The majority of the dry hopped cider I’ve had the pleasure of making or trying has been delicious. I’ve come to discover the Motueka hop recently, and it’s flavors play very well with a clean cider. In this article, I’ll go through my Motueka dry hopped cider recipe!
What Does Dry Hopping Cider Mean?
Dry hopping simply means adding hops to the cider while it is fermenting. When making beer, traditionally, hops are added while the beer is boiling. When hops are added after the boil, and instead, while the beer is fermenting, it is known as dry hopping.
Why Would I Dry Hop Cider?
Cider can be great on its own. However, adding hops can add so much more complexity, aroma, and flavor to the cider.
There are so many types of hops on the market these days, so the variety of flavors you can add to your cider through hoping is huge!
Motueka Hop
The Motueka (pronounced MO-too-eh-kuh) hop is a New World hop from New Zealand. Just about all the New Zealand hops have very interesting properties. This hop lends very prominent lime zest aromas and flavors. I featured this hop in a pseudolager that I made recently that turned out awesome.
I have found that this hop also plays very well in a cider. You definitely notice the lime flavor coming through, but it harmonizes well with the apple notes.
Can You Use Kveik to Ferment Cider?
Yes! Kveik yeast can make awesome cider! Every time that I use Kveik, I am impressed by it’s versatility. It can ferment clean pseudolagers at room temperature, it can ferment ciders lending a bit of fruity flavors, or it can be fermented warm and lend mass amounts of tropical flavors!
Can You Ferment Beer or Cider on a Yeast Cake?
Yes! Given that you didn’t have an infection or overly hop the previous beer/cider, fermenting on a yeast cake will work well!
With this cider, I did a split batch. I fermented one gallon of cider on a yeast cake that had just finished a pseudolager, and I fermented another gallon with fresh Kveik yeast.
Unfortunately, there were too many variables between the batches to do a true head-to-head comparison. I dry hopped one batch, and one batch was ‘still’ vs carbonated.
Both batches turned out great in their own right. However, I have to say, my heart is with the Motueka dry hopped cider, which is why I’m writing about it today!
The batch that was fermented on the yeast cake did ferment to dryness much quicker, which makes sense as there were likely more viable yeast cells present. Both batches did ferment to dryness, it just took longer for the one that fresh yeast was pitched.
If you want to learn even more about cider, I highly recommend this book.
How to Make Motueka Dry Hopped Cider
Stats:
Original Gravity 1.043
Final Gravity: 1.000
ABV: 5.64%
Juice:
Your favorite Apple Juice (prefer organic)- 4 quarts (3.8L)
Yeast:
Imperial Yeast Loki Kveik Yeast– 1/4 packet
Clarifying Agents:
Pectic Enzyme– pitch with yeast
Other Additions:
Campden Tablets– 1/2 tablet at transfer to secondary
Instructions:
Clean and sanitize fermentor. Add 4 quarts of apple juice to fermentor. Carefully shake fermentor to oxygenate juice. Pitch one quarter of liquid yeast packet. Add pectic enzyme. Put on airlock or blow-off tube. Transfer to secondary fermentor after ~2 weeks, leaving yeast cake behind. Add 1/2 tablet Campden to secondary prior to transfer. After 2 weeks, cold crash at 35F (1.7C). Bottle cider, adding 20-28 grams (0.7-1oz) of Dextrose (priming sugar) at bottling. Enjoy!
Tips:
Does the Quality of the Apple Juice Used Make a Difference?
This is a tough question. I’d really like to say that it does. However, I have used apple juice on the very cheap side all the way to very expensive side, and I have not found a noticeable difference. Granted these were all organic juices.
I’m not ready to say that it definitely doesn’t make a difference, but I can say that in my experience, I have not noticed one yet.
Hop Choice
I definitely feel like I found a winner with the Motueka hop in cider. However, there are so many other varieties of hops that would make a very interesting cider. Since cider can be so quick and easy to make, feel free to get creative with hop choice in your ciders!
Thank you for stopping by!
If you would like an in-depth tutorial on how to make cider, please follow the link to this article.
If you’re liking the idea of making homemade alcoholic beverages at home, please click here to visit my how-to section which includes articles on the beer and mead making processes as well!