Apple Juice ??

[shirteesdotnet]

OK... so what about apple juice in the boil? Maybe 32oz or 64oz of it, instead of part of the water? Has anyone tried this? Does anyone have thoughts about what this might do to the beer?

I would think it raise the alcohol % a bit. Im also curious if it would impart a nice sweet apple flavor, or even a scent? Or would it ruin the beer, maybe imparting a cidery nasty flavor.

I may try adding some...who knows. If I were to try this... should I toss in some tree top apple juice or juice my own apples?

~Dave

[brewmonkey]

Apple juice? I would think cider would be a better alternative and then make sure it does not have preservatives added. Other then that I do not see what harm it would cause depending on the style.

[Bilbo Beergins]

I picked up some real-deal apple juice (not strained) at the supermarket. No preservatives, just pasteurized. Plenty of fructose to feed those little yeast buggers...

[zoom6zoom]

You don't want to allow apple juice to boil as it contains pectin - that's how you make jelly! It will probably also cause haze problems.

[Bilbo Beergins]

Wow...Beer Shooters!

[stronk]

Sorry, there's already a style: braggot. Brewed with malt and apple juice.

[Derekt2]

Braggot is mead made from honey and malt.

[stronk]

Good point, I may be thinking of scrumpy. I'll look it up...

...seems I was imagining the style. Here's a recipe for 'apple beer', but it looks like it's not a recognised style:

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pwp/tofi/bmdl_brewers/apple_beer.html

edit: they also talk about pectin and haze problems, as mentioned above.

[guildofevil]

I wouldn't mash with the apple juice, as the article suggests.

Indeed they note that their mash efficiency was in effective negative numbers, loosing gravity points from the juice which were not quite replaced by the malt.

I would probably just mash a small amount of malt, with water, as normal, so as to collect a couple of gallons of wort and then top up with pasteurized apple juice.

I see no reason to boil the juice, as it has already been pasteurized. Just add it to the primary, with the boiled and cooled wort.

Séan

[Mad Scientist]

Boiling will set the pectin, true, but I wouldn't trust the pasturization as stated on the bottle, I'd make sure I did it myself. Nothing wrong with being cautious.

If you are cooling with an immerson chiller, monitor the temperature , and add the apple juice once you dip past 180F, turn your cooling water off, and let it sit for about ten min, so that your are pasturizing yourself.

If you use a counter flow chiller, I'd keep an eye on the kettle temp (yet again), as I let mine sit for about twenty to thirty minutes after whirlpooling. by that time, it is usually cooled enough not to set the pectin, just toss it in, and wait a bit longer for it to pasturize. Maybe give is a gentle mix.

I would also get it (and I would use cider) from a good source like Whole Foods, or a small health food store.

As other have noted, apple juice does not carry that much sugar, so this might be a flavor issue only.

I'd also boil a bit longer, to offset the added liquid form the cider/juice that you use.

Last, let us know how it comes out.

[stronk]

You could do a partial boil from the beginning and top it up to volume with the juice in the primary bucket.

[cluckk]

I found a really simple recipe for apple cider that involved natural apple jiuce a bit of honey and ale yeast.

I decided to make it but did it this way.

I had just racked a porter to secondary. The porter used (as most of my ales do) White Labs WLP007 Dry English Ale Yeast.

I rinsed the yeast with bottled water to attempt to remove as much trub as possible. I also sanitized the primary. Next, I pitched the yeastslurry back into the primary along with two gallons of apple juice (natural) and about a pound of honey. The apple juice was warmed just enough to speed the disolving of the honey--hopefully no pectin haze will result.

I did this small batch about a week ago. I tasted today to see if there was any sign of spoiling--and just to satisfy my curiosity. I tasted good. No sign of off flavors. Fermentation kicked off pretty quickly with regular rocky heads. I plan to ferment out and then bottle and prime to have a sparkling cider. If it works out I'll do it more often.

[cluckk]

Well I bottled this small batch today. It was so good, between the bottle for me, the one for my wife and the one for a steak marinade all within two hours of bottling, this half case batch will not last long. I am going to have to fight to keep from drinking it up before it carbonates. I want to try it carbonated and cooled. I think I need to make another batch of my Robust Porter to prep for another batch.

As for the final numbers my original gravity for the two gallon batch was aroung 1.060 final gravity was 1.002. Even though I fermented this small batch in full sized fermenters there are no signs of oxidation. It cleared nicely with no apparent pectin haze. It has a clear nice white wine look with a fruity aroma and a slight taste of apples. It is quite dry with little residual sweetness. It also has a nice alcohol warmth.

Pretty good for the cheapest batch of any beverage I have ever made.
Apple juice, natural no preservatives for 1.50 per gallon.
Left over honey that had darkened and crystalized from storage.
Yeast Slurry from my favorite homebrew recipe.

About one week in primary and two in secondary and voila good stuff!

I bottled this one with sugar for carbonation as a sparkling cider. However, I like it still enough, the next batch will probably be a full batch with half in larger bottles without carbonation. This will be a great summer beverage.

[stronk]

That's a blisteringly low FG from my experience (although I suppose honey and cider are famous for fermenting dry). I keep meaning to try something like this, but it's currently about 57 on my to-do list.

[cluckk]

When I first took he reading I thought something was wrong. I rechecked he temperature did everything over. Came up the same. It is very dry, almost no residual sweetness.

My wife absolutely loves it. She was trying to talk me into opening another bottle today. I'm waitig to let it carbonate before I drink anymore.