Cheap & Simple Tropical Punch - A BBQ MUST

[bladesharp]

Hi all, I'm new to this home brew and I attempted this for the first time last night. Today the airlock is bubbling away nicely but there if stuff formed at the bottom of the demijohn and also floating around. Is this normal or have I done something wrong?

 

[second2none]

Yess perfectally normal, yes the yeasties do seem to clump together like that but they fall to the bottom near the end of fermentation.

I was like you and worried the first time I saw it but theres no need, it looks all fine and dandy!
I find that if you boil the juice up too roughly you get more than if you gently simmer,
but I prefer to know 100% that all presevatives have gone and have a few lumps than risk fermentation not starting :)

Hope thats put ur mind at ease, we have talked about this on a past post and others have seen it but had no problems

 

[bladesharp]

Excellent thanks for the reassurance guys.

 

[Davybarman]

Well done a couple of these so far.

The 1st one was mixed fruits I added some extra sugar and it blew the head of every one.

The 2nd one was orange and followed the recipe and it taste fine. Just like the cordial.

Started the 3rd one ( apple and blackcurrant) 2 1/2 weeks ago. Again followed the recipe. However the fermentation is still going like the clappers since day 2 .(however not climbing out of the dj since day 5)

Wonder how long this can carry on??? :wha:

 

[andyakameatloaf]

I'm on my second one of these now, decided to use Orange and Mango.
For the first I used Connoisseur's Choice HA Wine Yeast and fermentation looked beautiful. Nice frothy head.
For this one I got the Youngs yeast & nut, but the krausen in the DJ looks a) weird and b) vile.

I kicked it up on the 16th, it's still fermenting now and this is still present.
Anyone able to identify it, or is this simply what the krausen looks like with this yeast?

 

[second2none]

Yep siree that's what looks like if you use the normal robinsons rather than the fruit and barley ones! I don't know why it happens but it does!

Nothing at all wrong with it except how it looks :)

It will fall to te bottom and act more normal as time goes on and if not just rack it and u will never even remember it when ur drunk

 

[andyakameatloaf]

Yep siree that's what looks like if you use the normal robinsons rather than the fruit and barley ones! I don't know why it happens but it does!

Nothing at all wrong with it except how it looks :)

It will fall to te bottom and act more normal as time goes on and if not just rack it and u will never even remember it when ur drunk

lol, okay cheers.
Thought I'd try the none fruit and barley to see if it made a discernible flavour difference.
excited to see how this one turns out.

 

[second2none]

Yeah I've liked the orange and mango one
If u give it a little longer in the bottle (a week after carbonation) you will find it tastes much better :) hope you like it

 

[second2none]

I find that the barley gives this brew a better body / mouth feel rather than being just a fermented cordial :)

 

[drago-mir]

last Friday i made up a variation of this using 5 alive tropical juice, it was only a demijohn test. I used golden syrup in stead of sugar and it went off like a rocket to the moon. 2 days later it had stopped, it kicked off loads sediment too so i racked it into another ferment. The SG before i added the golden syrup was 1.030 so i added 260g of GS to get around 200g of sugar. that brought the SG up to 1.042 and by sunday it was already down to 1001 and not bubbling at all that puts the abv at 5.4% which is about what i was looking for i vas so suprised it took such little time but happy at the same time

 

[MattN]

This could be my first failure!!

After several successful WOW variants, I decided to have a bash at this using Robinson's NAS lemon flavour. 48 hours later at a constant temperature of 20c... still nothing!

The globules have formed but there is nothing from the airlock and there isn't any visible bubbles in the dj.

Should I give it more time, or bin it?

Regards

Matt

 

[second2none]

Sometimes it takes a while if u haven't got rid of all the preservatives!
I wouldn't give up on it, maybe chuck in some more nutrient and yeast

Hope it comes around for u :)

 

[MattN]

Sometimes it takes a while if u haven't got rid of all the preservatives!
I wouldn't give up on it, maybe chuck in some more nutrient and yeast

Hope it comes around for u :)

Well you are right!

I put it somewhere a bit warmer (22c) and after about 24 hours it started to bubble about every 5 seconds. A few days later I decided to top up the dj (too soon) and at that stage it started to vigorously ferment.... So I have been changing the airlock every day since and it has just started to calm down today.

Thanks second2none.

Matt

 

[Sone]

23 litres of peach drink ready to be bottled soon :) :thumb:

 

[drunkdunc]

I can't wait to try this one. I need more DJ's as mine are all being used. The wife has been nagging for one to try that she like, reckon this will shut her up. :

 

[ohbeary]

Just a note on the preservatives used in Robinsons Fruit and Barley, the Sodium Metabisulphate can be driven off by heating or exposure to air but the Potasium Sorbate will remain, it doesn't kill yeast but it does prevent budding/reproduction, to get round this problem the larger the yeast colony you introduce at the begining the more alcohol you will get from any given amount of sugar.

 

[chojo]

Well I started out to make a turbo cider but when i looked at the apple juice I'd bought it was the 50% stuff rather than the 100% so I thought right I'll just drink it and get some more later... Then i went in the cupboard and spotted a bottle of apple flavour Robinson's and thought umm I seem to recall recipe for that on the forum! So after reading the recipe I thought I wonder if i could use the 50% aj instead of water? I also noticed that I didn't have enough sugar in so after rooting around I found a bottle of agave syrup and decided what the hell! Threw the lot into a DJ after simmering the cordial and now it's wait and see time. What do you guys think? will it be a disaster, a fruit punch or some kind of hybrid cider?
SG was 1068 and after 24 hrs it has a slight bubble but not much else happening, Fingers crossed.

 

[second2none]

Mixing apple juice and apple robinsons will be nice have done it before and was happy with the results thou mine came out pretty stronger than expected

Don't know about ur avgra syrup but only coz I have never used it!

But I don't think there's much to worry about,
Good luck

 

[chojo]

Mixing apple juice and apple robinsons will be nice have done it before and was happy with the results thou mine came out pretty stronger than expected

Don't know about ur avgra syrup but only coz I have never used it!

But I don't think there's much to worry about,
Good luck

When you did it was it a really slow starter? It's two days now and barely a bubble, is it possible I didn't heat the cordial enough to get rid of any preservatives?
If that's the case can I do anything about it?

 

[second2none]

Like someone says in the above post heating gets rid of one presavtive...

It does take a day or two to get started but once it start it's like a rocket
More yeast at the start will speed it up but the normal amoubt works just fine
Just leave it alone and all will be good and that's a promise hehe!