Guava Cider
I’m trying to break into making cider now so that I have a non-beer option on tap for my wife and any non-beer drinking guests we might have. I am starting with a Guava Cider – here’s where I am with it:
4 Gallons of Pasturized Apple Cider
2 Containers of Guava Nectar)
Nottingham Ale YeastI’ve been fermenting it for 18 days now and I think it’s completely done. I’ll take a gravity reading to confirm today before I rack it into a keg. The plan tonight is to keg it and stabilize with Potassium Metabisulfite and Potassium Sorbate. Once that’s done, I’ll backsweeten it with a couple of containers of Guava Nectar and maybe a little apple juice concentrate to get the sweetness/flavor balanced.
If anyone has any experience with slightly sweet ciders, I’l take any advice I can get!
Thanks!
- 2 Replies
This turned out AMAZING! Way better than expected.
Fermentation took off immediately (it was going crazy in just a few hours), and fermented completely dry in about a week. I let it sit for about 3 weeks before moving it to a keg and beginning the stabilization process so that I could backsweeten it. After that was done, I added 2 cans of concentrated apple juice and 2 more containers of Guava Nectar. I shook up the keg and let it sit for a week to let the flavors blend and carbonate.
It wasn’t terrible, though. Unfortunately, it wasn’t great either. It came out of the tap like a milkshake. It was a thick, opaque goo with an off-putting murky pink color. It smelled kind of odd. I was nervous to take a taste, but went for it. It was WAY too sweet. Like drinking a vaguely apple, vaguely guava sugar syrup that definitely had alcohol in it.
Two weeks later we had friends over and offered to let them try it. I pulled the first pint, which was exactly like the one I had before. When I got to the second one, though, it suddenly came out an attractive clear-pink color, with a nice body and carbonation. We took a taste – it was fantastic. I guess I did over sweeten it some, but luckily most of it settled at the bottom of the keg. So, if you make this stuff, I highly recommend letting it sit in the keg for at least 3-4 weeks to let it mellow before tasting it, and make sure you mix in what you use to backsweeten it very well. Next time I make it I’m going to use a little less apple juice concentrate. Overall, super happy with it!
After I kegged this cider I threw another 5 gallons of juice on the yeast and did another batch, but this time I backsweetened with Guava, Passionfruit, and Mango juice and did a tropical cider. It’s a little sweeter than the Guava cider and didn’t carbonate as well (might be a keg failure), but I recommend sticking with the Guava. Overall, it’s better.
