Blood Orange infused Cider recipe
- Thread starter BrianRe
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mikerlynch26
Well-Known Member
What most will echo here is that "cloning" ciders is very tough. It all starts with the juice, so unless you know the exact blend of apples used you can't really duplicate the final product. In many ways you'd need the apples grown in the same orchard as the ones Elemental Brewing used. It's like saying you want to clone a particular vineyards wine without using their grapes.
That being said the techniques, processes, and flavor profile of certain ciders can be mimicked and riffed on, and may even yield something better than the commercial example. In my experience with blood orange, the peel with the pith removed (really get in there with your knife and scrape away anything that's white) suspended in the finished cider or beer works pretty well. Kind of like dry hopping. Taste as you go along, but in 10 gallons of pale ale the pith of two oranges gave it a nice balanced citrusy-ness without it becoming orange juice. I had them in a mesh bag suspended in the keg for about a week and a half. I yanked them when I thought the flavor was good and carbed it up.
Because the oils are volatile however, the flavor will change over time. In the that beer the aroma was the first to go, then the flavor changed from the citrus to a more background "pithy" bitterness that was reminiscent of hops. Not bad, but if you're bottle conditioning this cider the end result may be different than when you bottled.
Let us know how it turns out!
(Sorry, I always get wordy on Homebrewtalk right after coffee, seems to be a habit)
That being said the techniques, processes, and flavor profile of certain ciders can be mimicked and riffed on, and may even yield something better than the commercial example. In my experience with blood orange, the peel with the pith removed (really get in there with your knife and scrape away anything that's white) suspended in the finished cider or beer works pretty well. Kind of like dry hopping. Taste as you go along, but in 10 gallons of pale ale the pith of two oranges gave it a nice balanced citrusy-ness without it becoming orange juice. I had them in a mesh bag suspended in the keg for about a week and a half. I yanked them when I thought the flavor was good and carbed it up.
Because the oils are volatile however, the flavor will change over time. In the that beer the aroma was the first to go, then the flavor changed from the citrus to a more background "pithy" bitterness that was reminiscent of hops. Not bad, but if you're bottle conditioning this cider the end result may be different than when you bottled.
Let us know how it turns out!
(Sorry, I always get wordy on Homebrewtalk right after coffee, seems to be a habit)
