How to make Turbo Cider.

Afternoon all,

Negligent of me not to have put this up before now, but here's my take on a straightforward 25L Apple Turbo Cider...

Give me a shout if I'm missed any bits out or if anything isn't clear, I knocked it up quite quickly !

It doesn't paste that well into the new thread window, but there is a Word version of the below on OneDrive using the link below
https://1drv.ms/w/s!AqD9OOcGhwessDgrtHSnwAxFhhpY



Recipe for 25L Classic Apple TC (5.35% abv)

These are not hard and fast rules, but a bit of a guideline and what I have done before

Ingredient
20L Asda Smart price AJ (or any supermarket apple juice made from 100% Apple juice/apple juice from concentrate) so long as no other added ingredients)
1L strong tea (regular Tetley, 5 bags stewed for 15 mins)
5tsp Pectolase
325g sugar (ordinary tate & lyle granulated is fine) for priming
Yeast for 25L (I use cider yeast with sweetener E950 from ebay, but you can use any cider yeast, but without sweetener, may make the cider quite dry/sharp without back-sweetening

Kit

27/30L Fermenting vessel with stick on thermometer strip preferably
Second FV for priming (see priming section)
Long spoon
Hydrometer
Auto-siphon
Bottling wand, to connect to auto-siphon
Bottles (I use a mixture of 500ml PET plastic and glass swingtop bottles)

Method

Thoroughly clean and sanitise FV, spoons, and hydrometer
Pour in apple juice (best at room temp)
Pour in stewed tea (take out the bags ;-) )
Dissolve pectolase in ½ cup warm water and tip this in
Top up with tap water to 25L
You want to aim for a starting temp around 20 degrees C, a little colder is OK, but will take a bit longer to get started. Warmer is OK up to about 25 degrees
Sprinkle yeast on top, put lid on (with airlock if that’s the kind of FV you’re using)
Put in a warm place, ideal temp for fermentation is between 18-24 degrees

Day 10

At a temperature of around 22 degrees, your TC could be finished fermenting in as little as a week, but to make sure, give it at least 10 days before taking an SG reading

When finished fermenting, TC should have an SG reading of around 1.000 don’t move on to the next step if is above that

Priming and bottling (making it fizzy)

2 ways of doing this:-

Batch priming (My preferred method)

Although this needs a second sanitized FV to siphon (rack) the TC into and add priming solution, I find it much easier in the long run, and avoids extra time/mess trying to add a teaspoon of sugar (or coopers carb drops) into 50 bottles !

Dissolve 325g sugar in some hot tap water (just enough to get it to dissolve and be pourable
Siphon cider from primary FV to secondary, add priming sugar
Give it a good swirl/stir to mix in the sugar solution
Move FV to somewhere suitable for bottling (FV should be above the height of where you are bottling)
Attach the bottling wand to the autosiphon tube and immediately bottle your cider
Put bottled cider somewhere warm (ca 20deg) for at least a week to clear, and carb up. Tip. Using at least some plastic (PET) bottles will allow you to feel how the card process is going by squeezing the bottles, the y will get firmer as the co2 is produced.
Once they bottles have completely cleared, they will be pretty much ready to drink, so chill one and try it out
They will get better with a few more weeks in a cooler storage place, to condition a little.

Bottle priming

Using the autosiphon and bottling wand, fill each of your bottles with cider
Add a heaped teaspoonful of sugar to each 500ml bottle (or 2 x Coopers carb drops, get these on web or in home brew shop)
Put lid on and turn bottle upside down and back up again, to mix
Put bottled cider somewhere warm (ca 20deg) for at least a week to clear, and carb up. Tip. Using at least some plastic (PET) bottles will allow you to feel how the card process is going by squeezing the bottles, the y will get firmer as the co2 is produced.
Once they bottles have completely cleared, they will be pretty much ready to drink, so chill one and try it out
They will get better with a few more weeks in a cooler storage place, to condition a little.


Chilling/Pouring

This stuff is definitely best served icy cold, so give it a good overnight in the fridge if you can. I also like my cider quite fizzy, so unchilled it will tend to fizz up when I open a bottle, but it doesnt do this when its cold

After clearing, there will be some sediment in the bottom of the bottle, so for a nice clear glass, you want to avoid glugging the cider when pouring. So pour it slowly keeping the bottle just above horizontal, and youll see when the cloudy sediment starts to make its way to the top of the bottle, at which point you can stop pouring and leave the remaining few ml of liquid to get chucked (or pour it all in if you like it cloudy !)

Excellent Roddy. Thank you

One gallon version - divide by 5? :thumb: Although is one tea bag brew enough tannin? Have just started one before you posted so see how it goes. Used one tsp tannin powder. 4l aj. Will top up when settled with more aj.

Note to self - take apple juice out of fridge well beforehand otherwise have to wait for it to come up to temp before addng yeast.

Vinotinto said:

Excellent Roddy. Thank you

One gallon version - divide by 5? :thumb: Although is one tea bag brew enough tannin? Have just started one before you posted so see how it goes. Used one tsp tannin powder. 4l aj. Will top up when settled with more aj.

Note to self - take apple juice out of fridge well beforehand otherwise have to wait for it to come up to temp before addng yeast.

Click to expand...

Yes, I think one cup of strong (1 bag) tea should do for a DJ

Just about to give this a go for the summer,once my yeast arrives.

Thanks Roddy. I've got to give this ago sometime.

Cheers for the detailed instructions. I've got some of this on the go as my first decent attempt at brewing. I'll make a post when it's a bit further along with the details.

I wish I read this before I made mine. I used 800g of sugar for 5L not taking account into the sugar in the apple juice. Amazingly its Fermented down to 1015, but I didn't have a hydrometer to test it when I made it. Tastes quite potent though.

Could I cut it down with a bottle of decent apple juice before bottling or would that be a recepie for exploding bottles?

Global33 said:

I wish I read this before I made mine. I used 800g of sugar for 5L not taking account into the sugar in the apple juice. Amazingly its Fermented down to 1015, but I didn't have a hydrometer to test it when I made it. Tastes quite potent though.

Could I cut it down with a bottle of decent apple juice before bottling or would that be a recepie for exploding bottles?

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How many litres of juice did you use?

Chippy_Tea said:

How many litres of juice did you use?

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4 and 1/2 litre of strong black tea.

You will have had around 1200g of sugar in the DJ at the start i am surprised it only got to .1015 as it would have got down to .995 or lower if left long enough, it would have been 13% or higher if you had let it get to .995 so i wouldn't be drinking this by the pint glass.

Was it still bubbling when you took the reading?

.

Hey all bit of a n00b on here, but not to TC. Brewed about 300 litres of the stuff lol. I use about the same qtys of juice to water as the above, but that's it. Juice water and yeast, perfectly drinkable.

I do however sometimes like a touch of sweetness, so put a squirt (have the pump) of Monin Green Apple syrup before pouring into the glass. Nice.

Yeast wise i use Wyeast 4766, and generally when i transfer to bottling bucket, i dump another batch of juice and water on the trub. Get 3 or 4 brews from each pack of yeast. Don't get no cheaper! Haha.

®

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Chippy_Tea said:

You will have had around 1200g of sugar in the DJ at the start i am surprised it only got to .1015 as it would have got down to .995 or lower if left long enough, it would have been 13% or higher if you had let it get to .995 so i wouldn't be drinking this by the pint glass.

Was it still bubbling when you took the reading?

.

Click to expand...

Well this is the funny thing. I thought it had failed, there's been very little activity full stop, whereas the ginger beer next to it which was made a few days later in a similar container has been bubbling along constantly.

Took a reading on Thursday and it was 1055. Thought it was dead, so threw some more yeast and still nothing. Took another reading today and it had dropped right down. Need to read more on hydrometers as I was bottling based on what I read for beer. Funnily enough just as I was bottling I have seem some evidence of bubbles.

Back in my cheap cider drinking days, I've had far worse, but I don't think I want to drink it to often. I'll certainly treat it with caution.

I thought it had failed, there's been very little activity full stop,

Click to expand...

How are you judging very little activity?



This shows how to read your hydrometer :thumb:

Mostly TC will end up at about .998 ish when done. Unless the yeast is dead, or you used ale yeast.

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So the TC is well on the way,been in the fv for 8 days did a gravity reading by taking some out "wanted a taste really" and its cloudy but very impressed with the taste even though not a cider drinker myself i could very happily drink it.
Question is do i add sugar?? as it is its pleasant to drink,has anyone tried sampling then added sugar and had a too sweet result? or will it get dryer as it matures in the bottle.

looks like you are almost there, another couple a days should see it done, most of mine are done in around 10 days, when you add sugar to prime it gets eaten by the yeast and the co2 produced makes it fizzy, the alcohol content will rise slightly but with the small amount of sugar used for priming the taste shouldn't really change much.

Hello Roddy, Flixon Breweries here. We've just made your recipe and thrown it into the bucket with some EC-1118 yeast. We'll keep you posted fella!

Big difference in taste between the first bottle I opened over a week ago and the one I have just opened to try today,it seems to be a bit watery compared to the first bottle,or possibly just dryer.The carbonation is spot on though.Anyone found this to be the same? It's nice and refreshing,and my mate drinks it like water so I have had to do him a batch.

I've certainly noticed an initially dry brew mellowing a bit after a month or so.

I make mostly fruity cider concoctions now that don't seem to exhibit the same dryness as straight apple, but the yeast will have something to do with that too

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Got an ordinary apple juice TC been on the go for almost 3 weeks now. Still some activity. Topped to neck and bubbles rising with the odd bubble through airlock. For the last week or so SG at 1.002 . Doesn't seem to want to go lower despite the activity. It is starting to clear quite a bit in the dj too. Actually tastes good and I like a bit of sweetness. Any harm in bottling and priming now or should I sit it out until it hits 1.000 or below?