Caramelized Cider with Saison III yeast

[brewpirate]

Well its time to attempt a cider again, the last time I tried it I made paint thinner and really had no idea what I was doing.

This time I wanted to do a twist by caramelizing some cider and pitching White Labs WLP858 BELGIAN SAISON III YEAST. What do you think of condensing some juice down and caramelizing the juice to intensify the flavor and making some complex sugars to hopefully result in a sweeter cider. I found this link and was along the lines of that I was thinking.

As far as the source of the juice it will be a box of store cider or if I can manage to get out to the orchard pick up some fresh cider.

 

[brewpirate]

Well I made this last night and super excited to see how it turns out, here is what I did using store juice.

Ingredients:
2 - 96oz Great Value 100% Apple Juice from Concentrate
3 - 64oz Tree Top Apple Blend Juice 100% Fresh Pressed, Not From Concentrate (Granny Smith and Red & Golden Delicious apples)
1/2 lb - Dark Brown Sugar
1 - White Labs WLP585 BELGIAN SAISON III YEAST

Process
1) Toss the 3 Tree Top juice blends in the freezer
2) Boiled down 2 bottles of the cheap concentrate juice down to half which intensified the apple flavors.
3) Added some of the cheap concentrate juice to a sauce pan with 1/2lb brown sugar and turned to high letting it simmer away and caramelize
4) Cooled the base juice down & brown sugar syrup till it was not steaming in an ice bath, sorry didnt have my thermometer handy
5) Add 1 bottle of the cold Tree Top juice to fermentor
6) Add cooled base juice to fermentor
7) Add last 2 bottles of the cold Tree Top juice to fermentor
8) Add brown sugar syrup
9) Pitch yeast straight from tube

Starting Gravity 1.070 and tastes awesome. Really looking forward to seeing how this turns out!

 

[brewpirate]

24hrs after pitching, taking off like a rocket!

 

[brewpirate]

Its getting close and its really good! Currently we are at 1.014 and fermentation has slowed down quite a bit and think its going to finish here soon. The Saison III has added some slight spicy/clove character and hints of fruity flavors and will be racking it off to secondary soon and adding 2.5g of juice on top of the cake/lees to make some apple jack :)

Will keep you guys posted.

 

[brewpirate]

Well here we go and boy is this amazing!

Last night I caramelized some lactose and burnt some sugar as well condensed some more juice to add more flavor and boy is this an apple bomb! Cant wait to see how they carb out.