HephaestusXiled
New Member
Hello everyone, I am new to this thread website and a novice at brewing and looking to expand my learning with ciders. I have made a few batches from the Brewers Best kits which turned out great but I am wanting to start making them my own. I'm looking to do two new batches, the first a mojito cider with mint and lime flavorings and the second a tea flavored cider.
I have been doing some research about how to tackle the mojito one and learned about tinctures. I'm wondering if someone has experience with making tinctures that I could talk with in the process. What I learned is to focus on the zest of the lime but am I using a zester to make dust of the rine and put it in the high proof liquor or an I peeling the rine like an orange and soaking that whole? Should I be concerned on the type of mint, and should I muddle it before soaking it? My batches are usually 6 to 6.5 gallon batches so how much of this tinctures should I make, and if I'm adding a lot is this going to drastically increase my ABV that it will harm the product or the yeast since I like to naturally carbonate (had too much inconsistency with the carbonation tablets).
For the tea, I am unsure if I should be steeping the tea leave in say secondary as I'm afraid it will be difficult to stay on top of it to prevent too much tea infusion. I'm also afraid of brewing tea normally with boiling water as this makes the tea bitter and if I add that directly to primary or secondary I'm afraid it'll make the cider bitter and gross. Trying to figure out how to sanitize and extract a tea flavor that will be strong enough to make out in the finished product. Any helpful guidance?
I have been doing some research about how to tackle the mojito one and learned about tinctures. I'm wondering if someone has experience with making tinctures that I could talk with in the process. What I learned is to focus on the zest of the lime but am I using a zester to make dust of the rine and put it in the high proof liquor or an I peeling the rine like an orange and soaking that whole? Should I be concerned on the type of mint, and should I muddle it before soaking it? My batches are usually 6 to 6.5 gallon batches so how much of this tinctures should I make, and if I'm adding a lot is this going to drastically increase my ABV that it will harm the product or the yeast since I like to naturally carbonate (had too much inconsistency with the carbonation tablets).
For the tea, I am unsure if I should be steeping the tea leave in say secondary as I'm afraid it will be difficult to stay on top of it to prevent too much tea infusion. I'm also afraid of brewing tea normally with boiling water as this makes the tea bitter and if I add that directly to primary or secondary I'm afraid it'll make the cider bitter and gross. Trying to figure out how to sanitize and extract a tea flavor that will be strong enough to make out in the finished product. Any helpful guidance?