Preparation
In saucepan boil 2 quarts water with lemon juice and spices. Let it simmer while you combine concentrates, sugars, and pears with 2 gallons of water and heat until it just starts to boil. Remove from heat. Strain the spice tea (I used a coffee press) and add to wort. Stir well and pour into fermenter, add the gallon of cider and cold water to bring to 4 gallons. Cool to 80 and pitch yeast. Rack to secondary after 2 weeks, when cider clears fine with gelatin (sediment is much lighter than beer sediment and the slightest bump stirs it all through the wort). Fining helped considerably for racking to bottling bucket. Prime with 3/4 cup corn sugar and bottle. Age at least 3 weeks.
Specifics
| Style | |
| Recipe Type | Extract |
| Batch Size | 4 gallons |
| Original Gravity | 1.060 |
| Final Gravity | 0.99 |
| Boiling Time | barely any |
| Primary Fermentation | plastic 13 days |
| Secondary Fermentation | glass 17 days or until it clears |
| Other Specifics | Alcohol Content 7.75% Color is light golden like a white table wine |
Comments
This was my first attempt at a hard cider, and like the name says, I tried to wing it with no recipe. When I bottled this it was so dry that I thought for sure I would have to throw the whole batch down the sink. After 3 weeks in the bottle it was mellowed quite nice, not to dry and just a light sparkle of carbonation. It gets smoother and mellower every week with a subtle flavor of the spice in the background. My wife is a white zinfandel drinker and she loves this cider! I am gonig to save a few bottles to try once a month and compare flavor, but I will have to hide them. Serve it chilled for your guests that are not beer drinkers or are skeptical of homebrew (if such people still exist).