Beer/Cider mix - anyone tried this?

[Pharmbrewer]

Thanks, So one other question. What percent do you concider the gallon of cider in your recipe?

PB

[shaneisneato]

Graff is the way to go. Mine turned out awesome. Its cheap and easy to make too.

[PhillyBrewer]

I brewed 10 gallons of Dave's recipe recently. I scaled it up and brewed it exactly as listed. I kept it in primary for 2 weeks and then in secondary for 1 month. I kegged it last week and excitedly tapped it a few days ago.

Inexplicably, despite using 4.4 lbs of smoked malt and 3.5 gallons of apple cider, I taste absolutely no apple or smoked flavors. The beer is essentially completely non-descript with really the only discernible flavor being a faint Belgian flavor from the yeast.

What could have happened? There were no issues with the brew and, as I said, I followed the recipe. People seem to love this beer based off the countless reviews, but I can't imagine what I'm tasting can't be what everyone else did. The only thing I can think is that my LHBS messed up and didn't give me smoked malt, and all the apple flavors from the cider blew off in primary.

[dmtaylor]

That seems very odd. Do you have a head cold? Do you smoke? Have you eaten a lot of garlic lately? Brushed your teeth today?

But seriously..... did you use fresh orchard cider, or did you use "apple juice" from the store that is filtered, watered down, and has added sugars?? I suppose it's remotely possible you even got bum cider from an "orchard"... but I'd seriously doubt it!!

[PhillyBrewer]

I used the stuff Whole Foods sells that's flash pasteurized with no preservatives. It's supposedly the most raw cider that can be commercially sold.