Apple Juice Experiment

[MikeyDee]

I was in Asda at the weekend and saw a bargain that I couldn’t resist. 8 litre cartons of apple juice for just less than a fiver. So, I took them home And split them into two batches. Batch one was 4 litres of juice and some yeast. Batch two was the same only I added 500g of glucose and a cinnamon stick for a bit of flavour. Now looking forward to a taste test. The weird thing is that the one without glucose is bubbling away at about twice the rate of the sugared one. This is the opposite of what I thought would happen. Does anyone have any theories? Might the cinnamon be slowing things down? thanks in advance.

 

[LED_ZEP]

You tend to find that the initial stage of fermentation (when the yeast are building their colony) happens quicker in a lower S.G. If there's too much sugar it can inhibit fermentation altogether. I'm sure I've read somewhere that yeast don't like cinnamon and to add this at a later stage but in a small amount I'm sure it's fine, I've added it to TCs before without issue.

 

[MikeyDee]

Brilliant. Thanks for that.

 

[Hagrid]

I did a similar experiment with 5 TCs years ago. I remember doing a plain one as a control and a honey one, spiced one (cinnamon and a clove) and a couple of others that won’t come to mind. The spiced one took ages! And I don’t think it ever hit the same FG as the plain one.

 

[Harbey]

Same here. I have 4 litres which I spiced with cinnamon and ginger. Been going for about 4 weeks now and still not finished.

 

[feemackenzie]

@MikeyDee what was the outcome of your experiment

 

[MikeyDee]

Hi. The results were quite impressive actually. I ended up with two really nice ciders, which was far better than I expected. I’m not a cider drinker to be fair, but I have friends who are, and they really enjoyed them. The pure Apple juice one was very light. Almost like a white wine whereas the cinnamon one was very slightly spiced, which was a surprise to me as the stick was floating in the fermenter for weeks. I’ve had a couple of glasses of this and thought it a nice change from the beers I usually do. However the cider drinkers happily finished it off a a even asked for another batch to be made. Im quite chuffed that I got such drinkable results from such simple and basic steps.

 

[feemackenzie]

Heading to Asda after school for apple juice to make a small demijohn batch. Onlye me in the house, 5 litres is enough. How long did it ferment for?

 

[Nidger]

I was in Asda at the weekend and saw a bargain that I couldn’t resist. 8 litre cartons of apple juice for just less than a fiver. So, I took them home And split them into two batches. Batch one was 4 litres of juice and some yeast. Batch two was the same only I added 500g of glucose and a cinnamon stick for a bit of flavour. Now looking forward to a taste test. The weird thing is that the one without glucose is bubbling away at about twice the rate of the sugared one. This is the opposite of what I thought would happen. Does anyone have any theories? Might the cinnamon be slowing things down? thanks in advance.

How expensive is apple juice in asda ? Tesco and Lidl work out £4.40 for 8 ltrs.

 

[MikeyDee]

Heading to Asda after school for apple juice to make a small demijohn batch. Onlye me in the house, 5 litres is enough. How long did it ferment for?

Just checked my notes. It took just over 3 weeks to finish fermentation and settle down. But that was in the summer and out in the shed. You might want to adjust based on temperature. I used a heating belt when doing a batch of wine recently and it took two weeks all in.

 

[MikeyDee]

Before I was able to get demijohns I used water bottles.

 

[feemackenzie]

So either this at 69p a litre or the four pack carton at £2.15 ish. Neither mention preservatives.... Not sure I believe it

 

[MikeyDee]

That’s exactly what I used. Best of luck.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

When there's no preservative it usually says something like "once opened use within 5 days"

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Found it - (no preservative)

Storage
Keep refrigerated. Once opened, keep refrigerated and consume within 4 days. Do not exceed the Best Before date.
For Best Before: see top of carton

 

[feemackenzie]

Perfect guys. 4 litres in a demijohn, a shuggle of brewing sugar , a mug of strong black tea and US-05 yeast (I know z I know it's for beer.... I need to get organised!)

 

[feemackenzie]

Result: cider was bottled last week, delicious. A tad cloudy but delicious

Now going again using Tesco Apple/Raspberry cider

 

[lupinehorror]

think my current favourite is 2L of apple and 1L of pineapple. doesn't clear because of the pineapple but i like the flavour it adds.

 

[trummy]

slightly off topic, got a crab apple tree which is more ornamental than anything else. It was loaded with small red apples that tasted crap. Anyway during lockdown took 5lb of fruit and made a gallon of wine, using a general purpose Gervin wine yeast ( with added red grape juice -its all I had) Tried it today it tastes glorious after only a couple of months storage. I freeze the fruit to help release the juice. Just hope it will fully clear now on its own.

 

[johncrobinson]

I have a lot of old books on making apple wines and ciders they ALL recommend the inclusion of at least a few crab apples in the mix.
A bit of pectolase should sort out any clearing problems.
Best added at the start of fermentation as its slow acting at room temp,But if needs be can be added anytime.