Caramel Apple Hard Cider

Williams 728
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mhurst111 said:
The bottles have been sitting in the basement which stay around 62 degrees this time of year.

Maybe bring them upstairs for a day or two before i do my next 'test'?
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Warmer temperature. Try the kitchen for a couple days.
 
I am wondering if any of you guys have any experience with kegging this masterpiece? I tried out the BRY-97 yeast this time, and could only get it to finish out at 1.008, so I decided to go ahead and keg it up, using 3 AJ concentrates, and I also made up a tea of cinnamon and nutmeg for the flavor adding. It tasted amazing pre-carb, but almost too sweet. Now, I figured being in the fridge, and having the gas on it, it would mellow the sweetness out a little bit.

But it has been about a week on the gas now, and all sweetness that was there is now gone, and it is quite the tart cider. Almost dry-ish, kinda like what it tasted before I added the syrup and AJ concentrate.

Is this normal? Can I mix up a new batch of the cinnamon and nutmeg and just pour in the top of the keg and re-gas it up? Any help is appreciated!
 
Before adding the aj concentrate did you kill all The yeast either via pasteurization or chemicals? If not, and it doesn't sound like you did, fermentation probably started back up and ate all that new sugar you just added. So long as fermentation has stopped again, I'd kill the yeast and re-back sweeten
 
Okay. No, I didn't kill any yeast, as I figured being in the fridge, they would be dormant and I'd be fine. Ok. Ill try that. And it is campden tablets to kill theose little buggers, right?
 
janson745 said:
Okay. No, I didn't kill any yeast, as I figured being in the fridge, they would be dormant and I'd be fine. Ok. Ill try that. And it is campden tablets to kill theose little buggers, right?
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Yes
 
Mixed up my caramel syrup, added the apple juice concentrate to it to make sure it was all mixed up, put it in the keg, racked the cider straight from the carboy into the keg, purged it, gave it a shake or two, carbed it up, and started serving. It has tasted the same (great) from the first pour to the latest pour (tonight) several weeks later. No issues with continued fermentation, no issues with carbonation. I keep my regulator at about 12psi and my temp controller at 39.
 
janson745 said:
Okay. No, I didn't kill any yeast, as I figured being in the fridge, they would be dormant and I'd be fine. Ok. Ill try that. And it is campden tablets to kill theose little buggers, right?
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Campden/k-meta does NOT EVER kill yeast. It simply kills bacteria, helps prevent oxidization and may inhibit the growth of most wild yeast.


goteamwhatever said:
What's the point of waiting 24 hours? I'm kegging does it matter? Should I add pottasium sorbate to it and Carb with co2?
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For force carbing, if you did not add k-meta and sorbate before you backsweetened the batch, then you risk that any/all residual sugar will just continue to ferment UNLESS you opted to pasteurize before force carbing. Some will argue that by keeping the cider cold you will halt any remaining fermentative action, thus the addition of k-meta + sorbate is not necessary (it would appear that MidTNJasonF, the post immediately before yours had a great outcome with kegging, in the absence of any stabilization)...BUT there are just as many who share their experience of cold crash/kegging gone bad and their perfect batch took a turn for the worse because it continued to ferment dry.
 
OK sara thanks. This is what I ended up doing yesterday. Made my syrup but in bottling bucket andded my cider stirred well siphoned into keg let sit couple hours and added k-sorbate. Gonna put on co2 today. Am I gonna be OK?
 
Decided to brew this as my first cider as well. Pu the it together on 4-11 and have been getting steady activity in the airlock ever since. Decided to go with the S-04 yeast instead of the Nottingham.

Have it in my fermentation chamber sitting at 64 degrees.
 
While I agree that it "could" be possible to have continued fermentation at low temperatures it is simply not likely to happen. Fermentation does not continue for numerous reasons that include but are not limited to:

1) If you used the ale yeast called for in this recipe it may very well have reached its alcohol tolerance. Fermentation was halted on my batches at 1.011/1.012 and was stable for days at that level. There was still sugar present prior to back sweetening but the yeast was done.
2) Cold crashing drops out a significant portion of any yeast still in suspension. I do not have to worry about beers in kegs continuing to ferment in the kegerator, even beers with a high finishing gravity and plenty of residual sugars.
3) Cold storage temperatures in the mid 30's severely hamper the yeasts ability to continue any fermentation activity even with a added sugars.
4) No Oxygen and CO2 pressure also create a hostile environment for ale yeasts.

I have never had a keg of any fermented beverage have an issue with secondary or continued fermentation once cold and in the kegerator. I have put back sweetened mead, beer on big doses of fruit, sweet fruit wines, and now sweetened cider in kegs and nave never used sorbate/meta k/campden/pasteurization in my life. I do not let stuff sit for long periods either so if you are talking about storage in the keg for 6 months or more than all bets are off I guess. I do most of my non beer beverages in 3 gallon kegs and they last a month or two at best most of the time.
 
I would like to add that a sterile plate filter used correctly should also filter out any remaining/viable yeast. I kegged, filtered, then back sweetened and have had a keg sitting at basement temp (no room in keggerator right now) for 3 months with no renewed fermentation.... And I used cider yeast which has a higher alcohol tolerance. I choose NOT to use k-meta and sorbates, since I am extremely sensitive to the flavor of sorbate and I ended up dumping a whole batch of mead after Dosing it.
 
I have a quick question. I'm gonna make this cider and bottle it. Do I still need to using priming sugar in the bottling step?
 
bellybrew said:
I have a quick question. I'm gonna make this cider and bottle it. Do I still need to using priming sugar in the bottling step?
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Channel66 said:
No. Follow the directions in the first post perfectly and you will have wonderful cider
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Actually, you'd be better off following the updated recipe on page 42, post #420. Click on the link below and it will take you right there.

>>>>>> The Updated Recipe <<<<<<
 
I only have a few days left of fermentation per this recipe. However, I am seeing that there's really no time for clearing. Is this intentional since when I add the caramel syrup it won't matter? Just wondering what y'all's thoughts were on this. Thanks!
 
This is for 6 gallons? right? So I could just cut everything in half to do three gallons? I only have 3gallon carboys atm. Thanks, Mike
 
MWilt said:
This is for 6 gallons? right? So I could just cut everything in half to do three gallons? I only have 3gallon carboys atm. Thanks, Mike
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Of course, just use a whole pack of yeast anyway though. I have done 3 gallons of this a couple times
 
OK so tomorrow is day 14 in the primary. I was planning on bottling tomorrow, but the fermentation is still fairly active. This is my first cider so pardon any stupid questions, but do I want to wait for activity to stop and get steady gravity readings before bottling as I would with an ale?

Gravity is sitting at 1.008 at 73.9 Farenheit. OG was around 1.061 at close to the same temperature (I didn't take the temp). It is still bubbling once a second or so, so I am guessing this thing has a few more days to sit. The sample I drew was actually slightly carbonated and tasted along the lines of a slightly dry flat champagne with a sweet apple aftertaste... but good quite clear and very good :)
 
So I just bottled this up yesterday it's my first try. However, the cinnamon didn't mix well and it looks terrible with huge stringy floaters. What did I do wrong, any ideas? It does taste delicious. But obviously it's not mixing well so next time ill use the liquid cinnamon.
 
Had the same issue, I even mixed the hell out of it durin bottling. It taste great but no one else will drink it because of the floaters lol. Next batch is gonna be extract as well for me.
 
I recommend boiling cinnamon sticks. You get all of the flavor without any of the sediment. My last batch I use 4 cinnamon sticks in 2 cups of lightly boiling water for 10 minutes. It came out extremely tasty!
 
Yeah I did that with my second batch and reduced the ground cinn by half as well and still got floaters lol. But I have a gallon set off to the side with 3 sticks dry hopping. Been that way since end of February, so interesting to see how it comes out.
 
Sad. I have had the same issue all three batches but people still enjoy it. I tell the, they need to mix it up and tell them its the Carmel syrup that settles out. They then enjoy. I don't serve this in a glass - instead I just pop the top of a bottle and go from there.
 
Sry if this was already addressed in the thread but I couldn't find it. Has anyone aged this cider and does it get better/worse/same with age?
 
jglazer said:
Sry if this was already addressed in the thread but I couldn't find it. Has anyone aged this cider and does it get better/worse/same with age?
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thejudge said:
Defiantly better after a couple of months or longer.
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thejudge said:
Much better after 2-3 months.
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It is good at 2 weeks of bottle conditioning, better at a month. It is awesome at 2 months, and I have no idea about 3 months or beyond because by that time, it is all gone. :mug:
 
jglazer said:
Let us know how it tastes! And did you use the original recipe?
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I used 3 cans of concentrate but everything else was the same. Turns out I bottled this batch on October 1, so it's almost 7 months aged!
 

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