Apple cider to carbonate beer?

[lowtones84]

Hey folks,

So I'm considering using apple cider to carbonate a batch of beer. It's a (hopefully) somewhat malty "harvest porter" with some unmalted spelt and oats in addition to standard porter grains. Because of the harvest theme I had the thought of using apple cider to carbonate.

I stumbled across a thread about using apple juice to carbonate edwort's apfelwein and people mentioned using around 34 oz./5 gallons with good success, but I'm wondering if anyone has done this with beer. I was also considering using spiced cider (made at home, would be fresh from the stovetop and not very heavy handed with the spices of cinnamon, clove, allspice, nutmeg) for an extra touch, but also thought that might be too much.

Any input?
Thanks in advance!

 

[NTexBrewer]

Not a definite answer but I would guess that you would have to look at the sugar content of the Cider and then compare that to just using priming sugar.

Using Northern Brewers Priming Calculator http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

Lets say you want to carbonate to 2.5 Volumes and have 5 gallons of beer at 68 degrees.

You would need 114 grams of sugar.

Just googling Apple Cider it looks like 1 cup of cider has 27 grams of sugar. So you would need about 4.25 cups of cider.

Sorry my units are different than what you were using but I do not know if you are using Fluid Ounces or weight ounces for your apfelwein example.

 

[phug]

And don't forget to factor in your new volume, much easier to just prime with apple juice concentrate. One can per five gallons

 

[NTexBrewer]

And don't forget to factor in your new volume, much easier to just prime with apple juice concentrate. One can per five gallons

You still have to do the math. http://www.treetop.com/ProductDetail.aspx?CategoryID=1&ProductID=192

According to this link a can of Apple Juice Concentrate makes 6 servings and has 26g of sugar per serving for a total of 156g of sugar which would be about 3.1 volumes of CO2 for a 5 gallon batch at 68 degrees.

 

[phug]

You're right. Different brands have different sugar contents. I'm either spoiled or unlucky that I can only find one brand of ajc out I 6 local stores.

I just meant you don't have to worry about the volume difference wen doing your math

 

[lowtones84]

Thanks guys. I ended up just going with my standard priming method (turbinado sugar instead of corn sugar or table sugar) with this one because I feel like there is already enough going on. A fairly complex malt bill along with a dual yeast culture (WLP002 and cultured Saison Dupont yeast) and some hops I haven't used before told me that it's enough adventure for one brew The taste at bottling is very promising, though.

Thanks anyhow, I'll definitely keep this info around for when I try it someday!