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Cinnamon

Kegged on November 24, 2009.

It took a lot of effort to find apple cider that had no preservatives and was not pasteurized. I eventually found some; it was Country Cider Mill Apple Cider from Whole Foods. I bought five gallons along with two pounds of dark brown sugar and some cinnamon.

I heated the apple cider to around 160 degrees Fahrenheit for 15-20 minutes to kill any natural yeast that was present because it was not pasteurized. I stirred in the brown sugar along with two tablespoons of cinnamon powder.

Unfortunately I did not do a good job of documenting this process. I believe I used champagne yeast, but I cannot confirm that. The original gravity was 1.066. I transferred to a secondary container after five days, and then kegged the cider after an additional five days, for a total of only 10 days. The final gravity was 1.006, which resulted in an alcohol content of 7.9%.

The end product was not very good. It felt very syrupy for some reason, which seems odd because the final gravity was fairly low. It may have been because I kegged the cider too early and the yeast and cinnamon were still suspended in the liquid. The cider was also very cloudy which I believe could have been caused if the temperature of the cider got too high.