First try at a Bochet Cider

[Bombo80]

A few years ago I cooked down a gallon of fresh pressed cider, into about 3 cups of really thick, black, sweet, appley goo. I had it in the fridge since then. Since we had our club cider buy, and delivery was the first Saturday of November, I decided to try something completely different.

I started with 3 gallons of fresh pressed cider with a gravity of 1.050. A few points higher than most years. I took 1/2 gallon and put it in a small stock pot and gently heated it. While it was heating up, I nuked the apple goo, to make it a bit more manageable and started to mix it into the warming fresh cider.

Once they were in the same pot, I continued to mix them together. Paying attention to the temp. trying not t get it too high. I figure if I can keep my hand on the edge of the pot, it's not getting too hot.

It took almost an hour to get the apple goo dissolved and mixed with the fresh cider. I then added that to the remaining 2 1/2 gallons that was nicely chilled, sitting in the garage. It was about 32* overnight.

Once I added the two mixtures, and aerated the cider, I took an OG of 1.070. So I have been trying to figure out what the gravity level was of those 3 cups of apple goo. If I had 3 gallons at 1.050 and added 3 cups and it increase the gravity 20 points. I can't seem to wrap my head around getting that reading.

So, after placing the primary in the basement, I pitched a smack pack of Wyeast 1728 - Scottish Ale yeast. It was an older, outdated pack I had in the fridge. I let it proof for about 8 hours. I wasn't very confident about the viability, but after 3 days, it finally took off. As of this morning, it was still bubbling along.

It will be interesting to see where this finishes at, and if there will be any residual sweetness t all. I will update when I rack it to the secondary.

 

[bucketnative]

3 gal = 384 fl oz
3 cup = 24 fl oz
Total = 408 fl oz

384(0.050) + 24(x) = 408(0.070)
x = 0.39
So, the gravity of the goo was 1.39, ignoring any losses during the heating of the cider.

 

[Scrumpy!]

In New England and perhaps other regions you made what is known as boiled cider. It is made by boiling or evaporating the water off fresh apple juice. You can measure the SG with a hydrometer meant for candy making. I have made boiled cider several times and have purchased it as well. Boiling the juice creates a caramel flavor (cooked sugar). I make my "boiled cider" by putting it in a double boiler and evaporating the water. I try to keep the temp around 140. This stuff is amazing to cook with or just pour over pancakes.

There are a couple of issues you should consider before mixing it with your cider. First, removing the water not only concentrates the sugar, it raises the acid concentration substantially. This is fine in a very sweet syrup to cook with but can jack up the total acid in a cider, a desirable effect (in moderation) if your cider was made with low acid apples. If you started with high acid apples, you can very easily make a high acid situation worse. You can also add a caramel flavor to your cider which you may or may not like.

Dry to semi-dry ciders with total acid much above 7 g/l will be very sour. Sweet ciders cover that acid bite and can go a few more grams of acid per liter. Ice cider can have a total acid value of over 20 g/l.