars to the mix which would help it be a little sweeter. But my experiments with pears have not been impressive. I tried 3 batches of Perry, and only one of them was any good, and it was only good because it was very funky with wild yeast. The others were flabby and blah.

lmao thank you for sharing this experience about the pears. I am actually whipping up a 3 gallon batch tomorrow with apple juice, orange blossom honey and 10 pounds of pears. They were 77 cents a pound so kind of had to give this a try. I am going to use Wyeast 1388. My starter in on day two. Will post my results.

Crispin's description says "apple wine smoothed with honey", so fermenting the honey isn't going to provide a clone. The label says there are no sorbate or benzoate preservatives so I'm thinking they heat pasteurize and then add the honey. Its unlikey a mass market product like Crispin in going to put out a product that isn't shelf-stable. Note that some kind of apple flavoring is added (apple essence). The label does say that sulfites are used.
I don't see any reference to pears on the label:

I'm looking at a bottle of it right now and the label is slightly different. Mine doesn't have the "Smooth Operator" section. I can't post pics but will transcribe for you.

"Crispin ciders are naturally fermented using the raw, unpasteurized juice of fresh pressed American apples and pears.
Through classic cold-fermentation and specially selected wine yeasts, we always stay true to the fruit with authentic flavorsand unique aromatic notes that are only present in fresh-pressed cider.
Honey Crisp Artisinal Reserve unfiltered hard cider is made with racked apple wine and smoothed with pure honey, which balances its bright zesty acidity and slightly tart, dry mouthfeel".

The front label is almost identical to your pic except it says Unfiltered Hard Cider under Artisinal reserve. I just bought this today btw, in Texas so not sure if there is a regional difference or maybe they updated the recipe.

In any case I am not, and cannot, cold ferment so I am not sure if this will be a "clone" as opposed to an interpretation.

Whatever it ends up being, I started it yesterday and had vigorous airlock activity within 2 hours. Looks good so far. I didn't take SG readings unfortunately but will take them at 2, 4 and 7 days.

I quit trying to clone anything. My ciders are good, but they have their own distinct character. And that is fine by me.

People have to realize that cider is all about the apples - it's impossible to clone anything unless your juice comes from the same apples. I hope yours is better than what you're attempting to clone. Good luck with it.

Maylar said:

People have to realize that cider is all about the apples - it's impossible to clone anything unless your juice comes from the same apples. I hope yours is better than what you're attempting to clone. Good luck with it.

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Thanks. I'm hoping so too. Honestly I like the flavor profile of the Crispin though would prefer mine to be more dry. We shall see. The ferment is going nicely, but I wish I could get my room temp lower than 78 degrees.

Redeemer said:

I'm looking at a bottle of it right now and the label is slightly different. Mine doesn't have the "Smooth Operator" section. I can't post pics but will transcribe for you.

"Crispin ciders are naturally fermented using the raw, unpasteurized juice of fresh pressed American apples and pears......."

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My thinking is the description above is for their entire line of products. I know they make a pear cider in the Artisanal reserve line. I can't find anything that says they use pears in the Honey crisp cider. You mentioned an ingredients label, what else does it say besides malic acid and sulfites?
If you want it to be more dry, you could add less honey after you stabilize it.
The label I found says it has 8g of sugar in 12oz. I don't know if that means you would add 8g of honey for 12 oz, but that's a good place to start.

The ingredients:Fresh pressed hard apple cider, filtered water, organic honey, natural flavor (That one is my personal favorite), malic acid, contains sulfites.

I'm using honey and pears in the actual ferment though as opposed to blending flavors into an already hard cider. I suspect I should stop calling this a clone. I reckon it will taste better than Crispin in any case.

I just did a clone experiment, I don't have the original to compare it to, but here's the ingredients:
2015 cider that was in my refrigerator labeled "off dry". I don't know what apples I used in this, but it was probably a blend of eating apples I get from local orchards.
I poured out a 6oz sample, put the glass on my scale and and then added 4g of honey. I then added 1 tablespoon of boiled apple concentrate I made using "Simply Apple" from the grocery store and have on hand for another cider project.
The cider was chilled, so the honey didn't blend all that well but overall, the taste was better than the "off dry" cider without anything added.
Next step: I'm going to heat up a pot of water and put the whole bottle (its a 1.5L bottle about 2/3 full and to try to bring the temp up to 150F or so and then add the honey and boiled apple concentrate.