CrabbyApple Cyser
This easy homebrew recipe uses fresh pressed apple cider, fermented with fresh crabapples and honey to make a crisp, tart and balanced sparkling hard cider.
Ingredients
- 1 gallon apple cider no preservatives
- 1 lb crabapples picked over and rinsed
- 1 lb light honey clover or wildflower
- 1 each campden tablet KMS
- 1 packet Wine or beer yeast I used CL-23
- 1 tsp Pectic enzyme divided
- Go-ferm or other yeast nutrient optional
- ½ tsp. Bentonite optional
Instructions
- Crush the Camden tablet and add to the cider. Shake well and leave for 24 hours.
- Freeze the crabapples... This will start to break down the cell walls and increase juice extraction.
- Sanitize a wide-mouth primary fermenter- either a large fermentation jar that is more than one gallon, or a 2-3 gallon bucket.
- Heat 4 cups of water to a boil, and add the frozen crabapples. Bring back to a simmer and then remove from the heat and let cool.
- Add 1/2 tsp pectic enzyme to the pot, and 1/2 tsp to the jug of cider & mix well. Let sit one hour so the enzyme can do it's work.
- Meanwhile, measure the honey into the fermenter, and hydrate the yeast in 4 oz of water (boiled and then cooled- If you are using Go-ferm, add that to the water before the yeast).
- Pour the crabapple mixture into a nylon or muslin bag in the fermenter. With clean hands, tie off the bag and squeeze the crabapples into a pulp to release their flavor and color. Mix well with a sanitized spoon to dissolve the honey.
- Add the cider and stir well. If you are using bentonite, add now, dissolved in a few oz of warm water.
- Pitch the hydrated yeast, check and record the SG and seal the fermenter with an airlock.
- After 7-14 days, remove the bag with the crabapples. Let the cyser settle a day or two so the sediment can drop out and rack into a 1 gallon carboy. Check SG.
- When cyser is clear and fermentation is complete, bottle. Rack again before bottling if you like or especially if there is a lot of sediment in the carboy.
- Add priming sugar and use heavy bottles if sparkling cyser is desired- leave the bottles at fermentation temperature for 7-14 days before cellaring or chilling. Don't overdo the priming sugar- be precise and use a priming sugar calculator online if you aren't sure.
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
