First Magnum brew

[Waynes World]

Hi all, at long last i have started my brew of Magum strawberry cider, i have done as the instruction says, i wanted to ferment in the demijohns i have but didnt want to seperate after the mix was done as the yeast mite not be distributed evenly.
I was thinkin gof once the first stage was done would it be ok the do say 10g in 2 demijohns without the strawberry aditive ( for a still brew) and the rest in the pressure barrle with a Co2 added.

Thanks

wayne :thumb:

 

[Ken L]

I confess to being confused -and i suspect others are too.

OK, so you have a large batch of cider from a kit and you have fermented it with the yeast provided (which will probably have taken about 8 days and will have involved much fizzing) and now want to split it so you can flavour one half and dispense it from a pressure barrel and store the other half in demijons until you're ready to drink it. Is that right ?

If you have in fact fermented the brew out already, I don't know why you're concerned about even yeast distribution and have no idea what the 10g is that you are thinking about putting in to two demijons.

My first thoughts are that Demijons mean that you will have to drink your cider in rather large batches so would you be better stoping the fermentation completely and just using bottles? You are afterall only trying to store it to keep the air off it and bottles do that well for small quantities and are a bit more manageable in the fridge.

My second thought is that starting out with a pressure barrel that only has three gallons in it means that you can't really eliminate the air from the void above your cider and it's going to take a lot of relativly expensive gas to presurise the barrel.

 

[Waynes World]

Hi ken, i confess also that it does sound a little confusing, sorry, i must of had a few pints the shop bought stuff

Its is on its second day of fermenting now, next week when it should be ready i want to divide it up when i rake of into 2 demijons and the rest into a pressure barrle, ( this is where i got mixed up as this is when i add the strawberry flavour ), what i want to do is add the flavouring to just half, i was wondering what it would taste like without the flavouring, just normal cider?

OK, so you have a large batch of cider from a kit and you have fermented it with the yeast provided (which will probably have taken about 8 days and will have involved much fizzing) and now want to split it so you can flavour one half and dispense it from a pressure barrel and store the other half in demijons until you're ready to drink it. Is that right ?

So yes to that then.

So you advice i just put it into bottles for the second stage?

I was wanting to save the the demijons for a few weeks or longer if i can that is. How long can it be kept for anyway?

thanks Ken and sorry all for the confusion.

 

[Ken L]

To be honest, when you were talking about 10g, I had the horrible feeling that having had 23L of unfermented juice sat in a barrel for a week, you were wondering what to do with a 10g sachet of yeast that you hadn't opened yet.

The flavouring sachet might have some sweeteners in addition to strawberry but otherwise, the unflavoured cider will be just that, ordinary cider. I did go away and look at a few reviews of the product though and it seems that the strawberry flavouring is a bit overpowering for some so if you're only putting it into part of a brew, I'd be cautions about how much you put in.

Having established that you have in fact fermented it out (or will have by next weekend) there's nothing to stop you splitting the brew with one half going into demijons or bottles (make sure they're pretty full to exclude as much air as possible and the remainder going into a pressure barrel - although my reservations about the amount of gas needed remain.

How long it will keep will depend on lots of factors but if it's your first brew and it tastes OK, I doubt you'll need to worry to much about that.

 

[Waynes World]

Thanks for that ken, yes the 10g was 10 galllon as in 2 demijons, i can get hold of co2 pub cylinders very cheap, so if i can find out how to pressureise the pressure barrle with it that is that sorted.
The reason i want to seperate it is incase the strawberry is not to my taste or just naff.

Thanks for the help ken, appreciated mate.

wayne :thumb:

 

[Ken L]

No worries but glass demijons hold 1 gallon (about 5L) each so if you fill two, you will have about 13L to go into your pressure barrel.
Personally, I prefer to just stick to metric units but when you're stuck with pint bottles and gallon demijons, you end up with a confusing mess.
To make matters worse, watch out if you're using on-line conversion websites to shift between litres and gallons because they almost all use American gallons ad they ain't the same animal as UK gallons.

 

[Fally over oops]

my magnum pear cider was very 'pear drops' like the sweets when i added the full sachet, but i still enjoyed it. i've got an apple kit going atm with some supermarket juices added and i've only added about quarter or half of the sachet to that because of my experience with the pear kit. guess it's all down to taste tho :hmm:

edit: by the sachet i mean the flavouring/sweetener that you add after primary fermentation.

 

[Paolomuzzo]

I have also got a Magnum apple cider on the go which should be ready to barrel in the next couple of days - but you've got me thinking. :hmm:

Do the sweetner sachets tends to ruin things? It isn't the first time I've heard that.

This is my first cider and would obviously like it to be a decent one. :whistle:

How much supermarket apple juice do you include if I were to try that method?

Thanks for any advice. :thumb:

Paul.

 

[Ken L]

I've only recently started back into brewing after a break when I did hardly any for several years but haviing tasted some of the cider kits that mates did back in the day, I never really felt inclined to buy one myself - they were pretty lousy back then.
That may have changed 'cause I've seen a few decent reviews of late but the whole "Turbo Cider" thing seems to have taken off in a big way and that's basically just supermarket juice with a bit of added tannin and a few other bits. This like WOW seems to have the homebrew world buzzin' at the moment and probably works out cheaper than concentrates.
I put my first gallon of turbo cider on a couple of weeks ago and bottled it on sunday. i have to say that when I "accidentally" sucked a bit harder than needed on the syphon tube, I was quite impressed and it's now clearing nicely. Give it a week to condition and settle down a bit in the bottles (I decided to charge it with half a tsp of sugar in each bottle) and I'll crack one open and decide whether or not to go directly to an 18L batch next time.

 

[Waynes World]

Well i have bottled it today and my giddy aunt it smells great, if you like the strong smelling gear, and taste not bad at the minute, i got 2 DJ`s without the strawberry aditive and 16 bottles the same but 2 of them with a bit more sugar than suggested, i didnt realise untill i filled them that they are smaller bottles, i added a T spoon to the 75cl and also to the 2 450ml bottles, these 2 i added a little srawberry additive also.
So in a weeks time we will see what its like :

 

[Fally over oops]

well fingers crossed :

i'll be opening an apple and mixed juices bottle tonight.. in fact i'll open it now

tbh, it's not bad.. can't knock magnum for a decent quick and easy kit :-)

 

[Ken L]

Be carefull where you store them, with extra sugar they may go boom. Best option would be a waterproof plastic tub with a lid.

 

[Waynes World]

Be carefull where you store them, with extra sugar they may go boom. Best option would be a waterproof plastic tub with a lid.

Hi Ken, thats a good idea kida as since i have bottled mine a few days ago 2 of the wine bottles have blown there corks and the demijohns keep popping theres out, fizzying like...........well a fizzy thing :lol:

 

[Fally over oops]

Crikey, put on some gloves, goggles and maybe body armour next time you go near the brew. I've never had a bottle go pop yet but I've read stories on the internet about exploding glass bottles that leave people in hospital, minus an eye. You should open up the bottles to release pressure and then reseal them or you're probably gonna end up with exploding bottles.

 

[Waynes World]

Think they are past the danger area now, i have put some in the frdige and cleared up a treat and tastes dam fine :twisted: , stronga tastse as the cheap white cider from the offi, already drank 4 bottles of the stuff. Has a great fizz as why the bungs keep popping.