Halloween/Fireworks Night Cider

[Flumps]

Hi All

Basically, I was thinking, as Autumn approaches and the above dates draw near, of creating a commemorative cider, to mark the close of my first year of successful, improving home brew! I was thinking of either a cinnamon apple type Cider, or maybe some sort of toffee apple cider, though i'm dubious about the latter, as I know the Brothers version came out rather creme soda-ish.

Cutting a long ramble short, I was wondering if anyone had any good recipes for a spiced/mulled/toffee Apple Cider that they wouldn't mind sharing?
Many thanks

[ron]

Dunno about recipe, but I once got some little teabag type things to make mulled cider.
Can't remember where I got them, maybe a google would find them.
If they're any good.

[Flumps]

Yeah, I considered doing something like that with a batch, how did it come out?

[cosmondo]

sugar, cloves, cinnemon, chillie, ginger.

You can chuck anything in, I've done some with vanilla & cardomon too.

No recipies, just heat it on th hob & chuck it in to taste.

(spelling).

[Flumps]

I hadn't even thought about chilli actually, that'd be an interesting one!

Heating I hadn't thought about either, is that necessary to release the flavours? I was just thinking of dropping it in the primary/secondary with the brew?

[cosmondo]

I hadn't even thought about chilli actually, that'd be an interesting one!

Heating I hadn't thought about either, is that necessary to release the flavours? I was just thinking of dropping it in the primary/secondary with the brew?

Not neccessary really, I like mulled wine & cider at that time so I like to heat it up.

The chillie works, just put in whatever you like.

[second2none]

I got those mulled wine bags from morrisons (UK) they were with the spices
and they were a big disapointment!! you would be much better off doing what ur gut tells you too,
think parkin, treakle toffee, ginger, cinamon, sweet but warm.

Good luck and can we all come to ur bonfire!?

[Flumps]

haha, sure, why not!
will try a small batch in both styles, see which suits my tastes best, i think?

[fatboylard]

Had a pretty good success mulling cider about 5 years ago (long before i started brewing). It went something like..

2 litres of westons scrumpy
a 15cm stick of cinnamon broken into about 3
a good scraping of nutmeg
one bramley apple, skin on, sliced into rings and studded with a few cloves
honey to taste

Gently heated in a stainless steel pan (not cast iron as it just tastes )

I suppose if you wanted to brew something ready spiced you could boil the cinnamon, nutmeg (use a chip of it rather than grated) and a couple of cloves in apple juice for about 10 minutes and ferment that with extra honey and grated apple in the FV.

Think I might be tempted to do that myself...

Edit: I made a barley wine in May which has been conditioning nicely in the cellar. Has a rich treacle toffee-like flavour thanks to the addition of some granulated Billingtons molasses. It could make a nice little experiment but I'd personally try it in a small batch before committing to anything major as it might be a little overpowering.

Regards,
Sam

[Flumps]

that sounds good, i hadn't thought of nutmeg. Do you have any idea what percentage the honey will take the ABV up to?

[fatboylard]

Do you have any idea what percentage the honey will take the ABV up to?

To be honest mate I don't bother with abv when it comes to cider, it just doesn't seem 'right'.

Got a little batch on the go just to see how it turns out, I'll keep you posted.

Regards,
Sam

[Flumps]

sounds good, cheers Sam

[fatboylard]

Okay here's the situation,

Currently sitting in a 5 litre water bottle is the result of the experiment. It was made as follows;

2 litres of Tesco's apple juice (on the 4 for 3 quid offer)
4 tablespoons of runny honey - Rowse blossom in this case
2 bramley apples, peeled and grated
a pre-boiled 15 denier ladies knee-high strainer bag containing 2 broken cinnamon sticks, 3 crushed allspice berries, 2 cloves and a cracked quarter of a nutmeg

All thrown into a stockpot and brought to the boil. This is then taken off the heat, covered and left for an episode of mock the week.
The strainer bag is removed and the mixture (which smells fuppin amazing) poured into the fv which has another 2 litres of apple juice. I did add 500ml of cold water at this point just to make up the volume but obviously apple juice would be better and i'm not going to the shop at 11pm!
The mixture was left covered overnight to come to room temperature and I pitched a yeast from I think an Edme stout kit.

I left it to ferment for 2 weeks although 10 days would have been the upper limit. I strained it into a plastic demi-john (a.k.a. 5 litre water bottle) and added some potassium sorbate to kill off the wee yeasties.

The final result? Somewhat dry when drunk straight, but heat some up and add a little honey and it's mulled cider on another level!

Make some and take a thermos or two to the bonfire, I'm sure you won't be disappointed!

[aehowgate]

I am planning a 'winter warmer' wine made from 4 litres of morrisons apple juice... I will boil a litre of the apple juice up and add roughly 1.5 kgs of sugar to bring it up to around a potential 18% ABV.. I am adding cinnamon sticks, nutmeg, ginger & toasted oak. After the first racking, I may ad a little gelatin, heated in a little water to clear the wine. Then kill of the yeast & add local honey to sweeten
Fingers crossed

[Flumps]

finally got around to putting this thing on, though I gave up aiming to get it done for now, obviously! Should be set for christmas, so it's got a couple of months to age.

In the end, I had to pick up the stuff whilst at work, so I was limited on what I could carry. I went for a Youngs cider kit, just because it cut down on the bulk, and whilst i got that set up, I put a litre of tesco's pure apple juice on to simmer, threw in 3 cinnamon sticks, about a heaped teaspoon of ground nutmeg, and about 6 cloves, let that simmer for about 20 mins, then threw it all in, spices and all. It smelt amazing, and looks really good, it's still fermenting out at the moment, started off at about 1.040 and is currently falling through the 1.010's. I'm excited! just can't decide if i want to put a bit of toasted oak in the keg for the 2 months...