Cider Recommendations for Kits

[Edd]

Hi All,

Looking to get a cider in the FV soon and I'm looking for recommendations on decent kits for cider.

I have done cider before. First one that failed to secondary ferment a tasted like water with a splash of apple juice in it, and an Autumn Blush Kit which was nice but still lacked a bit a flavour for my liking.

Are there any nice flavoured ciders out there in the kit world ???

I have also read threads in the past where apple juice has been added to brews. Does this improve the flavour ? How much should be added roughly ?

What are the better yeasts to use for cider ?.

Thanks in advance.

 

[RobWalker]

I'm always disappointed with them. There's a new "on the rocks" range that are flavoured and use premium concentrate and a large flavour packet, think they cost just over £15. Maybe somebody else can shed some light on them, but if I were to try one, I'd definitely go for that. Remember that all cider gets better with age, I'd give it 3 months before a real sampling.

There's no real good cider yeast, they're all quite decent, but I'd personally avoid wine/champagne yeasts because they taste boozy. Nottingham and S-04 are both great for fruity flavour, a lot of people on here use Young's Cider too...

 

[Edd]

Cheers Rob,

Thanks for the info.

Ed

 

[alphacento]

I did not use too many Cider kits but the better one that I have tried the was Magnum Apple Cider Kit. Having said that I would invest the money on some 100% apple juice and pull off a TC!

 

[Archtronics]

I think some kits are alot nicer than TC then again some are not, stay away from magnum kits they aren't all that great.

I bought the On the Rocks classic apple kit the other week tweaked it abit.

Added the full kit per instructions along with 1kg of dextrose and 300g of caster sugar also added a teaspoon of malic acid and a bottle of pear schnapps essence. (If your wondering why pear and not apple from experience I think it subtly brings out the apple flavour and lengthens the palate)

Transferred it to my secondary fermenter yesterday, first of all it stank of sulfer. (so might be beneficial to add Nitrogen rich yeast additive) But the taste out the fermenter was so much better than what I was expecting its sweet (FG 994) with nice apple flavours coming through (alot like stellas new cidre) and that's before I added the add back pack.

Going to leave it in the secondary for a week then transfer to a keg to condition before my corny for serving, hopefully the taste continues to improve and the sulfur smell disappears. Certainly looking forward to a fizzy pint of this over ice :

 

[RobWalker]

Sulphur smell well wear off in time dude :)

 

[alphacento]

I think some kits are alot nicer than TC then again some are not, stay away from magnum kits they aren't all that great.

I think that it depends on the apple juice. Some apple juicemake a good TC some other an average one (the same applies to kits as well).

I have tried the Magnum apple cider kit and I found it good (certainly better than the other that I have tried). After a couple of months I opened the first bottle and it smelled really bad (although the taste was ok). After 6 months the bad smell was substituted by a more fuity one, it cleared up real nice and it tasted like apples. I think Magnums kit need a lot more to mture than other kits.

Take care

 

[Edd]

Thanks Guys for your help.

Still have a couple of questions though......

1. What is a TC Cider ???

I have hear the term Turbo Cider but have no idea what this means.

2. when using apple juice does it have to be pure apple juice or can you use one from a concentrate ????

Thanks.

 

[Archtronics]

Tc Basicly what it says on a tin its a cider that's ready alot faster than traditional methods.