Ritchies On the Rocks Apple Cider Review

[ScottM]

Cheers lads, i will do exactly as you both have described

BigD

Im interested in how yours has turned out so keep us all posted mate.


Scott

Ive been thinking of going for the mixed berry kit, how is it and what extra juice did you add?

:

Pete

Brewed to 23 litres as directed only with the following changes.....

Replace 2L of water with 2L of Blackcurrant Ribena (Not concentrated, fresh stuff)
Replace 2L of water with 2L of Strawberry Ribena (Not concentrated, fresh stuff)
Replace 1/2L of water with 1 bottle of lowicz raspberry

10 days primary
10 days seconary (add flavour sachet when racking into secondary and stir gently to mix thoroughly)
Transfer to bottling bucket with 200g sugar (put 200g into a cup, pour boiling water over and stir to dissolve. Pour into bottling bucket then rack onto it)
Bottle
2 weeks warm (20 degrees)
1 month cool
Fridge for 48 hours.

Enjoy

 

[Pete H]

Scott

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Thats sounds good to me, i will give it a try on my next purchase.

:

Pete

 

[BigDDunc]

A little later than I expected, but I just opened my first bottle of this. Not really that impressed with it. Great nose and initial flavour, but after a mere second or two the flavour drops and leaves an aftertaste like carbonated water. It's not unpleasant I was just expecting the flavour to linger more (which it has done in every other kit).

 

[ScottM]

A little later than I expected, but I just opened my first bottle of this. Not really that impressed with it. Great nose and initial flavour, but after a mere second or two the flavour drops and leaves an aftertaste like carbonated water. It's not unpleasant I was just expecting the flavour to linger more (which it has done in every other kit).

I thought you had the same issue with the mixed berry?

They are all like that IMO. If they aren't brewed short, or if you don't add something in place of some of the water, then they will taste a bit watery towards the finish. 20L is about the norm to brew these kits to I reckon.

Replacing the water with some apple juice makes all the difference (around 6L with a straight up kit would be good). All kits are the same, they always say brew to 23L, but they never include enough of the main ingredient (IMO) to give a full taste. This is where tweaking comes into play, like my recommendation for mixed berry above :)

Also, if you leave it in the bottle for 2-3 months you will notice a difference as the flavours will round off and will last longer on the palate. My first mixed berry kit was brewed as the instructions and the middle part of the tasting was a little watery. This got MUCH better over time as the flavour became more consistant after a couple of months in the bottle.

These kits are great because they are ready to drink fairly early, they get really good after a bit of conditioning though.

 

[SloeBrewer]

I notice that the yeast with the OTR kits contains sweetnener. I like my cider dry, so how sweet is this cider? I'm considering swapping the supplied yeast for a standard cider yeast and adding some nutrient, but don't want it to be too dry!

 

[BigDDunc]

Hi SloeBrewer the sweetness was along the lines of any supermarket cider brand not described as dry. Such as Kopperberg apple cider.