Using Apple cider in a wheat beer?

[Ozwald]

I know, but you're still a pansy.

Using the cider-as-brewing-liquor method you'll still get a definite & noticeable character, you're just not making hard cider. You're still providing the yeast with a different array of sugars, nutrients & unfermentables. Otherwise we could just stop using malt altogether & replace it with diluted dextrose. If you're still gung-ho about the aromatics, backsweeten or add a percentage of unboiled to the fermenter. The aroma isn't the only character on the table, just a small one.

There was some great discussion about it on BBR years ago. The show might be 'bland' compared to what the BN listeners are used to, but they do a lot of great subjective experiments. You just have to watch out for the listener submitted "experiments". They're a big joke. Some guy tried to do some stuff comparing starters & with all his obvious mistakes, it wasn't an experiment at all, nor were his findings even close to scientifically accurate. James & Steve always did a pretty good job though.

[dmtaylor]

What I do with my apple ale is I make a smaller batch of beer on purpose, then while the wort is boiling with the hops, I heat a gallon or so of apple juice on the side to 170 F for ~10 minutes to kill any wild yeast or bacteria, then add it to the wort at flameout. This way, the apple juice is stablized without boiling it, and the final volume is wherever you want it to be. If memory serves, I use 1 gallon fresh no-preservative apple juice with a 2-gallon batch, to make 3 gallons. If you want 5 or 6 gallons, then double these amounts or whatever. Turns out really really really good every time. The other thing you'll want to do is add maybe 4 ounces of lactose, since apple juice sugars are 100% fermentable, which will tend to dry out your beer. You could also compensate by mashing your wort at a very high temperature, 156 to 158 F or something like that, for only 40 minutes.