Made from traditional UK Cider Apples. High in tannins and acidity. Blend or backsweeten with standard apple juice to balance. Dilute in 6 parts water to 1 part concentrate to reconstitute original juice; Approx 1.040 SG, 5.2% ABV.
This was te out and out favorite at a family thanksgiving party. The brew was a straightforward concentrate and water recipe with no fancy work involved. Came out at 9% but did not taste like that. Nice amount of dryness but not mouth puckering.
This was te out and out favorite at a family thanksgiving party. The brew was a straightforward concentrate and water recipe with no fancy work involved. Came out at 9% but did not taste like that. Nice amount of dryness but not mouth puckering.
This apple variety dates from around the early 1900’s. It was found by William Dabinett and grown as a natural seedling in a hedge in South Petherton, Somerset. Classed as a “Bittersweet Cider Apple,” Dabinett has a small, yellow green fruit – flecked with red and usually harvested in November in the UK. The flesh is green and aromatic. The apple tree itself has a relatively small and spreading habit and it also has a high resistance to apple scab.
The juice is characterised as having high tannin and low acid.
This apple variety dates from around the early 1900’s. It was found by William Dabinett and grown as a natural seedling in a hedge in South Petherton, Somerset. Classed as a “Bittersweet Cider Apple,” Dabinett has a small, yellow green fruit – flecked with red and usually harvested in November in the UK. The flesh is green and aromatic. The apple tree itself has a relatively small and spreading habit and it also has a high resistance to apple scab.
The juice is characterised as having high tannin and low acid.
I do not. Searched but couldn’t find anymore information than that provided in the product description. I can say that the cider I made using this came out excellent.
This extract is for making Hard Apple Cider (English Style), so I'm confused about your asking about mash and boil which are processes for beer. With this product you just add water and yeast and maybe some nutrients as you would with any cider or mead recipe. As for what kind of yeast, any white wine yeast, beer yeast or a cider specific yeast should work great.
I just poured it into a carboy of apple juice directly and added yeast. Worked great to add a tannin character to my cider. Got some good compliments about it.
No. Recon and treat with KMBS (60 ppm free, depending on pH). Let equilibrate 12 h and inoculate. Before that, check sugar and acid and adjust accordingly.
I have never boiled this. The bag is sterile and I let my water sit overnight with teh recommended amount of Camden tablet to sanitize and remove chloramine.
Would you recommend using this straight (diluted, of course) for making cider, or blended with regular sweet apple juice / cider? If blended, what ratio would you recommend? Many thanks in advance!
BEST ANSWER:I would not recommend using this straight (diluted) for making cider. I have been using one gal (diluted) of this bittersweet apple juice with 5 gals of regular sweet apple juice (Fresh pressed or bought from store). I brew 6 gallons at a time. It really depends on much much tannins you want in the final cider. I tend to make cider in the french style: carbonated with tannins. The british (none carbonated with tannins) and french styles tend to have 10-30% bittersweet apple juice depending on desired tastes.
I use this bittersweet apple juice when I run out of the fresh pressed wild apples. I tend to put 1.5 gals wild apples (tannins) with 4.5 gallons of fresh pressed or store bought for my cider.
BEST ANSWER:I would not recommend using this straight (diluted) for making cider. I have been using one gal (diluted) of this bittersweet apple juice with 5 gals of regular sweet apple juice (Fresh pressed or bought from store). I brew 6 gallons at a time. It really depends on much much tannins you want in the final cider. I tend to make cider in the french style: carbonated with tannins. The british (none carbonated with tannins) and french styles tend to have 10-30% bittersweet apple juice depending on desired tastes.
I use this bittersweet apple juice when I run out of the fresh pressed wild apples. I tend to put 1.5 gals wild apples (tannins) with 4.5 gallons of fresh pressed or store bought for my cider.
I have used this a few times with varying ratios of this to apple juice. I wouldn't use this straight (diluted) as this is very tannic. My best results were obtained by using unfiltered 100% apple juice, and then adding the concentrate to desired ABV/taste. My preference was 6 gallons juice to a bit less than a liter of concentrate. This yielded about 6.5% ABV with a pleasant English style taste and an amber color.
I make a cider every fall that my friend's rave about using this concentrate. Keep in mind that I intentionally am brewing a high gravity cider at 10% alcohol, but i mix 6 gallons of honeycrisp sweet cider, one gallon of honey, 3 liters of concentrate, and enough water to bring it up to 10 gallons total.
I use it straight as we like a dryer cider. It has been very popular that way. I use cider yeast but believe a champagne yeast will work also. I have also used frozen apple juice from grocery store for a sweeter cider as it is pure with no preservatives that will stop the yeast working.
I added some to my cider to add flavor and bring up the abv a bit. It's a thick concentrate. Very sweet and strong. It added a sharpness that was interesting and a bit of complexity.
The Best Available Tannins Match for British Style Cider
Based on two batches made. First experimental batch: Three liters concentrate and filtered water to make 5 gallons. Second batch: 3 gallons filtered water + 3 liters concentrate blended with 6 gallons of fresh pressed (non-sulfited) honey crisp apple cider and 2 lbs orange blossom honey per 5 gallon carboy. I rack to secondary after two weeks onto 2 oz medium toast American oak cubes per 5 gallon carboy. Keep in secondary for one to two months just because I like a very clear finish (almost no haze, but golden in color).
I back-sweeten with 12 oz orange blossom honey in each 5 gallon keg. The fermented concentrate has a perfect level of tannins for a crisp, refreshing cider - solo or on ice. There is a very, very slight concentrate taste before medium carbonation, but to cover that I suspend and steep a mesh bag in each keg of 4 lbs (originally) of the most tangy and aromatic apples I can find - peeled, cored, and dried in a food dehydrator. This brings up a delightful fresh apple aroma. The dried fruit also back-sweetens slightly without diluting the end product.
I have not taken a gravity reading on this recipe. Best estimate is about 4.5% ABV. Ten gallons will disappear more quickly than you might expect.
Oh man. This is some amazing stuff. I didn't expect such a dry and flavorful cider would come from extract. Excellent and complex flavor with black tea - like tannins.
I ordered this mostly out of curiosity, and I was actually pretty impressed. I feel like this is just what you need to take a boring cider to the next level. I was a little hesitant because of how industrial this product looks, but it's fantastic and everything I hoped it would be.
I fermented a gallon of Sprouts apple cider with SafCider S-04, and then used a jar of this concentrate to backsweeten. My first impression was how good the concentrate smells and tastes; it's reminiscent of those fruit leather squares you buy individually wrapped at the grocery store. I was really happy with the flavor, it's not artificial or harsh at all! It has real rich apple flavor, but you can actually taste the apple peel and tannins, which are completely absent in regular apple juice/cider. I would describe the flavor as a "complete" apple flavor that you get when eating the unpeeled fruit. It's very nice, I dumped the whole jar in without hesitation after tasting the concentrate. I was worried it might be excessively bitter, but it's not at all. I found that it definitely needed a bit of malic acid to balance out all the flavors and give it that fresh crisp apple flavor, so keep that in mind if you feel like it's missing something.
The only downside is that this concentrate seems to contain a lot of fine apple pulp/sediment. I didn't notice it at first, but after bottling and while the bottles were carbonating I noticed a decent amount of sediment at the bottom of the bottles that isn't normally present in my ciders. It's not the end of the world, but definitely something to be aware of. Because of this, it might be better to use this concentrate in primary with either water or fresh juice, and racking should leave behind all the sediment while keeping the dark color and tannins.
Even with the sediment, I think this is a fantastic product. If you're wanting your beverage to really taste like fresh-pressed apple cider, give it a try!
There is no substitute for real cider apples and this concentrate makes a cider with perfect balance and a lot of body. I added 1 gallon of locally pressed juice to add aroma lost during the evaporation process. Adding more fresh juice would be even better. I diluted to just over 5 gallons so the abv was a more traditional 7.2% Much better than adding tannin and acid blend to dessert apple juice.
My son has to eat gluten-free and has come to enjoy ciders. Last time at my house, he polished-off my stash! He is not a fan of the sweet ciders and this definitely is not that way. It makes good solid stuff. Just make sure you use a yeast made for cider.