Advice on flavoring cider???

[D.Freeman]

I have my first cider in primary now and am looking for advice on flavoring in secondary fermentation.
Here is the plan I have right now:
I have 5 1/2 gallons of grocery store filtered bottled apple cider with yeast nutrient and Safcider yeast in the primary fermenter now. OG was 1.050 to start. It’s been their for two weeks and airlock activity stopped after about a week. SG after a week was 1.006, haven’t checked yet this week. My plan is to break this up into five different gallon glass jugs to experiment with some different flavors. I’d like these all to be bottled and carbed. My thoughts on flavors are: raspberry, mango, ginger, pomegranate and just leaving one as straight cider as kind of a control. There were many other flavors in the running that will be tried in the future but these are the four that won out for the first round I’ve read half the internet on how to add fruit to cider/beer/mead but I’m still kind of guessing on amounts and procedures. Here are my guesses, please tell me if I’m way off base.

Raspberry-Add 1 lb store bought frozen (thawed in sanitary container)berries to secondary fermenter and rack on top. Allow additional fermentation to run its course, wait to clear then bottle/carb.

Mango-same process as for raspberry

Ginger-steep 2 oz grated fresh ginger in 160 degree water for 20 minutes then cool and add to secondary, rack on top of. Wait for fermentation to quite (if there is any), clear, bottle/carb.

Pomegranate-Add 16 oz Pom wonderful juice to secondary, wait for fermentation to quite, clear, bottle/carb.

Straight up cider-transfer to secondary and allow to clear, bottle/carb.

I am planning on using brewers best carb drops rather than the primming sugar I use in my beer. I’m doing this because I’ll only be bottling about 9-10 bottles at a time as I assume each batch will finish at slightly different times and mixing small doses of primming sugar into each batch seams like a pain. In the future, once I find a flavor/recipe my wife likes I’ll be doing bigger batches that would justify primming sugar.

Any and all suggestions or criticism of my plan is welcome.

Thanks In advance.

 

[bernardsmith]

H D. Freeman - and welcome. I am perhaps a contrarian but my method would be quite different. You are essentially trying to determine how much of a second flavor to add to your apple cider. I think that that is going to depend on a whole host of factors but none of which you are taking into account (the dominance of the apple flavors vs the added flavors, the acidity, the amount of tannin, the alcohol level etc etc.) What I might do at least for the first go around is to make gallon batches of each of the second group of wines (at the same alcohol levels) and do bench tests blending each with the cider: 1:1, 1:2... 1:8 ; 2:1, 3:1.... 8:1 etc. After all, you might prefer the equivalent of 4 oz of ginger (though I doubt it) or 3 lbs of raspberries but you won't know that using your method.
To make those wines I would try to use only the fruit (don't dilute the fruit juices with water), so you may need about 10 lbs of berries to extract a gallon of juice.

 

[MindenMan]

I would really strongly suggest apricot and peach as adjuncts. A very slight amount of apricot flavor really bolsters the apple flavor without overpowering the apple flavor. For my personal tastes somewhere between 10-25% apricot to apple ratio is quite amazing after sufficient time bottle aging.

 

[gratus fermentatio]

For the ginger, you might try ginger juice instead of steeping ginger root in water.
https://gingerpeople.com/products/ginger-juice/
It's just a thought. Regards, GF.

 

[AzOr]

I agree with bernardsmith. Perhaps you could try two flavorings with different amounts of flavoring. Then leave one gallon plain as a base. Besides, if you find you like one particular flavor, you’ll be able to hone in on the recipe for a bigger batch in the future.

 

[AzOr]

Btw- your list doesn’t include a hopper cider.

 

[bmd2k1]

I would really strongly suggest apricot and peach as adjuncts. A very slight amount of apricot flavor really bolsters the apple flavor without overpowering the apple flavor. For my personal tastes somewhere between 10-25% apricot to apple ratio is quite amazing after sufficient time bottle aging.

What form of apricot do you use?

 

[bmd2k1]

For the ginger, you might try ginger juice instead of steeping ginger root in water.
https://gingerpeople.com/products/ginger-juice/
It's just a thought. Regards, GF.

I use raw...freshly sliced ginger....from my sushi meal order...directly in my cider...along with cinnamon sticks.....has worked very well for me [emoji111]

 

[MindenMan]

I have used both canned apricot and natural apricot extract/flavoring