Hey folks,
I was looking for a nice winter cider recipe that is spiced, cold, carbonated and good to drink without extensive aging. Should definitely be on the sweet side. I couldn't really find a good recipe or answers to my questions so I'm just opening a new thread.
From what I've read so far, I'm thinking about taking 5 gallons of apple juice and letting it ferment with some sort of a white wine or champagne yeast. I've heard those yeasts are better at eliminating the sourness of the apples. After fermentation I'm thinking about backsweetening with something called "Mostfein". It's basically a sirup that I can get here in Germany and that contains only unfermentable sugars. Also I will do bottle carbonation with corn sugar.
Now my main questions are regarding the spices:
1. I'm not sure weather it's better do boil, steep or dry "hop" the spices. I've heard different opinions and can't really decide on one technique.
2. I'm not sure what spices to use. I know it'll be personal preference but what are your experiences? I was thinking about cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves or maybe vanilla, honey, some brown sugar or even some oak chips. I saw a recipe with sweet gale, but there's no chance for me to get a hold of this over here.
So what would you guys suggest? What are your experiences with different spices and different techniques of adding those?
EDIT: Might be a stupid question, but this would be my first cider. Can I just use all of my beer equipment? Fermenting bucket and so on? Or will there be any bacterias that I don't want in my future batches of beer, like it is when making a lambic or something like that?
I was looking for a nice winter cider recipe that is spiced, cold, carbonated and good to drink without extensive aging. Should definitely be on the sweet side. I couldn't really find a good recipe or answers to my questions so I'm just opening a new thread.
From what I've read so far, I'm thinking about taking 5 gallons of apple juice and letting it ferment with some sort of a white wine or champagne yeast. I've heard those yeasts are better at eliminating the sourness of the apples. After fermentation I'm thinking about backsweetening with something called "Mostfein". It's basically a sirup that I can get here in Germany and that contains only unfermentable sugars. Also I will do bottle carbonation with corn sugar.
Now my main questions are regarding the spices:
1. I'm not sure weather it's better do boil, steep or dry "hop" the spices. I've heard different opinions and can't really decide on one technique.
2. I'm not sure what spices to use. I know it'll be personal preference but what are your experiences? I was thinking about cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves or maybe vanilla, honey, some brown sugar or even some oak chips. I saw a recipe with sweet gale, but there's no chance for me to get a hold of this over here.
So what would you guys suggest? What are your experiences with different spices and different techniques of adding those?
EDIT: Might be a stupid question, but this would be my first cider. Can I just use all of my beer equipment? Fermenting bucket and so on? Or will there be any bacterias that I don't want in my future batches of beer, like it is when making a lambic or something like that?