Beer/Cider mix - anyone tried this?

[dmtaylor]

Glad you like it.

[AdamWiz]

Dave -
The smoked apple ale scored a 40.5 and got an honorable mention in category 23 at the Michigan Beer Cup. The judges comments were all very positive. The only somewhat negative comment was that it was a bit thin-but that is to be expected when using cider. Perhaps I'll add a bit more lactose next time. Just wanted to let you know what a sucess your recipe was for me. Thanks

-Adam

[dmtaylor]

Holy crap -- that is fantastic! Mine didn't score quite that high, although it did take a 1st. I entered an earlier variation on it. But glad it's a winner for us!

[snowcapt]

head to head?

[dmtaylor]

I'd be interested in a head-to-head! We'd have to figure out how to make it work. I won't be getting my good cider until harvest time in October, so we'd need to put it off till next year if we do something like this.

[Broners&Brewbies]

I had seen a name for this and had to look it up...

..Found it! It's called Graff. A slightly hopped malty cider. While looking for it I found this recipe. I like the tasting notes "nummy"

Recipe Type: Extract
Yeast: US-05
Batch Size (Gallons): 5
Original Gravity: 1.090
Final Gravity: 1.010
IBU: 26.2
Boiling Time (Minutes): 60
Primary Fermentation (# of Days & Temp): 14+
Tasting Notes: NUMMY

Made my 20th batch and have it down to a T....

Inspired by Brandon O.....

5lbs Briess Golden Light..
.5 oz Warrior
1lb Brown Sugar
11 12oz cans of Apple Cherry Frozen concentrate.. I used OLD ORCHARD
Us-05 Yeast

60 min hop boil,Add brown sugar at the start of the boil. add concentrate (frozen) when boil is done... Pitch at 70 degrees.. SOOO NUMMY... 10% so its a sipper (if you can).. perfectly balanced..

You will be impressed..

[Pharmbrewer]

My award-winning recipe for apple ale can be found here. I use fresh apple cider instead of water. You can wait until October and pick up some great cider from your local orchard, or you can get a good cider with no preservatives, not from concentrate, called Simply Apple, at your local supermarket any time of year.

http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtop ... lit=+apple

I was thinking of adapting this technique for an upcoming comp. I was going to take a belgian dubbel recipe add the cider and smoked malt and add dehydrated apples in the 2ndary if I wan't more apple flavor. I'm going to use wyeast 3787. I'm planning on entering it as a belgian specialty beer.

So my question is How much do you think I would need to bump up the smoked malt to get it to show up in a beer like this?

Thanks PB

[dmtaylor]

The smoked malt will begin to show up in amounts of around 6% of the grist, but you can use as much as you want if you want to make sure there's enough smoke flavor. A beer brewed with 100% smoked malt is still plenty drinkable and delicious, just tastes like smoked ham or bacon. With the 6% I've suggested, on the other hand, you can just barely detect it. So I guess what I'm saying is, don't be afraid to go crazy and use more than you think you need -- you'll probably like it. For a blonde ale, 8% seems enough. For a dubbel, maybe kick it up another notch -- totally up to you.