in too am wanting to make a hard cider. im wanting to make a couple different flavors apple pie cider, spiced cider and reg cider all hard. i am wanting the apple pie cider to be alittle thicker consistency but not sure how to. so for question number 2 is ratios for each cider. do i heat the cider with cinnamin for reg cider and apple pie. do i heat the cloves and nutmeg in the spiced cider. i have bought wine yeast and wine conditioner/sweetner and 5 1 gallons jugs of pure pastuerized apple juice. i am hoping for around 12-15% ABV.thanks for all the help. my experience is brewing beer from kits for 4yrs. so ive got some knowledge and all e.q.needed.
anybody?
Don’t heat anything with your cider. Spices need to be added in the secondary. FWIW with gravities that high you are no longer making cider its going to be apple wine or a cyser. Either way its going to take a long time to mature.
+1 to what BB said.
Not sure you can actually do a thicker consistancy, but there may be ways to give it a mouthfeel that conveys that impression. Some yeast strains are suppose to help with that, though the effect is suble and I’m not sure I’d pick one primarily for that purpose. Using a yeast strain with a fairly low ABV tolerance can help with mouthfeel, as you’ll end up with some unfermented sugar present. The down side with this would be that you can’t get natural fermentation if you’re looking to make a sparkling cider that still has some sweetness. Using honey instead of sugar could also work towards this, as can wine conditioner and adding glycerine. The wine conditioner will also prevent natural carbonation, and the effects of honey and glycerine are suble.
You can jack up the body and mouthfeel with lactose or maltodextrin. However, be aware that these can cause gastric issues in some people (i.e., gas and bloating). The other thing you can try is hitting the cider with sorbate and sulfite when it nears the final gravity that you want. In other words, kill the yeast. You can also try heat pasteurization, although I’ve never tried that. It would have to be “low and slow” so that you don’t cook the cider and evaporate all your hard earned alcohol. Lots of things you could try.
