Hello,
Diving into cider brewing, and recently made a batch from a kit. All went well, and the flavor is great….I was shooting for a clean semi sweet base to explore with. There is very little apple aroma tho. The cider finished quite clear and would hate to mess that up. What can I do at this point? The batch is still in the fermzilla so I do have time to make adjustments before kegging/bottling.
Any advice appreciated.
Just joined this forum today and just started cider brewing acouple days ago. I have a small background in beer brewing so I know a little about fermentation and such so i will try to help. . I saw your question and I noticed a large amount of beer posts in this forum but very little posts on cider so i hope you stay.
As far as your question about adding back flavor into your cider I have some ideas but little to no current experience. I have studied on line quite a bit on this subject though. So what I have to offer is opinion mostly so take it with a grain of salt. Still I believe this is what most people say.
As far as flavoring ciders I have read that some things like blueberries can add flavor and that added after fermentation but before bottleing is best for getting the blueberry flavor, while adding blueberries in the beggining before fermentation does little. Also before fermenting adding up to 25% but not more of cranberry juice to the original juice adds flavor well, . . which i am trying right now (its bubbling away). If you are talking of getting more apple flavor, I understand that before fermentation tart apples are the best. I have added these to my current batch. I also want to experiment with an idea so enhance apple flavor and sweetness by adding either/both monk fruit. (which is a non fermentable sugar, And a strange idea i have about post pasturization back sweetening with something I found online called apple syrup, which is basically a boiled down reduced apple juice untill it gets thick. I would imagine that the producers of this throw all the apples in with the peals which would increase tannins. (a good thing). This post pasturization backsweetening process requires kegging and can not be achieved during bottling if you want the fizz from cabonation.
I imagine also you could create you own apple near syrup by reducing any starting apple juice before fermentation, which would also pasturize it, getting rid of unwanted yeast strains and bacteria in the process. them fermenting this somewhat reduced juice, This last Idea I have is an experiment I will be doing shortly if my current batches turn out so i have a controll group base to compare it all with. Reducing the beginning juicesr in steps of water volume before fermentation is what i am currently curious about. how far is too far, what its effects are etc. With experimentation I will work with one gallon batches.
If you are new to cider, I would suggest from my beer brewing days that if it tastes good and you are just started move on to racking/botteling and experiment with flavoring later. If it taste good, go with it as it is. The reasoning being that things can occur which throw off flavor such as creating oxidation during bottling etc.. If you are beggining and try to adjust it now as it is and move on to bottling and if the flavor goes off in the end product, you may not know what caused it and you will have to backtrack trying to find the source. It will end up being confusing.
Its best to start brewing with the basics and progress from there in steps so you can better clarify mistakes with less hassle. If it tastes good at this point. Go with it, drink it, and start a new batch next time with a small change in adding a single flavor ingredient or change.
just my opinion,. .grain of salt. . . I have some ideas I myself want to try, something they call backsweetening but I am reserving that for a moment untill I get a few good basic batches down of a good base cider. I did learn from my short beer brewing days.
Anyways, Happy brewing, and I hope we can grow some knowledge together on this forum. Stay here I could use the help and I am looking for a few good inputs on my own beggining endevour and would love your input.
that wasnt a quote, i must have hit a key on my keyboard while typing,
A lot of people stabilize and then add apple juice to sweeten and restore some of the apple-y-ness that you lose in fermentation — this will work if you’re planning to force carbonate in a keg.
You could try adding fruit and pectinase. The pectinase should, I’m told, help it drop clear rather than picking up haze.
I “dry-hopped” a cider with hibiscus once. Good flavor, but it did come out hazy.
The reply is very useful
I‘ve been making cider for 20+ years with apples I grow and press myself. My experience, after trying many things to flavor the cider, is to not ferment the flavor out in the first place. Use good, flavorful apples and a yeast that doesn’t ferment out the flavor. I’ve tried many yeasts and settled on WY1450 as a yeast that leaves a good apple flavor behind.
I’ll echo what Denny said. Most of the time, in my experience, cider is going to ferment bone dry, 0.998 ish. I usually let that happen no matter my intent but, when you ferment dry, especially if you have a vigorous fermentation, all the good apple character blows off with CO2 production.
To prevent all those delicious volatile aromas escaping from the airlock, consider cooling it down a bit. Slow, steady fermentation will help keep the aroma in the fermenter and later, in the glass.
You could stabilize and add juice back and all that good stuff as well but, to Denny’s point, good quality ingredients and not blowing it off in the first place are more desirable.
Additionally, you can carbonate. The carbonation will help drive aroma out of the glass and into your nose, plus, sparkling cider is awesome so, bonus 
I have to say that dry cider doesn’t necessarily equal no apple flavor. My latest batch finished at .998 and has a wonderful app.e fla or.
I want say that dry cider is not necessary.