Fresh fruit in turbo cider

[Pete H]

Morning

I recently done a turbo cider adding 250g of blueberrys to 22 litres of apple juice plus pectolase, tannin etc...

I boiled the blueberrys in 1 litre of apple juice blended these right down and added straight to FV before adding yeast. Im thinking now would it have been better to add once fermentation had finished to enhance the flavour slightly?

Im due to bottle this in a week and had a little taste last night and there doesn't seem to be any taste at all coming from the blueberrys.

Have I added too little and if so what would you recommend to add to increase flavour?

:

Pete

 

[narmour]

Usually those using a secondary type of fruit in a TC do so to provide a certain something extra... it is not necessarily the blueberry taste but it provides a more rounded flavour to the cider.

But it seems that you are looking for a blueberry flavour so I would add more in small amounts until you have the taste you desire.

Word of warning though, if you add it after the cider has finished brewing the sugar in the blueberries and extra apple juice will ferment, so don't bottle until this secondary burst of fermentation has finished. Unless you stabilise, but this means you will have still cider. You may also find that the perfect blueberry flavour that is present when you add the extra fruit has gone by the time you bottle.

:hat:

 

[graysalchemy]

As Namour says you ain't going to get a true blueberry flavour as it has been ferment. Wine doesn't taste like grape juice and cider doesn't taste of apples so why would a cider with blueberries taste of blueberries.

Unfortunately all those sickly fruit flavoured ciders which claim to have blueberry's in are probably so artificial and synthetic and added at the end as a flavouring and not as a fermentable, which is what you did.

 

[Pete H]

Thanks for the replys

narmour

Its not an over powering blueberry flavour that im after but I thought there would still be a hint of it there.
I wasn't really sure at all if 250g was going to be enough so does anyone have a general rule of thumb as to how much fresh fruit to add and when?

Gray

Your very true and a fruity alcopop is what im not looking for. So it maybe that what ever you add you will never get such a strong flavour unless you went way over the top with fruit, which would cost an absolute bomb to produce!

:

 

[Jonny69]

Blueberries don't actually taste of much so it doesn't surprise me that they haven't added much flavour. If you compare them to how strong and sharp the flavour of strawberries and blackberries is, 250g will add colour but probably not much flavour at all.

For a gallon of wine you'd usually use about 2kg of soft fruit and top it up with around 500ml of juice. To be able to taste it over cider I'd say you need at least 500g of fruit in the gallon.

 

[Pete H]

Jonny

That's a hell of a lot of fruit!

I may nip down to the fruiters and turn this into a mixed fruit cider.

Fermenting is slowing right down now and probably not far off FG so if I add further fruit do you think I will need to add more pectolase and yeast nutrient to help kick start this again?

Thanks

 

[GeorgeSalt]

Blueberries don't actually taste of much so it doesn't surprise me that they haven't added much flavour.

You're kidding, right? - if not, try a carton of blueberry juice. It's always sold as a juice drink so contains a decent amount of water, and it has the most intense flavour.

If your blueberries lack flavour, they are not ripe.

If you bought your blueberries in a supermarket punnet you can be absolutely certain they were picked under-ripe and stored chilled, so the flavour will be poor. If you've ever had them fresh from the bush you'll know just how intense the flavour should be. If you want blueberry flavour, use the Tesco blueberry juice drink.

 

[Gayle]

Frozen blueberries might provide better flavour - they are more likely to be picked when ripe, and the freezing process will have broken the cell walls fo the fruit to allow a better flavour/colour extraction... or so I've heard! You will probably need at least a pound of blueberries, and use them in secondary.

I've used the blueberry juice and it made a nice cider, not sure if it tasted of blueberries though... At the minute I'm using blueberry and apple flavour teabags to make wine and cider, so will see how that compares to useing the fruit juice.

If you've got a garden, get yerself some blueberry bushes (and raspberry, blackcurrant etc while you're at it ) and you'll have fruit galore for brewing, it's just far too expensive to pay supermarket prices to make berry wines!

 

[Pete H]

The blueberry juice maybe the better option on this batch. Not to sure if my local Tesco will stock it though as its just an extra!

Think I will try a mixed berry for my next TC. Freeze fruit, thaw, boil, blend and add after fermentation.

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