Out of date Cider kit

[NicB]

Hi, I'm a beer man so I've no experience of Cider kits.
Yesterday I was given an intact "Brewmaker Cider de Luxe 40 pint kit"
Best before August 2016
I'm of an age where "Best before lables" are of little interest.
I was brought up before fridges in normal people's houses existed.
Any opinions of trying to ferment it or will I be wasting my suger and time on this one.
And what about the yeast sachet..Try it?. Or Bin it?
If so what's a good cider yeast.
Thanks in anticipation.
Nick

 

[dwhite60]

Think I would brew it up. Best before dates are mearly a suggestion.

Yeast is probably fine but, I'd have a Nottingham ready just in case.

All the Best,
D. White

 

[obscure]

At the end of the day what have you got to loose a few ponds worth of sugar and a bit of your time if it works great if not not too much lost. I would be interested to hear how it goes.

 

[MmmmCitra]

Go for it but get a newer cider yeast, don't know what one though, maybe google it.........

 

[NicB]

Thanks for your replies.
I'll go for it when I have a fermenter free.
As I've never brewed cider I thought I'd better check in case it was a well known cider NoNo.
I've googled the Nottingham yeast suggested and it looks like that will be my choice.
Again thanks all... cheers N¡ck

 

[terrym]

Thanks for your replies.
I'll go for it when I have a fermenter free.
As I've never brewed cider I thought I'd better check in case it was a well known cider NoNo.
I've googled the Nottingham yeast suggested and it looks like that will be my choice.
Again thanks all... cheers N¡ck

If you have a Wilko near you their Ale yeast is allegedly a Notty alias GV12.

 

[Drunkula]

Wilko sell GV13 cider yeast, too. Thing is not all shops keep them in stock.

You could always get some delivery from CML.
https://www.crossmyloofbrew.co.uk/online-store

And don't be afraid of using an ale yeast for cider. Ale yeasts came out on top in this little bit of fun.

 

[dwhite60]

What ever became of this?

All the Best,
D. White

 

[dwhite60]

Hi, I'm a beer man so I've no experience of Cider kits.
Yesterday I was given an intact "Brewmaker Cider de Luxe 40 pint kit"
Best before August 2016
I'm of an age where "Best before lables" are of little interest.
I was brought up before fridges in normal people's houses existed.
Any opinions of trying to ferment it or will I be wasting my suger and time on this one.
And what about the yeast sachet..Try it?. Or Bin it?
If so what's a good cider yeast.
Thanks in anticipation.
Nick

What became of this?

All the Best,
D. White

 

[NicB]

Hi... I'm going to use the can later this summer with fresh yeast.
I currently backed up all my cornys are full and the fermenter is coming to the end.
I'm about 7-10 days before finishing one keg.
I won't be able to brew for a month by my calculation.

 

[NicB]

Update....
Today I started that out of date cider kit.
As suggested I used a fresh cider yeast.
Additionally (not on the can) I added a litre of strong tea.
I'll report back when it's finished fermentation.
In the mean time as I said before I'm really a beer drinker.
When I put 19ltr of the cider into a corny I'm *'considering'* adding some powdered CANDEREL sweeter (how many grams?) I found in the back of the pantry.
Any suggestions or warnings would be great.
I'd like to get it to about the sweetness of "Woodpecker".
Do they still sell Woodpecker cider?
Sorry if this offends any cider guru's. ...
Thanks N¡ck

 

[dwhite60]

If you're going to sweeten it you need to add sorbate and sulfite to kill off the yeast. Any sugar you add the yeast will ferment back to dry unless you push the abv above the yeasts tolerance or stabilize it.

Since you are kegging and can force carbonate killing off the yeast isn't a problem.

 

[NicB]

Yes of course, I won't be adding sugar it'll be the CANDEREL I mentioned.
I've never sweetened with artificial sweeter before and this cider kit was free so I'm not expecting much.
I really would love to have an idea how much to put in the Corny to get to an approximate Woodpecker sweetness.

 

[NicB]

Found a post which suggested 4tsp per litre.
Not sure how dense Canderel is so it's going to be spoon out 20 tsp or so weigh and pro rata it back & up to get to the corny19litres. (( or spoon in 76 tsp Aghhh ))
Unless there is anyone who uses Canderel as a back sweetener and can offer advice?
N¡ck

 

[NicB]

A bit more information. .. looking at the Canderel packaging nutritional information it says.....
One teaspoon is 0.5g
So that works out 38g for the 19 litres.
Based on 4tsp/litre.
All good stuff but I don't know if that equates to a sweet cider (eg a Woodpecker style.)

 

[BrewMeHappy]

With my turbo cider I usually use one or two sweetener tablets per bottle depending on how I feel, so guess a heaped teaspoon is the same as a tablet in your case. I'm not sure how sweet your kit will be anyway so I'd probably go easy on the sweetener.

 

[NicB]

When you (Brewmehappy) bottle I guess you're putting in sugar (for carbination) + the tablets for sweetness?
N¡ck

 

[BrewMeHappy]

Yes that's right NicB.

 

[AXW123]

If you’re adding it at the end
end do it to taste. When I made cider I added the equivalent of half a teaspoon per bottle to start with & ended ended up with about 3/4 of a teaspoon per 500 mL. I like drinks dry but my cider definitely needed sweetening with artificial sweetener - at the end - it made it much nicer.

 

[NicB]

That's interesting AXW123 so 1.5 tsp per litre was not 'quite' enough even though you prefer cider on the dry side.
I prefer cider on the sweet side so I'll be back sweetening above that quantity. . Thanks for the benchmark.