Bulldog Mixed Berries Cider Review/Brew

Hello all,

As SWMBO enjoys the occasional fruity cider I elected to put one on for her. However being me couldn't just brew it as per the instructions >_<

Here is what I did:

Brewed on: 24/10/14
1 x Bulldog Mixed Berries Kit
1 x Punnet of fresh strawberries (halved)
1 x Lime (cut into slices)
6 x 1 litre cartons of Morrison's own brand apple juice
Batch volume: circa 20 litres

The kit is pretty straight forwards. The box contains a collapsible bag of concentrate and a sachet marked "yeast/sweetener".

Instructions call for the bag to be emptied into the F/V, well rinsed with hot water to get all of the concentrate out and then top up to desired volume with cold water.

Gravity reading was 1061 so this promised to be a strong one due to the addition of all the additional fruit sugars in the apple juice and fresh fruit!

Of course as you can see from the list above I used 6 litres of apple juice and threw in some fresh fruit too. I put everything together in a glass demi john, added the yeast and airlocked it.

Fermentation was very active! It was just in my front room at some so an ambient temperature around 19-20c. The airlock bubbled away like mad for a good 10 days before starting to simmer down. After 7 days the gravity measured 1028. I racked into a secondary 10 days later.

I noticed it was very hazy and after a bit of reading thought it could be due to pectin (rightly or wrongly) so added 8 tsp of pectolase with 130g sugar all in cooled boiled water. 3 days later I barreled it. Reading was 1.000 so 8% ish!!! I decided the addition of some water to try and dilute that down was necessary as there was no way she would drink that!!! I added 2.5litres of cooled boiled water to the barrel after using an online calculator which indicated that should bring it down to around 7%.

After only a day in the plastic pressure barrel I had to vent it as it had built up so much pressure it was forcing liquid around the barrel in the tap!!

After 17 days in the barrel it has cleared perfectly (picture below although it doesn't do the clarity justice).



It has a fruity and strong nose. Before sampling you can almost smell that it is a high alcohol strong cider.

In the mouth the fruit is quite potent initially but fades very quickly leaving little aftertaste. There aren't any harsh edges to the flavour or nose. It's too strong for the wife so she isn't drinking it :drunk: despite saying it is pleasant!

I'm not a massive cider fan myself so I probably won't do this again. If I did I would follow the instructions to the letter to get a more acceptable alcohol content. I was just too keen to experiment on this one. If you do enjoy fruity cider then I'm sure you would love the end product!

Thanks

Guy

Great review. :thumb:

Nice review i have this Kegged at the moment brewed as per kit instructions. I also noticed today the barrel resembles an egg but so far no leaks, looking forward to this one for Crimbo

It was my first brew. Me and some friends got through 20 pints of it last Friday. I can confirm it contained plenty of alcohol, but I couldn't taste a lot of the berries, although the others said they could. I brewed it as per instructions, except I left each stage for two weeks. If I made it again I would use less priming sugar, as its a bit gassy,

This Cider was a big hit on Christmas eve and day and having tried it myself i will brew this again for the Summer, great flavour and not too fizzy, judging by the eyes on the cider drinkers the next morning the abv was fine too,and to my amazement no bad heads were reported :)

The review is now in the A - Z thread - http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=37180

Hi,

I've just put this on today, as it is, i.e. nothing extra. My OG was 1032 seems a bit low to me.

Marc.

Just slapped one of these on myself tonight - OG was 1032 so if it gets down to below 1.000 as suggested then that would make for 4.2%+ no?

Plus 0.25 - 0.5% for priming in secondary should match the advertised ABV?

Will see how it turns out and post the outcome.

Well I bottled it last night as the FG was bang on 1.000.

Had a cheeky little taste and it tasted OK considering warm and flat. Will let it condition for a week as per instructions then stick in fridge and report back with a taste test :)

Well we bottled this on 12/04. Since then, I have had two cheeky samples.

On on 7 days, and one this evening.

The 7 day taste was very bland, very 'cider' and not very clear. I am pleased to say that this evenings test is much better.

SWMBO said after the test on day 7, she was sticking to buying her booze. After todays test, she's swaying to give it another week or two and go from there.

Definitely a 'berry' taste to it now, and a pretty 'nice' drink I suppose. Pack says to drink after 1 week.

I will give it another 7 to 10 days and try again.

Will moving it from a warm place to a cold place for a while help? I know it will clear it, but what about changing the taste?

Well had a couple of bottles that have been in the fridge a bit, and only one verdict really.

Its crap.

Wont be making this again.

Agree strongly, this is absolute rubbish, wont be buying again. Was expecting something along the lies of Rekorderlig and got something which tasted washed out and fairly unpleasant.

Will be giving it away at BBQs but wont be drinking myself...

Turbo is def the way to go I reckon, a little bit more work to put on, but the same price or cheaper, and bags more flavour...

I've made a TC that came out the closest to a sort of Rekorderlig stylee.. a Strawberry and Lime.. will be doing that again

That's what I have planned for the weekend. Gonna keep mine flat though, not the world's biggest fan of fizzy ciders...

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Tried one the other night (after an extra 3 weeks in the bottle) and its not actually that bad.

might get better with age.

Just tried one of these after 2 months. Utter crap. Think I might have had an infection as it smelled sulfuric and nasty. Each and every bottle down the drain. I won't be doing cider kits again, but I do have a mate with an Orchard on his land, so will be doing ciders just from apples instead of kits...

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So whilst All Grain Beer is my usual, my teenage son's love for Koppaberg is sending me down this rabbit hole.

This is my son's first brew, so I road shotgun with him.

Drew water into my burco and treated with Campden tablet to remove Chlorine products
Set brew fridge to 22C
Cleaned and sanitised (VWP and Starsan).
Heated water from low house temp (10C) to 20C.
Poured concentrate into FV, rinsed out, topped up to 22l
Drew off sample to check OG 1039
Checked temperature
Aerated and added yeast/sweetener

I'd forgotten how quick and easy kits are! We were done in an hour (not counting the standing time for the drawn water/campden).

Not sure whether to bottle or keg - I reckon bottle so I can keep track of how much the lad is drinking!!

The one lesson I learned when doing kits back in the day is that time is your friend. I reckon once it's packaged I'll give it at least a month to condition.

Best wishes

Martin

Omg! The smell of sulphur or eggs. I'm in so much trouble. The fermentation fridge is in the same space as my wife's desk.....

Google tells me this smell is 'normal for cider kits.

I don't know about normal, but I think it is a smell of somewhat stressed yeast. Maybe it was a bit too hot or cold where it was fermenting.

I've had this smell quite a few times at the end of first fermentation, but once the cider has been bottled for a minimum of four weeks, or preferably even longer, the smell has gone away.

phillc said:

I don't know about normal, but I think it is a smell of somewhat stressed yeast. Maybe it was a bit too hot or cold where it was fermenting.

I've had this smell quite a few times at the end of first fermentation, but once the cider has been bottled for a minimum of four weeks, or preferably even longer, the smell has gone away.

Click to expand...

Thanks, the fermentation is in a controlled dedicated brew fridge at 20c. The gravity is approaching 1000 and the bad angel has gone.

Will give it two now days and then cold crash for clarity

Martin