a bit skint but want to do a brew this weekend

[jans1971]

im a bit skint so i was thinking of doing a cider kit and using normal sugar. now what i have learned on here is if you use normal sugar it leaves a cider taste in beer so it should be great for cider. whats is a good buget cider kit. something like strongbow would be good . cheers

 

[ni9e]

Try doing a turbo cider have a look here its cheaper than buying a kit :thumb:

 

[jans1971]

Try doing a turbo cider have a look here its cheaper than buying a kit :thumb:

so how long did it take to brew and did it taste nice, hoiw much did it cost to do

 

[BrewStew]

i just bought 20L of tescos own 50% apple juice (blue and white carton with a full glass of juice shown on the front) from concentrate and it cost £12. 1 kilo of sugar, a quid or two (cant remember) and one packet of yeast £1.

so about £14 for 20L ish

haven't tried this juice for a TC yet though as i usually use another tescos brand that comes in packs of 6 that's a bit more expensive (about £15 for 20L)

i'm confident it will be fine though :thumb:

 

[jans1971]

i just bought 20L of tescos own 50% apple juice (blue and white carton with a full glass of juice shown on the front) from concentrate and it cost £12. 1 kilo of sugar, a quid or two (cant remember) and one packet of yeast £1.

so about £14 for 20L ish

haven't tried this juice for a TC yet though as i usually use another tescos brand that comes in packs of 6 that's a bit more expensive (about £15 for 20L)

i'm confident it will be fine though :thumb:

i can get a cider kit for about£12 which comes with yeast and will make 27ltrs .

 

[Frisp]

i can get a cider kit for about£12 which comes with yeast and will make 27ltrs .

yes but the TC will taste like cider....

 

[BrewStew]

i can get a cider kit for about£12 which comes with yeast and will make 27ltrs .

yes but the TC will taste like cider....

:lol: :thumb:

too true... i've seen cider kits that have malt extract in them.... work that out! :wha:

 

[petkula73]

Can you use any old cartons of apple juice to do this? Not keen on the idea of anything over 6% - so if it went from 1050 to, say, 1005 that would be semi dry and about 5.5% - is that right?

I'm going to have a go at this - sounds like an easy one to do. How long will it take to ferment and then clear normally?

Made my first cider last year with apples from the garden. Ended up sticking pectolase, chalk, citric acid, champagne yeast and cider yeast in as well as plenty of sugar. We ended up with 50 litres.

The first batch fermented down nicely and gave a nice, clear pint at around 6%. The second lot got a bit stuck - right when I was going on holiday for 2 weeks, so I tossed in another 2Kg of sugar and after a further 3 months(!) fermenting it eventually got down to around 1010. No idea how strong it is, but I am guessing well over 10% (all in all it had about 4Kg of sugar plus the apples from the tree in it). Not very nice, tastes of yeast and only really drunk when I am a bit tipsy already.

Both batches had a curious effect on my wife, who can normally drink like a fish. After only 3 halves she was slurring her words and after 4 her legs went! Very unpredictable stuff.

Anyway, the TC sounds great. Costco would be a good place to get apple juice from - you can normally get 10 litres for about 6 quid or so - and it's Princes so decent quality.

 

[arturobandini]

Did you use the Tesco juice called "Apple Nectar" Brewstew? It's some sort of mix of apple juice, sugar and water and cheaper than straight 100% apple juice. I used this for a 5litre batch of "Ginger Cider" where I just tossed the 5 cartons on to the yeast cake of some ginger beer. Cold conditioning now but it's clear as a bell, dry and quaffable.

 

[BrewStew]

yep.. that's the stuff arturobandini.. haven't used it yet though... this is my first attempt at this brand of juice

petkula73 - any apple juice will do it, either pure or from concentrate aslong as there are no preservatives as it wont ferment. make sure the ingredients are litterally just juice, water and sugar :thumb:

 

[petkula73]

yep.. that's the stuff arturobandini.. haven't used it yet though... this is my first attempt at this brand of juice

petkula73 - any apple juice will do it, either pure or from concentrate aslong as there are no preservatives as it wont ferment. make sure the ingredients are litterally just juice, water and sugar :thumb:

Okay thanks

 

[Frisp]

Tosco value apple juice with Youngs cider yeast comes out somewhere near 5.6% which gets me plenty hammered.
I normally let it ferment out and keg it bright into a cornie after about 14 days and then gas it up to about 1psi / 1C and it dinks like a dry strongbow.

 

[BrewStew]

Frisp do you bother with campden/Sodium Metabisulphite to stop the yeast fermenting it too dry?

 

[Frisp]

Frisp do you bother with campden/Sodium Metabisulphite to stop the yeast fermenting it too dry?

Na - It comes out about right for me. Its a bit dryer than the commercial stuff like Blackthorn and Strongbow. But I like my cider dry and cold so it suits me just fine. I wouldn't want to stop it anyway as I have been known to drop another 30L of juice onto the yeast cake for .... ding ding round 2

 

[BrewStew]

gotcha... cool

 

[arturobandini]

Na - It comes out about right for me. Its a bit dryer than the commercial stuff like Blackthorn and Strongbow. But I like my cider dry and cold so it suits me just fine. I wouldn't want to stop it anyway as I have been known to drop another 30L of juice onto the yeast cake for .... ding ding round 2

Though you could always rack it into secondary and add it there whilst maintaining a campden-free yeast cake. I'll have to experiment with artificial finishing of the cider and force carbonating in a Cornelius Keg. I also want to try some "bright bottling" using a very chilled Cornelius and some very chilled bottles.

 

[BrewStew]

i'll be interested to read how you get on mate :thumb: especially with the bright bottling as bottling unfortunately seems to be the iffy part of chemically controlling the fermentation of a TC.

 

[jans1971]

i just bought 20L of tescos own 50% apple juice (blue and white carton with a full glass of juice shown on the front) from concentrate and it cost £12. 1 kilo of sugar, a quid or two (cant remember) and one packet of yeast £1.

so about £14 for 20L ish

haven't tried this juice for a TC yet though as i usually use another tescos brand that comes in packs of 6 that's a bit more expensive (about £15 for 20L)

i'm confident it will be fine though :thumb:

ok im going to do it , there is some tesco apple juice 50% and just sugar and water for 45p so thats £9 for 20ltrs :thumb: . will it carbonated after priming the bottles. can you please give a run down on how to do it, if it the same as coopers kits im ok, what temp does it have to be iv been doing my coopers kits at about 24-28 is thats ok .

 

[Frisp]

I think going down the part juice part sugar and water route will make it drink very thin.... Even just using the juice is as thin as I would personally like it... when I say thin I mean thing on apple tastes

 

[jans1971]

I think going down the part juice part sugar and water route will make it drink very thin.... Even just using the juice is as thin as I would personally like it... when I say thin I mean thing on apple tastes

:wha: :wha: :wha: