Pages: 1
New cider technique- questions and suggestions?
I've made about 12 batches of beer, both all grain and extract. As well as 3 batches of cider the last 3 years during apple picking season.
This is about a cider i tasted at whole foods a few weeks back..
It had vanilla beans added to the secondary fermentation as well as maple syrup. The finished product was off dry (so a little sweet but not overly sweet still crisp) and had hints if vanilla, maple and apples. It was bubbly like most hard ciders and very refreshing.
I want to attempt a clone.
My past ciders all were made by harvesting apples by hand in the fall, pressing myself and fermenting the juice with some liquid English cider yeast out of a vial.
I just picked up 7 gallons of fresh cider from a local orchard, it has no preservatives and was pasteurized. It is very high quality and is my best bet this late in the season.
I have one vial of English 775 cider yeast, and a ton of fresh vanilla beans and a quart of fresh maple syrup.
Question #1.)I would like to make a yeast starter with my 2 liter beaker and magnetic stir plate. I have nevr made a cider starter though - is it e same as a beer starter? I read here to just use 100% preservative free pasteurized apple juice, is that true? Should i add yeast nutrients? Or a little ,alt extract perhaps to strengthen the yeast? How long should th starter run? Do i add juice and my vial and let it go for a few days until the yeast is done foaming and just add the whole thing to th Carboy? Some said to dump off the liquid and just use the yeast cake in bottom? Just wondering if I'll see a faster ferment using a starter or if the vial of liquid is enough?
Question #2.). All my ciders I fermented to complete dryness and although the last batch was phenomenal, won a local homemade competition... Amazingly enough... I cater to a lot of females who like ciders a bit sweeter. Also the clone im going for was off dry and had residual maple syrup notes that add character andsweeteness.
Soooooo. My plan is to ferment to complete dryness to boost alcohol. I am adding some corn sugar to bring the sg to1.080. Aiming for 7.5% - 9% P.A.. May need to adjust sg but that's my target. Then in the seconary fermentation I'm going to scrape some vanilla odd and let them flavor the cider maybe 6-10? No idea here how many I need... I'd rather err on too little than too much wouldn't you think? And as for the maple syrup... Will it ferment completely? I was going to add 2-4 cups to the secondary. Mostly for flavor. If it completely ferments would there still be a lot of maple flavor? What about priming? Do u think the maple will Affect priming levels?
Should i prime with corn sugar still? Or will e maple syrup allow enough sugars to properly carbonate?
I don't want to over carbonate- but i don't want the maple syrup to interfere, I'd rather more maple syrup remain in finished product.
So there's my predicament- never attempted this, I guess maple syrup will ferment all the way if honey does... So shod I prime with more maple syrup and hope it doesn't overcrbobate and still retains flavor?
Thanks for insight!!
Pages: 1
Search Home Brewing Knowledge Base
Custom Search
|