Beer Forum

Has anyone tried to dry hop apples in a cider? would it add some more apple flavor and aroma to the cider.
Thanks

Can we assume that by dry-hopping apples you are not referring to hops but to apples?

If so the answer is MAYBE.

Here's the deal. Fermentation is a violent thing that expels co2. That expulsion "scrubs" aroma and flavor right out of your airlock.

The answer? Rack your cider off the yeast once it has flocculated and onto some fresh pressed juice (or whole fruit, but the reduced surface area will yield little goodness). This will add fresh flavor and aroma, but leave little yeast to kick up a new fermentation.

But what do I know.

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I'd go one further and add Potassium Sorbate per the Cider episode of the Jamil Show. This will kill off the remaining yeast and assure you of no refermentation. Short of filtering out the yeast this is the best way to be sure.

I would second the adding fresh juice after fermentation has completed. This goes for any fruit in beers, meads, etc. Use the fresh stuff after the yeast are done. Much better results I think.

Perhaps even crush or puree the fruit and freeze it before racking on to it. The freezing will break open the cell walls or something, right?

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Push Eject wrote:Perhaps even crush or puree the fruit and freeze it before racking on to it. The freezing will break open the cell walls or something, right?

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From what I know of cooking. You would freeze it first, then you let it thaw. after that puree or whatever. That way all the water crystals puncture the cell wall. As it thaws it leaks or something. I how to do that last night on good eats. Thanks Alton Brown

From the sounds of it adding apples would be about the same as adding fresh juice. I might try when the cider is close to done.

Based on the ciders that I have made I'd recommend either organic apple juice concentrate, or fresh pressed apple juice. Problem with fresh pressed is that you'll have organisms that will want to restart.

Speyeder suggested using sorbate to kill off the yeast. This is a common misconception in that K sorbate does not actually kill yeast, and will not stop an active and healthy fermentation. Sorbate acts on the surface of the yeast cells to turn off the receptors that play a part in yeast reproduction.

Bottom line is that if you want to halt an active fermentation I'd suggest that you rack to a new vessel and cold crash at 38 degrees F for two weeks. This is not a guarantee either as I've seen some yeasts (Uvaferm 43, K1V and EC-1118 keep going even at that temperature) You'll need to sulfite and sorbate in order to be absolutely sure that the yeast will not kick off again, or use a .45 sterile filtration system to get the yeast out of your cider. Either way it's a bit of work, but I can attest that they both will do the trick.

As mentioned previously in this thread using fresh fruit pureed or chunks will not net you the flavors you're looking for because of surface area limitation, and the inability of the yeasts to penetrate deeply enough into the chunks to extract additional flavor. This is why I generally use AJC (apple juice concentrate).

Another trick is to use Wine Conditioner which will generally have both sorbate and sulfite in it and will bring a dry cider up to about 1.01x - 1.02x and you can then oak, add tannin etc to bring it to your taste. Also CO2 charging is nice as you will get a nice, sparkling semi-sweet cider with a bit of oakiness and some astringency to balance the tartness of the apples.

Some folks will also allow the cider to undergo Malolactic fermentation to mellow the Malic Acid from the apples and give a creamy less acidic character to their cider. I like a bit of bite in my cider though.

Hope that helps,

Oskaar

That was a great post, Oskaar! Thanks for all the information.

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