Cider: Sumac Cider

Last year in February, I was intending to create a raspberry cider, but I had a quart jar of dried sumac berries, so I decided to give that a try.  

Staghorn Sumac grows everywhere here.  Growing up, I would see it along the road with these characteristic red spires.  Smooth and Staghorn sumac get a bad rap because of their loser cousin the poison sumac (Toxicodendron vernix). 

Poison sumac has white berries and grows in more swampy areas.  I have never seen it first hand, but I know the red spires are safe on either the furry Staghorn or the smooth varieties.  Sumac can be made into tea as I described here and it can also be used as a spice.  

Later I will post our experiments with cider from scratch, but this was my first batch and I used concentrated apple juice.  

Here's the recipe I used and a review:

One quart of sumac berries

13 Great Value cans of 100% apple juice

2 Old Orchard 100% juice apple raspberry

1 cup Wild flower honey

1 cup Corn sugar

1 lipton tea bag

2 Cote des Blancs yeast packets

Blended sumac berries in water and filtered through lined funnel.

Filled brew pot with water passed through berries

Brought to a boil

Briefly steeped the tea bag

Skimmed sumac berries off surface

Added honey and corn sugar

Also added 1 can of AJ and 1 can of AR

Boiled and then mixed with rest of cans and water

OG at 78 degrees = 1.058

After two weeks: 

SP at 64 degrees = 1.001

Full, rounded taste with a tartness.  

Cloudy with a bit of a pinkish hue.

Week later:

Added 1 can of Apple-Rasperry + 1/3 cup corn sugar to prime

Bottled.

Al./vol: 7.57

One year later:

A year later and the cider is very drinkable.  It is very dry and very carbonated.  In the future, I would increase the sumac content (it gave the cider an excellent red color and the tannins created a great base to add complexity).  I will also use 4-5 tea bags.

Also, I am looking to experiment with two methods for sweet, carbonated cider.  You can either pasteurize by adding more than priming sugar and then killing the yeast in the bottle (potential for bottle bombs) or you can sweeten with an unfermentable sugar (like Xylitol). 

Finally, now that I have made fresh, homemade cider, I will be retiring the concentrated apple juice.  

Cider: Cider from scratch

Post in Progress

8/26/12

Home pressed Cider

See Apple butter cider file for details

Ph: 3.2

OG: 1.032

1 Bushel = 2.3 gallons with mush

Added 5lbs honey and other suggested ingredients (2/3 tsp acid bled).  Filled to 5.5 gallons.

New PH: 3.4

OG:1.060

Bubbling in less than 12 hours

9/2/12

Racked

Cloudy

SG: 1.000

9/26/12

Clear and tasty.  A bit yeast-mead ish. 

Added ½ gallon of home made cider with press, added:

            -4.5 teaspoons potassium sorbate

            -4 campden tablets (crushed)

Somewhere in here I added 6-8 cinnamon sticks.  I didn’t boil, I just added with the campden and PS.  I would use less next time. 

10/14/12

Bottling

Very clear

Ph: 3.6

Not too sweet.  Hint of Cinnamin.  Very tasty.

SO2= 30

Added ½ teaspoon acid blend

And 1/3 teaspoon wine tannins

½ cup sugar

1 cup apple cider

Slammer Cider

Pressed a mix of Game Land Apples and made 10 gallons of cider

Decided to not add any campden before yeast

Added pectin enzyme and 1.3 tablespoons of nutrient

Used one packet of fruit wine yeast (red star)

9/24/12

Bubbling already

10/1/12

Racked

Lots of sediment

Acidic, but only 3.6ph…volatile acids? Hope not

Added water to both to top off

Added sumac water to one.  Boiled Sumac in water, added ice, racked on top

10/28/12

Sumac Cider

No noticeable sumac color

SG: less than 1

Weak flavor

Added three cinnamon sticks, 1 clove, and 1 cup xylitol

Non-Sumac

More acidic

Same color

Also at Sg: 1 or lower

Added three cinnamon sticks, 1 clove, and 1 cup xylitol

Added concentrate at bottling with another ½ cup of xylitol for sweetness.

11/4/12

Bottled with Andy.

The sumac smelled like Uric acid…or urine.   We’ll see if that settles out after bottle conditioning.  Andy said the taste was good though. 

Used a can of apple juice concentrate for priming. 

Cinnamon flavor was very week.  Haven’t tried a bottle though. 

I don’t remember how much xylitol I added for sweetener, but I did add more before bottling.  I also added more red zinger tea.  

Wyczer: Wine, Cider, Mead

Post In process:

4/15/12

Welch wine/cider/mead

Boiled 2 cans of Great value apple juice

2 cans Welch grape juice

with water in brewing kettle

24 oz of honey

Separate pot

Add 1 pom juice

3 lbs raisin water (blender)

3.5 teaspoons nutrient

½ teaspoon pectic enzyme

Total juices

6 apple juice

7 welch grape

96 oz of pom juice

og: 1.076 at 88 degrees

4/22/12

sp:  66 degrees = .998

Ideas to try?:

If the wine is sour, it could mean that all the available sugar has been fermented into alcohol. The next step is to stabilize the wine by adding campden tablets (1 tablet per gallon) AND potassium sorbate (1/2 teaspoon per gallon)- this combination will stop any further fermentation from occurring. 

5/1/12

SP: .998

Ph: 3.6

Added 5 campden tablets and 2.5 teaspoons potassium sorbate to a glass of wine, stirred and readded.  Transferred to new carboy.  Lots of sediment (lees)

Currently:

Pink and slightly cloudy

Very fruity bouquet.  Some depth in the scent below the powerful fruit smell.

Slight sting to the taste.   Some body.  Pretty acidity, despite low acid.  And pretty thin. 

6/7/12

racked onto 1 tsp potassium Sorbate in water solution

Bottled

Mold in the air lock…use vodka in future long term storage.

Thin, light taste. Not sweet.  Pink hue, a bit cloudy.

Pleasant when chilled.