Big mistake

glennbalsam · Mar 18, 2015

Hi. Looking forward to my first brew of cider and my kit should arrive today. Well until I read the forum on cider kits that is! What a mistaker to maker! Why did I not research this forum before purchase?
I've ordered John Bull cider and Muntons Autum blush both of which do not seem popular. Ok. So I'm Gona run with them as its cost Â£40 odd. Is there anything I can do to make it better. If I put pure apple juice from lidel in would this help. I mean would the sweetness from the juice disapate or would it make the cider even sweeter. I'm on the understanding that sugar turns to alcohol! Anyone got any other ideas? I would hate to throw my first batch down the loo as I know I would lose interest and bin the lot!

568ml · Mar 18, 2015

Welcome!

I'm not a drinker of "apple juice", but do brew what you got, as you will learn from it.

I brewed my first lager that came with the Coopers DIY brew kit and it did not turn out right (to hot and in FV too short). But I did learn from it, anything from cleaning, seeing what happened and just lifting the big FV around the kitchen.

From doing that I managed to bottle and start my next brew off in the same day without a major panic. Because I knew how long cleaning bottles would take, how much water and what surface in the kitchen would be use and needed to be cleaned.

Good luck and you might be surprised that the John Bull cider turn out drinkable.

Covrich · Mar 18, 2015

My Father in Law did the John bull Cider kit and as he puts it is is quite tasteless..

I would replace several water litres with apple juice and perhaps reduce the sugar a bit.

Don't worry just make it and enjoy it, it doesn't matter if your first brew isn't great. Mine certainly wasn't but I learnt a lot from it.. Not saying that you shoudl expect one that is not great but do not feel disheartened..

Cwrw666 · Mar 18, 2015

I've only once ever made a cider kit and was most disappointed with the resulting `cider'. However since then I've started making real cider from apples and the main thing I've learned is that real cider doesn't taste anything like the stuff you buy in bottles from the supermarket. When you ferment apple juice all the sugar is turned to alcohol and it's then you find out that much of the apple-taste of an apple depends on the sugar in it!
So a cider kit is going to turn out very dry, a bit tasteless and nothing like any cider you'll buy from the shop. You could try brewing it short to increase the flavour - in other words when the instructions say to make it up to 5 gallons, make it up to 4 gallons instead. With beer brewing this definitely improves the flavour. If you don't want it too strong you'll need to reduce the sugar you put in as well, but with cider you might not be too bothered about high alcohol content.
It may seem strange but with my own homemade stuff I find it's much nicer if you don't carbonate it, but have a still cider - it's more like drinking wine then.
Oh, and homemade cider needs to be stored for quite a time before it's ready to drink. Obviously you can drink it almost straight away but traditionally you'd brew it in the autumn and not drink it til the following summer.

glennbalsam · Mar 18, 2015

Thanks guys i'm learning every time I read something. I'll go for the added apple juice for now and see what happens and may make it short.
All the gear has just arrived. Whoop!!