My first ever cider

[tim85a]

Hi all,

I'm new here and to home brewing as well.

I bottled up my first batch of cider the other day but it just tastes like water :?

I used a kit that I got from my local home brew shop and it came with a can of Brewmaker Premium Cider. I followed the instructions to the letter, but I used normal granulated sugar not brewing sugar. Would this of caused the lack of taste?

Any help will be very welcome. I hope to try again early in the new year.

Tim

 

[oldbloke]

I don't do cider from kits and we don't have that exact one in the reviews list, but there is a review of another Brewmaker cider kit and the guy reckons it wants at least 2 months in bottle to get good.
On the other hand... I don't think it ought to taste like water. Some of the kits aren't that great so it might be a bit lacking in flavour but it really ought to be recognisably cider.
The sugar shouldn't have affected it much - brewing sugar is a monosaccharide, granulated is a disaccharide so the yeast first has to split it into its two components. Some people reckon this can lead to a difference in flavour, others that you won't notice. Possibly it needs just a little extra time to get that job done.

I do cider from supermarket AJ or AJconcentrate and they always taste like cider right from the start, but they do like at least a month in bottle to get any good. Initial sharpness tends to mask the apple before that. And they don't need any extra sugar at all.

 

[tim85a]

Thanks for the reply oldbloke.

When you say you use AJ from the supermarket, do you mean just popping to Asda/Tesco and getting enough of the cheap cartons of juice to fill your bin? Then putting in some yeast?

If that's right I might have to work out price to fill my bin.

Thanks again.
Tim

 

[MattN]

Yes, the cheap stuff is fine, just double check the ingredients, it should be 100% juice (from concentrate is fine). You may need nutrient depending what type of yeast you are using (some contain it)

Have a look on the turbo cider thread on this forum.

Cheers

Matt

 

[oldbloke]

Yes, as long as it's juice not "juice drink". Some people prefer to use "not from concentrate" but they have the same amount of actual apple solids and sugars by the time they hit the supermarket shelf, and many people can't tell the difference in the final product. You get 5 to 6 % from just juice so no extra sugar required, but the flavour can be a bit lacking so I tend to use 1/2 litre per gallon of something like cranberry just to broaden it a bit. It'll want tannin too - powered from homebrew shop or a bit of very strong tea.

As said, there are several threads on TurboCider in the HowTo section, all worth a look.

I usually use AJ concentrate (from hippyfood shops) plus a bit of AJ plus a bit of SomeOtherJuice these days, gets a bit more apple into the brew but ups it to 6-7.5%.

 

[tim85a]

Well its been just over 3 weeks since I bottled up my first brew and it is starting to taste like cider!

I am starting to think about my second brew and going to go for Supermarket AJ and some raspberry. Does anyone know of a good type of yeast to use?

Tim

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

In general, the best yeasts for cider are champagne or other sparkling wine yeasts. Youngs also do a cider yeast, and (although I've never tried them) some beer yeasts work well too.

 

[oldbloke]

Young's cider yeast is my default, and won in a recent test against GervinD (white wine), Young's Allpurpose Red, and Munton's Gold (ale)
However the Munton's was preferred by a couple of the tasters, and I had a bottle of the Young's apRed last night and /really/ enjoyed it.

Raspberry might leave the whole thing a bit sharp, maybe use it for priming at the end, to try and get a bit of rassy flavour, but use something else for the main ferment adjunct juice. My default is cranberry, but blueberry and cherry both work.