Big honey character in cider

[Ostomo517]

Have not brewed a ton of ciders but my experience in beer brewing with honey always has been honey will ferment out and dry out the beer leaving behind no real honey flavor. I want some good honey flavor in my next cider, how can i do this or is backsweetening with honey my only option?

 

[slaithe]

Sorry I cannot offer much advice.... only tried making hard cider a couple of times...

But have you ever considerd trying different yeasts? Like a sweet mead yeast that is supposed to leave some honey sugars behind unfermented?

I've heard it makes all the difference... and most wine yeasts ferment rather dry (the problem I was having). Sure you already knew this though.

Some have said they had awesome results with ale yeasts also, though I haven't looked into it much... best of luck.

 

[hehawbrew]

Back sweetening for sure.

I would assume( I stress assume) that if you treated it like a JAOM Mead it would be sweet like honey. For example, I wonder if you used safale 05 that craps out around 12% and added 3.5 lbs of honey per gallon, the yeast would die out before they could ferment all the honey. But- I guess it would by a cyser, not a cider.....

Not sure....

 

[gratus fermentatio]

Have not brewed a ton of ciders but my experience in beer brewing with honey always has been honey will ferment out and dry out the beer leaving behind no real honey flavor. I want some good honey flavor in my next cider, how can i do this or is backsweetening with honey my only option?

You might try making a cyser, apple juice & honey. It's more like mead that cider though. You could also try making a graf using honey malt, it'll add a honey-like flavour. You could also prime with honey.
Regards, GF.

 

[Sewer_Urchen]

I think the yeast strain has more to do with it...I brew strong ciders with Red Star Champagne, Lalvin D-47, and EC-1118. I've found with a good amount of bottle aging the cider brewed with D-47 has a residual honey sweetness. When you bottle it's VERY dry, but after about 6 months in the bottle, the apple and honey flavors come back as the drink ages and the flavors mesh and mellow.

 

[slaithe]

You might try making a cyser, apple juice & honey. It's more like mead that cider though. You could also try making a graf using honey malt, it'll add a honey-like flavour. You could also prime with honey.
Regards, GF.

I've read a lot of happy reports about the 3 lb of honey per gallon of cider recipe with sweet mead yeast... but it was more of mead... Umm, in the sticky they talk about it.

 

[slaithe]

Also, in the sticky it's discussed the different effects of using different yeast strains with pasteurized vs. Unpasteurized juice and adding different types (and amounts) of different sugars is discussed a lil as well... should check it out.