How to make Turbo Cider.

[Scottyburto]

Juice drink is a mucky kind of robbery. May as well say diluted squash! I've been caught out with this before. I ended up with sickly sweetener tasting wine. Gave it away to known alcoholics and the drain. Live and learn.

You might just get away with it with cider. There's an actual law dictating the amount % of apples(juice) commercial breweries have to have in cider to sell it as cider. I don't remember the actual figure but I know it shocked me how low it actually was. You might end up with sweet frosty jacks, although I'd be tempted to add more sugar/syrup to up the final abv to try balance out the sweetness of the sweeteners.

Lowicz syrups would be a good way of adding sugar and flavour without sweeteners.

 

[labrewski]

Juice drink is a mucky kind of robbery. May as well say diluted squash! I've been caught out with this before. I ended up with sickly sweetener tasting wine. Gave it away to known alcoholics and the drain. Live and learn.

You might just get away with it with cider. There's an actual law dictating the amount % of apples(juice) commercial breweries have to have in cider to sell it as cider. I don't remember the actual figure but I know it shocked me how low it actually was. You might end up with sweet frosty jacks.

Yep total mistake only when I got home I noticed it was not 100% juice

 

[Scottyburto]

FYI...

http://www.cider.org.uk/juicecontent.htm

 

[Woo woo]

I like it bit sweeter but it’s my only second time doing it. Just added apple juice to glass to take the dryness away.
Just made two kits one coopers larger and the other coopers bitter. Larger started fermentation already but bitter not doing anything yet, is this normal for bitter? .

 

[Random Badger]

So went ahead with anyway 19 liters of the juice drink
2 tins of peaches in syrup
200ml raspberry syrup
750 g dextrose
1 litre strong tea
1.5 litres water
Was going to bash up 6 sweet apples and throw them in but something told me not to
Hope it turns out ok
Og was 1038 so possible to come close to 4 % may be if its drinkable

Sounds "interesting" especially adding the peaches in syrup! Still, part of the fun is experimenting and who knows you may create a masterpiece.

1038 could certainly deliver 4% alcohol if it ferments down to less than 1.008. I've made two turbo ciders and they both fermented down to 1.000, although (aside from tea for tannin) they were made from 100% fruit juice and sugar. I used a cider yeast in mine - which yeast did you use?

 

[Random Badger]

I like it bit sweeter but it’s my only second time doing it. Just added apple juice to glass to take the dryness away.
Just made two kits one coopers larger and the other coopers bitter. Larger started fermentation already but bitter not doing anything yet, is this normal for bitter? .

Starting to go off topic for this thread, but how long ago did you pitch the yeast into the bitter? It's not instant, but assuming all is well I would expect to see definite fermentation activity within 24 hours. If it's been less than that then I think the golden rule is to show some patience and wait and see rather than messing about with it unnecessarily.

 

[labrewski]

Sounds "interesting" especially adding the peaches in syrup! Still, part of the fun is experimenting and who knows you may create a masterpiece.

1038 could certainly deliver 4% alcohol if it ferments down to less than 1.008. I've made two turbo ciders and they both fermented down to 1.000, although (aside from tea for tannin) they were made from 100% fruit juice and sugar. I used a cider yeast in mine - which yeast did you use?

Mangrove Jack's cider yeast

 

[labrewski]

Sounds "interesting" especially adding the peaches in syrup! Still, part of the fun is experimenting and who knows you may create a masterpiece.

1038 could certainly deliver 4% alcohol if it ferments down to less than 1.008. I've made two turbo ciders and they both fermented down to 1.000, although (aside from tea for tannin) they were made from 100% fruit juice and sugar. I used a cider yeast in mine - which yeast did you use?

Threw the peaches and syrup in to try bring back a bit of life to it could be alcoholic water otherwise I was thinking

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

I use a mixture of 500ml PET plastic and glass swingtop bottles

I note your choice of bottles Roddy. If I wanted to use clear glass 500ml beer bottles with crown caps, would this level of carbonation be too much for these bottles to handle? Just want to make sure I'm being safe! ☺

 

[johncrobinson]

Hi Lisa,
As far as glass is concerned i would err on the side of caution.
I have mentioned this before,A friends wife was disfigured badly by an exploding pop bottle in a supermarket and could not live with the results,She went on to commit suicide.

Plastic bottles might be the best choice until you get a feel for it.

Part of the problem is that there is no such thing as a standard beer bottle,Some are very thin and lightweight others are more substantial,It all depends on the brand.
I know Budweiser bottles are on the light side,But i cant speak for other brands.
Dont forget breweries have a financial incentive to use as cheap and as lightweight bottle as possible.

In the days when i made champagne clones I always reused the very heavy original bottles.

You do have a knack for asking awkward questions .

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Ha ha sorry, I just like to know everything and all the little gory details in between

I was gonna do mainly glass with a plastic tester bottle. The glass ones I'm on about are sold by a homebrew shop, so hopefully they'll be fit for purpose.

 

[johncrobinson]

Me too,It served me well in my working career.

I think bottles specially sold for the purpose are a good bet.
I would be inclined to go with these.

The tester bottle is a first class idea.Honestly.!!!

I have to admit serving to friends a professional product is a BIG social plus.

Do keep us posted on your rhubarb wine.I am looking every day at my rapidly growing patch with a very,very beady eye

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Will do - it’s clearing at the minute but as I haven’t de-gassed it it’s gonna be a long while I think. I reckon my guess of 2 months won’t be far off

 

[johncrobinson]

Just a bit concerned when you said your wine was GREEN
Still Chablis has a green tint to it and everyone seem to like that.

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

My rhubarb was bogey green not red and nice As it's clearing it's going more orange though.

Not buying from there again!

 

[Tess Tickle's Brewery]

Updated picture for you.

 

[Graz]

Been a while since I've made a turbo cider, summer's coming so got one on last night.

18L Lidl's finest AJ
Bottle of Cherry Lowicz
Half a litre of strong tea (4 bags).
4 tsp Pectolase
2 Sachets of CrossMyLoof cider yeast.

Came in around 1.047

It'll be force carbed in a corny when it's done. Will sweeten to taste when drinking with either cherry syrup, apple syrup or plain sugar syrup, will experiment to see what is nicest.

 

[johncrobinson]

WOW and i don't mean that in the Worzels Orange Wine sense.
Boy oh boy you have some wine there.

My Dad would be proud of you.

 

[Nidger]

Juice drink is a mucky kind of robbery. May as well say diluted squash! I've been caught out with this before. I ended up with sickly sweetener tasting wine. Gave it away to known alcoholics and the drain. Live and learn.

You might just get away with it with cider. There's an actual law dictating the amount % of apples(juice) commercial breweries have to have in cider to sell it as cider. I don't remember the actual figure but I know it shocked me how low it actually was. You might end up with sweet frosty jacks, although I'd be tempted to add more sugar/syrup to up the final abv to try balance out the sweetness of the sweeteners.

Lowicz syrups would be a good way of adding sugar and flavour without sweeteners.

Just stumbled on your post and I posted about a summer fruits drink wine I made.
4.5 ltr trial,
It has improved with age, going to leave the other 4 bottles a few more months then try one.
First one went down the sink,
Drank the 2nd
Wouldn't use "drink" again though.

Link = post #3,072
https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...guide-and-recipes.49462/page-154#post-1034411

 

[Keruso]

Afternoon all,

Negligent of me not to have put this up before now, but here's my take on a straightforward 25L Apple Turbo Cider...

Give me a shout if I'm missed any bits out or if anything isn't clear, I knocked it up quite quickly !

It doesn't paste that well into the new thread window, but there is a Word version of the below on OneDrive using the link below
Recipe for 25L cider.docx



Recipe for 25L Classic Apple TC (5.35% abv)

These are not hard and fast rules, but a bit of a guideline and what I have done before

Ingredient
20L Asda Smart price AJ (or any supermarket apple juice made from 100% Apple juice/apple juice from concentrate) so long as no other added ingredients)
1L strong tea (regular Tetley, 5 bags stewed for 15 mins)
5tsp Pectolase
325g sugar (ordinary tate & lyle granulated is fine) for priming
Yeast for 25L (I use cider yeast with sweetener E950 from ebay, but you can use any cider yeast, but without sweetener, may make the cider quite dry/sharp without back-sweetening

Kit

27/30L Fermenting vessel with stick on thermometer strip preferably
Second FV for priming (see priming section)
Long spoon
Hydrometer
Auto-siphon
Bottling wand, to connect to auto-siphon
Bottles (I use a mixture of 500ml PET plastic and glass swingtop bottles)

Method

Thoroughly clean and sanitise FV, spoons, and hydrometer
Pour in apple juice (best at room temp)
Pour in stewed tea (take out the bags ;-) )
Dissolve pectolase in ý cup warm water and tip this in
Top up with tap water to 25L
You want to aim for a starting temp around 20 degrees C, a little colder is OK, but will take a bit longer to get started. Warmer is OK up to about 25 degrees
Sprinkle yeast on top, put lid on (with airlock if thatââ¬â¢s the kind of FV youââ¬â¢re using)
Put in a warm place, ideal temp for fermentation is between 18-24 degrees

Day 10

At a temperature of around 22 degrees, your TC could be finished fermenting in as little as a week, but to make sure, give it at least 10 days before taking an SG reading

When finished fermenting, TC should have an SG reading of around 1.000 donââ¬â¢t move on to the next step if is above that

Priming and bottling (making it fizzy)

2 ways of doing this:-

Batch priming (My preferred method)

Although this needs a second sanitized FV to siphon (rack) the TC into and add priming solution, I find it much easier in the long run, and avoids extra time/mess trying to add a teaspoon of sugar (or coopers carb drops) into 50 bottles !

Dissolve 325g sugar in some hot tap water (just enough to get it to dissolve and be pourable
Siphon cider from primary FV to secondary, add priming sugar
Give it a good swirl/stir to mix in the sugar solution
Move FV to somewhere suitable for bottling (FV should be above the height of where you are bottling)
Attach the bottling wand to the autosiphon tube and immediately bottle your cider
Put bottled cider somewhere warm (ca 20deg) for at least a week to clear, and carb up. Tip. Using at least some plastic (PET) bottles will allow you to feel how the card process is going by squeezing the bottles, the y will get firmer as the co2 is produced.
Once they bottles have completely cleared, they will be pretty much ready to drink, so chill one and try it out
They will get better with a few more weeks in a cooler storage place, to condition a little.

Bottle priming

Using the autosiphon and bottling wand, fill each of your bottles with cider
Add a heaped teaspoonful of sugar to each 500ml bottle (or 2 x Coopers carb drops, get these on web or in home brew shop)
Put lid on and turn bottle upside down and back up again, to mix
Put bottled cider somewhere warm (ca 20deg) for at least a week to clear, and carb up. Tip. Using at least some plastic (PET) bottles will allow you to feel how the card process is going by squeezing the bottles, the y will get firmer as the co2 is produced.
Once they bottles have completely cleared, they will be pretty much ready to drink, so chill one and try it out
They will get better with a few more weeks in a cooler storage place, to condition a little.


Chilling/Pouring

This stuff is definitely best served icy cold, so give it a good overnight in the fridge if you can. I also like my cider quite fizzy, so unchilled it will tend to fizz up when I open a bottle, but it doesnt do this when its cold

After clearing, there will be some sediment in the bottom of the bottle, so for a nice clear glass, you want to avoid glugging the cider when pouring. So pour it slowly keeping the bottle just above horizontal, and youll see when the cloudy sediment starts to make its way to the top of the bottle, at which point you can stop pouring and leave the remaining few ml of liquid to get chucked (or pour it all in if you like it cloudy !)

I made my 1st turbo cider last weekend, I have bought some Splenda to back-sweeten, anyone have a rough guide as to how much of it to add to 20 litres to make medium-dry cider ?