Howdy brewers!

[Eorling]

Hey guys,

I've finally got round to joining and embarking on a merry home brewing journey! I've been meaning to give it a try for months and the other day I finally picked up some unused DJ's from a realtive, so now I can get cracking with some brews !

I'm going to keep it simple for now, I have two DJ's and I'll be trying out some simple turbo cider first. If that goes well then me and a mate will get some more serious kit and find a corner to brew in. Some questions I have for you, but first a very quick bio:

By day I'm a freelance resin caster living in Nottingham, I produce large numbers of miniature figures and models for the wargames industry. The name Warhammer will mean something to a good number of you I expect, I don't work for Games Workshop although alot of my mates do, but I make simialr stuff . Home brewing shoud be a nice addition to a pleasant lineup of hobbis that i really enjoy, mostly wargaming (goes with the job,) airsoft, video gaming, pipe smoking and RC flying. Yes, I have too many hobbies. I have a very tolerant girlfriend who knows I'd go bonkers without something to do - thank goodness!

So, a few questions about my first turbo cider brewing venture:

- Is there a specific yeast i should look out for?
- How do I sterilise the apple jiuce?
- What's the best water, how can I purify it?
- How long should I leave it to ferment before syphoning into the second DJ?
- How long should I condition in in DJ 2?
- If I was to add some actual apple, how should I prepare them?
- What ratio of sugar should I use for max fizz?

I know that's alot of questions, I hope it's ok to ask here.

Be seeing you all, I'm looking forward to spending time here :).

Will.

 

[dennisking]

Hi, sure brewing will fit in with your other hobbies ok. Can`t help with your questions as I`ve never made TC but sure another brewer will be along soon.

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

Hey guys,

So, a few questions about my first turbo cider brewing venture:

- Is there a specific yeast i should look out for?
- How do I sterilise the apple jiuce?
- What's the best water, how can I purify it?
- How long should I leave it to ferment before syphoning into the second DJ?
- How long should I condition in in DJ 2?
- If I was to add some actual apple, how should I prepare them?
- What ratio of sugar should I use for max fizz?

I know that's alot of questions, I hope it's ok to ask here.

Be seeing you all, I'm looking forward to spending time here :).

Will.

Hi,
I'm no expert at TC but this works for me.....
I use an office 18L water bottle, I pour in 12L of value apple juice from Tesco with a pack of cider yest, Young's is o.k, but ferments slightly dry.
If you want to make more alcohol dissolve around 250g of white sugar in some water, when cool add to the juice.

If you want sweeter cider try this yeast.
Sweet Cider Yeast

Dry Cider yeast
Young's Yeast

BB

P.S
No need for water or sterilising the juice. :thumb:

 

[oldbloke]

My understanding is that supermarket apple juice will be pasteurised anyway, so you don't need to worry about it. If the pack lists preservatives you need to heat to drive them off though.
And for turbocider there's no water, just the juice.

 

[stevander74]

Hi Eorling, welcome to the forum.
I make TC regularly so ill have a go at answering your questions.

1. As BB said, youngs cider yeast. a 7g sachet does 23l of cider but i just chuck the lot into 5l DJ.
2. Buy 5x1L cartons of apple juice from any supermarket, not the chilled ones, and you dont need to sterilise it.
3. you dont need any water, just juice.
4. Primary fermentation normally takes 2 weeks but what you should do is leave it till the airlock stops bubbling.
5. Dunno. :lol: I normally bottle straight from 1st DJ once its stopped bubbling.
6. dont add apple. i think the pulp causes problems. people who make cider from apples use a press to squeeze all the juice out of the pulp so id follow that example.
7. When bottling beer the ratio for priming sugar is half a teaspoon per pint, i use twice this to get a fizz out of cider otherwise it remains flat.

Also when you make it, warm up 1l of juice in a jug in a microwave, not too hot though just enough for sugar to melt, and stir in 250g of sugar then add to the DJ. this will make your cider stronger and a bit sweeter.

Hope this helps. there are how tos in the cider brewing section too so you should check them out.

 

[Eorling]

Hi guys,

Thanks for all the help, I brewed up tonight and so far so good! I used young's wine yeast as they didn't have the cider stuff, I hope it will work. I didn't add sugar, but I did add half a jar of honey which should enhance things :).

How long should I bottle condition for then? Another two weeks? I'll post in the cider section if I need to ask more questions :).

Will.

 

[luckyeddie]

Young's wine yeast is fine, you are likely to end up with a quite dry cider - just how I like it. I only tend to do 4 litres at a time in a demijohn, add 250g or so of sugar, ferment until the glooping stops then rack off to a 5 litre plastic container which I stick in the fridge for a week before I start drinking it - still. I don't bother bottle conditioning because I don't want fizzy cider.

It doesn't last long.