Cider From Trub

Steve SPF · Nov 21, 2019

So I saw a post here a couple of weeks ago about just pitching apple juice onto beer trub and got curious enough to buy 24lt of apple juice (from concentrate) last time I did a supermarket run. Unbelievably, it's 55p a litre in Aldi round here.

I had a beer going into casks/kegs on Tuesday so I just put the trub into clean fermenting bins with a few grams of sugar (sugar for honestly no good reason!), thought about putting some yeast nutrient in and decided against because I'd inadvertantly picked up wine yeast nutirent, set the temp to 19° and left it to see what happened.

OG was 1050 and today, Thursday, it's down to 1009. I have a sample and it's very bitter at the moment but I don't know how cider is supposed to taste at this stage so am not unduly concerned about that. I do have a couple of questions so if anyone could help I would appreciate it.

Will it need a diacetyl break and cold crash as I would usually give my beer?

I'm thinking of kegging half and bottling the rest. I would typically give my beers 4 weeks before expecting the best of them. What's the reality with cider?

I thought about putting ginger and lemon grass in at the start but was unsure of the whole preocess anyway so didn't. Anyone have any thoughts on must have additions for cider and when they are best added?

Nosybear · Nov 21, 2019

I'd cold-steep both the ginger and lemongrass. Process ginger cold and you get ginger-ale flavor, process it hot and you get Thai food, complete with the Ginger heat. Otherwise, I don't know what you did to the cider to make it bitter unless you hopped it. In my experience, clean-fermented dry ciders don't taste bitter, nor unduly sweet, kind of like vinegar without the acidity.

Steve SPF · Nov 21, 2019

It was beer trub so by default there's going to be hops in it. If hops are going to be a problem then cider from the trub isn't going to work for me.

At what stage would you add ginger/lemon grass? Not sure I like the idea of Thai food flavoured cider

Nosybear · Nov 21, 2019

I rather doubt the hops would be a source of bitterness - they've been submerged in beer for a long time.... I'd add the ginger and lemongrass to secondary, say just before the cider had completed fermenting. You could add it any time but you're introducing some O2 and the risk of oxidation so some fermentation might be nice to "scrub" the O2 out.

Zambi · Nov 22, 2019

I've done this with smallish batches and I've not noticed any bitterness. It could actually do with a bit more.
The trub came from a Belgian Blonde, so not too much hop in there, which might be the reason.
If anything it's a bit sour, but gets a lot better with time.

Steve SPF · Nov 22, 2019

Zambezi Special said:
I've done this with smallish batches and I've not noticed any bitterness. It could actually do with a bit more.
The trub came from a Belgian Blonde, so not too much hop in there, which might be the reason.
If anything it's a bit sour, but gets a lot better with time.

I guess that was my question, will it improve over time. I try to give my beers a month now and they really mellow in that time, any sharpness seems to smooth out. I was hoping that cider might be the same