This recipe and process write-up was provided by Kyle Tupper who sent us the very fun smoked cider sampled in this Chop & Brew video. The addition of pine-smoked lapsang souchong tea to the cider results in a most unique smoke flavor like nothing we’ve ever had before and will soon be trying in our own homebrewery. Thanks to Kyle for sharing his cider and the information below.
Smoked Cider (with Lapsang Souchong Tea) Recipe
OG: 1.044
FG: 1.000
ABV: 5.78%
My method and note taking is nowhere near as scientific as some peoples, but this should give you a pretty clear picture of how the cider was made.
First, a little background on how this cider came to be. Last September (9/13/20) a friend of mine had a cider pressing party at his house to which I brought my press. I don’t know if you got much news about it in your area, but we had an unusually bad wildfire season here in western Washington last year, and the air was thick and hazy with smoke. Some jokes were made about smoked cider and the idea was just too cool to pass up.
I’m not sure of the variety of the apples, but they were slightly less ripe than I would normally use. I thought they were a bit on the bright, tangy side, but they did give up a lot of nice clear juice when we pressed them. Not having had much experience with pressing cider, the people who planned the party had picked an impressive mountain of apples. People took turns pressing, I got five gallons for myself, and hours later when there was still quite a bit of apples left everyone was pretty much done with it. We decided to finish them off and I ended up with another 4.5 gallons of cider that no one wanted.
9/14/20- I added 1 tsp calcium carbonate and 1/4 tsp. potassium metabisulfite to the cider. (Normally I would have added pectic enzyme the following day but now that I look at my notes I see that I didn’t.)
9/16/20- Added 2 tsp. DAP and 1 tsp. nutrients. A nutrient like fermaid K or fermaid O should work well. (You can choose to add that or not. Up to you.) Pitched a starter of DV10 yeast which was started in half-quart of slightly diluted boiled (then cooled) cider 24 hours before.
9/17/20- Added 1 tsp. DAP.
9/18/20- Added 1 tsp. DAP. Overflowed the carboy. Speedy fermentation.
9/24/20- Racked to a secondary bucket. I noted that it was a good tasting cider at this point.
10/21/20- Added 1 oz of smoked lapsang souchong tea to a jar with 1 quart of cider. Left the jar to steep in the fridge.
10/24/20- Added the smokey cider to the batch.
11/9/20- Stabilized cider.
12/8/20- After experimenting with sweetening I decided to add another .5 oz. of tea to the cider. Added directly to the cider in a mesh bag for three days.
12/22/20- Sweetened with 1 lb. light brown sugar and one can apple juice concentrate.
1/29/2021- It’s been on tap for three or four weeks. Slightly cloudy. First aroma is a huge blast of pipe smoke followed by faint aromas of classic cider. Sweet and smokey are the main characteristics in the first sip. On its own, lapsang souchong is somewhat reminiscent of smoked paprika so you can sort of imagine the effect it would have on the beverage. At the second smell and drink smoke aromas and flavors are subtle with more flavors of a classic cider coming through. Bold ripe fall apple flavor, toffee and black tea. As you drink it the sweetness seems to fade and brighter apple flavors come through. It’s pretty good but I’d like to get more of a BBQ like smoke character into this cider.