So about a week and a half ago I attempted to make a Cider Ale. I used the following recipe which came from this youtube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt0HUwKcvtg
6L of apple juice
2 cups of brown sugar
400G Crystal malt 60
5 tablespoons of stevia
3 liters of water
1 pkg nottingham ale yeast
Steep the crystal malt 60 in 3 liters of water at 154F for 30 mins. Strain the worst and rinse with 8-12 oz of water at 154. Boil for 30 mins and cool. Top up to 2 Liters if needed. add brown sugar before wort cools, then add to apple juice once at room temperature.
I just transferred it to secondary last night. Overall it turned out ok, but I must say it had a bit of a strong malty aftertaste, and not in a good way. One thing to note, I did NOT add the stevia. I wanted to see how it came out without it first and back sweeten if needed. At this point, it does not need it.
I have NOT added any stabilizer yet so I was thinking about attempting to restart fermentation by adding 1/2 gallon of apple juice to dilute the crystal malt flavor.
Since I have racked it, will this work? Or will I need to add more yeast?
And the bigger question is really, do you think this will help with the flavor? I of course still want the ale/malt flavor, but want it to be a compliment to the cider flavor.
Any thoughts welcome. Thanks!
Interesting recipe. Yeah, if it’s too malty, just go ahead and dump more juice in there. I did the same with my graf a couple of months ago. Mine was just not appley enough, so I added another 2 liters of juice after fermentation. It will begin fermenting again, just give it another couple of weeks to finish up. There’s still plenty of live yeast in there, no need to add more.
I wish you luck.
Awesome! Thanks for the reply!
I am hoping this will turn out a bit like Redd’s Apple Ale but with a bit more of the malty flavor…
Do you have any suggestions on how to modify this recipe? I was going for something simple to start with since I am still pretty new to all this…
Thanks again!
Following is my award winning recipe for apple ale. In the future I might not use smoked malt anymore as I don’t really like the distraction, the apple ale itself is delicious on its own without the smoke. However other people love it, so… do what you think you might like. For an extract version, just substitute the base malt and smoked malt for extra-light/pilsner malt extract and/or weizen extract, and enjoy.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=71478&p=662452&hilit=smoked+harvest#p662452
[quote=“dmtaylo2”]Following is my award winning recipe for apple ale. In the future I might not use smoked malt anymore as I don’t really like the distraction, the apple ale itself is delicious on its own without the smoke. However other people love it, so… do what you think you might like. For an extract version, just substitute the base malt and smoked malt for extra-light/pilsner malt extract and/or weizen extract, and enjoy.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=71478&p=662452&hilit=smoked+harvest#p662452[/quote] Thanks for the recipe Dave. Looks tasty and I think I may give it a go this fall. Since I don't live in apple country I think the hardest part for me will be finding cider without any preservatives in it. Should only be a minor problem though.
I just bought all the ingredients for his apple ale as well, but went with the non-smoked variety. Not sure when I will get around to actually brewing it, but will post results.
Thanks Dave!
Cough cough Looks like 50 people might be looking for this:
Just looked at the posters original recipe. How is that a Graff it had no fermentable malt just some crystal
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That was 2015. We’re so much more advanced now in 2019. 
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Am I missing something Dave, the ppp on the apple juice seems low? Perhaps it’s early and me eyes aren’t reading right… Sneezles61
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Excellent question. It’s correct. I actually had to think long and hard about how to enter the apple juice (or the sweet “cider” as Americans would call it), since the software measures everything only in pounds and not quarts or gallons of something being added. I was taught long ago in college that a gallon of water weighs approximately 8.34 pounds. And Google confirms this. Apple juice is mostly water. So, if using a gallon of cider, we can start with that as the weight to enter in the software. Hence the entry of 8.34 pounds for the juice. Meanwhile apple juice on average will typically have a specific gravity of approximately 1.040-1.050. Let’s say 1.045. (But of course you can measure your juice to know for sure, that’s a good idea, maybe your number will be different.) Alright. So… what’s the pppg to use for the juice then? Well, we’re assuming 45 gravity points of juice in the batch, that much is clear. Then need to divide by pounds and gallons to get the homebrew term “pppg” (or “ppg” or whatever you choose to call it). Alright. So in this case we know we’ve got about 8.34 pounds of the juice in a gallon. So… 45/8.34 = 5.4 points per pound per gallon. Converting this back into specific gravity, it’s like 1.0054. My software can only show 3 digits after the decimal, but rest assured my calculations actually include the extra 4 at the end or whatever it was for my juice.
You really should measure SG of your specific juice that you use, as your value to enter there could be as low as 1.0048 or as high as about 1.0066. But you do need to divide the gravity by 8.34 to get the right numbers to put into your software.
Hope this makes sense after you think hard enough about it. Cheers! 
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It does make sense… Thank for explaining your method… I will be using this from time to time! Sneezles61
