Ciderworks (and others) apple cider kit musings

[jimmystoba]

Hi all,
After your thoughts on adapting cider kits. Last weekend I got bit by the homebrew bug again and started a couple of DJs of turbo cider made with supermarket AJ. I've since purchased a couple of Ciderworks 'Superior' kits from Love Brewing, an apple and a pear. I've just started the Apple Cider kit. I had a taste of the kit juice once I'd made it up to the reccomended 23L so I could compare it to the supermarket juice I'd used for the TC. Whilst there was a marked difference between the two, the kit being much sharper, it was much weaker tasting. After doing a bit of research on concentrate, it would appear 6:1 water:concentrate is the norm.

The kit comes with the following:
2.4kg concentrate
1kg brewing sugar
priming sugar
cider flavour sachet
sweetner sachet
yeast

So by my back of the envelope calculations, they're advisng dilute the correct strength juice with around 6L of sugary water, then add a bit of flavour back at the end.
Would it not be better to just add the correct amount of water (2.4 * 6=14.4) and brew at that. Or make up to the 23L with AJ. I know this would change the flavour profile, but it's got to be better than adding chemical flavourings.

Sorry about the ramblings. Any thoughts?

Jimmy.

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I’ve made this kit several times and my advice would be to follow the instructions, it’s lovely cider.

Adding more concentrate is going to give you stronger cider rather than more flavourful cider.

 

[jimmystoba]

I’ve made this kit several times and my advice would be to follow the instructions, it’s lovely cider.

Adding more concentrate is going to give you stronger cider rather than more flavourful cider.

I was thinking about keeping the S.G the same by adding less of the brewing sugar.

I am getting ahead of myself somewhat, it's only been in the bucket 2 days! I might be perfectly happy with it.
Jimmy

 

[A fool's paradise]

I've done 3 of the Ciderworks kits now and they are fantastic.
Just follow the instructions and you can't really go wrong.
My last one, the Superior Apple, I decided to dry hop with some Citra, worked very well and adds an extra something :)