Using a 1/2 gallon of Trader Joe's unfiltered Appe Juice to create a starter.

I'm mulling it at around 160° with a cinamon stick, some freshley ground nutmeg, some allspice, some cloves, a chopped up clementine cutie (a mini-clementine) and half a lemon (both with rind still on). I may up the spices, since this is just the starter for a much larger batch, and I want the spices to have a presence in the finished cider.

So, this will be started with 3 grams of Mr. Beer cider yeast, and later this week, I'll pick up some more AJ or cider (depending on if I go to the Union Square Green Market or just hit up Foodtown) and add it, some honey, the starter and some more spices, all to a bucket and slap an airlock on it until it ferments out.

Then, I'll rack it to a keg (ideally about 4 gallons total volume) onto a thawed can of AJC and another gallon of juice/cider to backsweeten. I'll probably add some more spices at kegging, too.

Then, put it in the kegerator to cool down and force carb and turn into delicious, delicious draught cider!

I do love my ciders, but I have yet to use any spices. I may have to change that real soon. The cider I have fermenting now was a pouch of Amber Belgian Candi Sugar as well as a # of Crystal 85 and 3/4# of Honey Malt that was steeped. I was hoping to have it ready for new year, but it isn't done fermenting.

I have yet to figure out how to put a cider recipe into Beer Smith. Does anybody know how to enter apple juice into the recipe? I tried just adding it as sugar based upon the amount of sugar in the apple juice, but the figures seemed way off.

Last night I added the starter to about a gallon and a half of AJ, and mulled even more spices (and lime peel) in another half gallon or so. I also added about 2 lbs of honey to the mulling juice and spices, and will add all of that to the fermenting cider with another gallon or so of juice, probably later today.

Fermentation chamber is set to 58°, and it's fermenting away at 64°, so there should be plenty of yeasties to chew through the extra sugars from the honey in a pretty speedy fashion.

Oh, and instead of an airlock, I went with a lid that has a pouring spout and screw top, so I can more easily add the additional apple juice to the fermenting cider.

Today I moved the cider to the windowsill to free up the fermentation fridge for my cream ale and added 2 more gallons of Mott's apple juice.

In another week or so, I'll keg it with some AJC, and maybe preservative free cider to backsweeten.

If I have room, I'll cold crash it first, so I can keep most of the yeast trub out of the keg, to minimize chances of the added sugars restarting fermentation. Then it gets put on gas, and in a week I'll have a delicious spiced cider, just in time for the cold of winter!

No room to cold crash, but I think I'm going to keg this tonight. I'll start with just a can of AJC to backsweeten, and maybe add a little honey, mixed with the cider to disolve it.

I'd add a gallon of AJ or cider, but I have 4 gallons that I want to use to start a non-spiced version, and I think I'll dump all of ghat on the yeast cake. Though there's a chance I'll rinse the yeast and follow proper cleaning and sanitation procedures first instead.

Yup, kegged it up and put it on co2. Backsweetened with a can of AJC and a few ounces of honey. It's in the kegerator to cool down and start carbing, and should be ready to drink in a week or so.

This was *really* cloudy for a while, so I untapped it, to hopefully get a chance to clear.

Well, I kicked my keg of mystery beer earlier this week and put this back on tap.

It's probably a bit overcarbed, but it has cleared quite nicely...it's not crystal clear, but it was noticeably yeasty before.

It's also quite potent. A couple of glasses of this on an empty stomach, and I'm about ready for a nap!

It's quite delicious - the spice is very present without being at all intrusive. I try to be careful with this one.