How to make Turbo Cider.

[MartinHaworth]

@Cyberjip @Chippy_Tea
Thanks for your responses.

So, I plan to use a combination of lowicz raspberry and Belvoir Blackcurrant Cordial (available from Waitrose, doncha know!). The Belvoir is pure blackcurrant, whilst the Rocks is blackcurrant and apple.

I will stop it with campden and potassium sorbate, back sweeten with a combination of more apple and cordial to taste, then force carb.

This is planned to be consumed after son and friends have finished their GCSEs, so I don't want it too strong. Aiming for 4% overall.

Don't fancy cleaning up after pissed 16 year olds!

Will work on the recipe and post it here.

Martin

- one last thing, plan to use S04.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

I will stop it with campden and potassium sorbate, back sweeten with a combination of more apple and cordial to taste, then force carb.

A lot of wine makers believe Campden tablets can stop a fermentation this explains far better than i could -



What Campden Tablets Don’t Do?

Many beginning winemakers believe that Campden tablets are a magic pill of sorts. One that can instantaneously stop a wine fermentation dead in its tracks. While it is true that Campden tablets can bring a fermentation to its knees for a period of time, it is also true that these fermentations will usually gather themselves back up and eventually overcome the effects of the tablets. The result is a continued fermentation – sometimes after the wine has been bottled.

Truth is, Campden tablets are not designed to stop a fermentation and never have been. Using them for that purpose can get you into all kinds of trouble. There is really no ingredient that can be safely used by itself to assuredly stop a fermentation.

Read more - https://blog.eckraus.com/campden-tablets-what-they-can-and-cant-do

 

[Cyberjip]

A lot of wine makers believe Campden tablets can stop a fermentation this explains far better than i could -



What Campden Tablets Don’t Do?

Many beginning winemakers believe that Campden tablets are a magic pill of sorts. One that can instantaneously stop a wine fermentation dead in its tracks. While it is true that Campden tablets can bring a fermentation to its knees for a period of time, it is also true that these fermentations will usually gather themselves back up and eventually overcome the effects of the tablets. The result is a continued fermentation – sometimes after the wine has been bottled.

Truth is, Campden tablets are not designed to stop a fermentation and never have been. Using them for that purpose can get you into all kinds of trouble. There is really no ingredient that can be safely used by itself to assuredly stop a fermentation.

Read more - https://blog.eckraus.com/campden-tablets-what-they-can-and-cant-do

Again I'm no expert but I think that is why you use a 2 pronged attack with the potosium sorbate, 12 hours apart.

Also as it's in the keg, not the end of the world if it does get going again, just not ideal. Will report back and let you know how it goes.

 

[SmallSpacesBrewing]

I have one of theese in the fermenter, also my first,

I have potassium sorbate and Camden tablets to stop ferm, although not sure when the best time to do this is.

Bit of info here

https://www.homecidermaking.com/back-sweetening-hard-cider/

I'm going to move to a pressure barrel to age the cider. Wondering do I leave the yeast active for this or kill them off and bscksweeten first.


Edit s word and some more questions

Leave it active. It ages better.

 

[Cyberjip]

Leave it active. It ages better.

I thought this would be the case. Thanks for the confirmation

 

[Penfold]

Looking for a little advice. Just finished my cider and bottled. Before bottled I added campden tablets and used carbonation drops. So far there's been zero yeast activity and no change to pressure in bottles, it's been three days, have the yeast stalled due to the campden tabs or are they dead haha?

 

[Cyberjip]

Looking for a little advice. Just finished my cider and bottled. Before bottled I added campden tablets and used carbonation drops. So far there's been zero yeast activity and no change to pressure in bottles, it's been three days, have the yeast stalled due to the campden tabs or are they dead haha?

What was the reason you used the campden and how much did you use?

 

[VW911]

Campden tabs will have knocked the yeast out, hence no bottle carbonation.
It may well come back to life, but probably take a while...
...Cider yeast has a habit of coming back to life, often for no obvious reason.

 

[Penfold]

What was the reason you used the campden and how much did you use?

Just used them to prevent anything funky happening to the cider. Had some homemade wine gifted to me over last Xmas and was distinctly vinegary tasting lol. Keen for that not to happen to any of my attempts now I've started. I used the usually recommend dose of 1 per gallon.

Campden tabs will have knocked the yeast out, hence no bottle carbonation.
It may well come back to life, but probably take a while...
...Cider yeast has a habit of coming back to life, often for no obvious reason.

Fingers crossed it kicks in, am thinking it would improve the flavour.

 

[Cyberjip]

The above is what I'm thinking. When you use campden it will inhibit yeast as it will most other things.

But the yeast will probably fight back will take a while though.

 

[Penfold]

Ok thanks both. Will wait and see

 

[Cyberjip]

Ok thanks both. Will wait and see

Future advice. Make sure your on the ball with all your sanitizing.
Then don't use the campden when you bottle. Just make sure you ferment it all the way out prime and bottle.

 

[StormUK]

Ok, turbo cider update. Got back from 3weeks away at work tonight, after wondering where all the people had gone I got some cider out of the garage. I put 250gms priming sugar in before I left, it stayed in the house for about 10/11days then its been in the garage for 3 weeks. Anyway, on opening got a nice psst (lol) and on pouring plenty of fizz and a little head, I think it is comparable to say a can of strongbow the about of fizz etc. So pretty happy with how that turned out. Taste is ok, not what I am used to with shop bought cider but easy drinking, will easy do the other 49 bottles. Especially with all this social distancing, just need to get my hands on more apple juice now and I'm laughing

 

[wizurd1977]

Hi all,

Wasn't sure whether to post a new thread or just ask on here.

I'm about to knock up my first TC. Doing it in a demijohn so around 5 litres.

So i'm using 4 litres of apple juice from concentrate from Tesco (do i need to add any water as well?).

With that i'm adding a cup of properly stewed tea (so 3 tea bags) plus a tsp of malic acid.

Using mangrove jacks cider yeast, but thinking that i only need half the pack (its 11g) since im only doing 5 litres ish.

I think that's everything. I'll then ferment for around 10 days.

Then rack to a secondary vessel and batch prime to put into PET bottles.

So my questions are:

How can I figure out what the percentage of the cider will be? i'd like something stronger say around 7 per cent. The apple juice i'm using works out around 113 gram sugar per litre.

I don't want a dry cider so i was going to add some fake sugar i.e. canderel when i bottle prime. How much do i need to add though to get a medium sweetness?

Also how much sugar should i add to get a good carbination?

Sorry if i'm asking repeating questions. I have looked around but think i've read so many different things that i'm just confused lol

 

[wizurd1977]

dup post sorry

 

[BrewMeHappy]

Hi all,

Wasn't sure whether to post a new thread or just ask on here.

I'm about to knock up my first TC. Doing it in a demijohn so around 5 litres.

So i'm using 4 litres of apple juice from concentrate from Tesco (do i need to add any water as well?).

With that i'm adding a cup of properly stewed tea (so 3 tea bags) plus a tsp of malic acid.

Using mangrove jacks cider yeast, but thinking that i only need half the pack (its 11g) since im only doing 5 litres ish.

I think that's everything. I'll then ferment for around 10 days.

Then rack to a secondary vessel and batch prime to put into PET bottles.

So my questions are:

How can I figure out what the percentage of the cider will be? i'd like something stronger say around 7 per cent. The apple juice i'm using works out around 113 gram sugar per litre.

I don't want a dry cider so i was going to add some fake sugar i.e. canderel when i bottle prime. How much do i need to add though to get a medium sweetness?

Also how much sugar should i add to get a good carbination?

Sorry if i'm asking repeating questions. I have looked around but think i've read so many different things that i'm just confused lol

I don't tend to use a hydrometer for my brews but my TC recipe is simply 3x1.5L cartons of AJ from Lidl, a cup of strong tea, an optional heaped table spoon of caster sugar (why not) to boost the ABV a tad and cider yeast. Now it can be a bit a bit dry and not sweet so I typically pit in one per bottle when bottling.

Go for around 1/2 teaspoon sugar per 500ml bottle for a nice fizz.

As a I say, I don't use a hydrometer but you know you've had a drink when you down a bottle.

 

[Accetturess]

I am also using 5 ltr demijohns with 4 litres apple juice. By the time you have added the tea, and the water you dissolved the pectolase in, and the water you hydrated the yeast, you are close to 4.5 ltrs. I top it up with tap water to get it to around that level.
I add about 20 - 25 grams of stevia to 4.5 ltrs for medium sweet.
I put 25 grams of dissolved sugar into a demijohn before bottling for carbonation, worked fine.

 

[BrewMeHappy]

I popped to Lidl yesterday and their 1.5L apple juice was 83p a carton, and so I'll be getting a cider on today then

I'm going to break my mould though and use a hydrometer this time. I'll report back.

 

[wizurd1977]

Hope it goes well @BrewMeHappy . After the initial DJ went well i've scaled up the recipe and yesterday did a 21 litre batch instead. Can't wait to get it all bottled up. Even though i put in around 6g of sugar per bottle for priming it's not overly fizzy. Does need a good bit of time in the fridge for it to actually get the fizz though.

 

[SmallSpacesBrewing]

Hope it goes well @BrewMeHappy . After the initial DJ went well i've scaled up the recipe and yesterday did a 21 litre batch instead. Can't wait to get it all bottled up. Even though i put in around 6g of sugar per bottle for priming it's not overly fizzy. Does need a good bit of time in the fridge for it to actually get the fizz though.

So you primed the bottles with 12g/liter then put them in the fridge? That is an insane amount of fizz man. For my ales I use max 6g/liter. Also to make the yeast eat the sugar it needs to be kept at room temp after for like two weeks. I'm pretty sure that if you left those bottles out they would explode. Not a nice scenario, trust me. Only thing keeping those grenades in the bottle is that you're keeping them cold. Drink fast!