TC with hint of orange and grape juice

[lektoraj]

My (very basic) kit is as described in https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/first-attempt-at-cider.72960/ I also now have a hydrometer.

In Feb I did a TC (as below but without the orange juice) and it took ages to get started, possibly because the juice from the supermarket cartons was deprived of oxygen - I eventually took the lid off for a half a day before I put it back on and it ran fine - final result was great, particularly that which was left to mature for 4 months (no pasteurising, fermented to dry, 2l of fresh apple juice added to mix before bottling - was too much and made bottles difficult to open without spraying cider).

Recipe used this time: 20l supermarket apple juice, 1l supermarket orange juice (to see what happens) about 0.8l of grape juice made by running a very large bunch of dark grapes through juicer (also to act as yeast nutrient).

Initial gravity 1.044 (taken before adding yeast - is that right? - hopefully that's not a serious mistake as least)

This time I left the lid off for a few hours after pouring the juice in and before adding the yeast.

After 5 hours it is already bubbling heavily. Temperature in the kitchen is 27 degrees (hard to get that down as it's hot outside) and the yeast has an optimal range of 22-26 degrees.

Will report back.

 

[lektoraj]

Progress of fermentation so far:

Day - Ambient temp - Bubbles
13.06.2018 27 continuous
14.06.2018 26 1 per 2 sec
15.06.2018 25 1 per 2-3 sec
16.06.2018 26 1 per 2 sec
17.06.2018 26 1 per 4 sec
18.06.2018 26 1 per 9-10 sec
19.06.2018 26 1 per 40 sec
20.06.2018 27 1 per 115 sec

So it's slowing down. Does that not early to people?

 

[britton]

No, that's good, to be fair it's normally done after a week, what yeast are you using and did you pitch it dry?

 

[lektoraj]

Thanks. I used Gozdawa French Cider G1 (dry powder) (tolerates up to 9% alcohol, 10-30 degrees C fermenting, optimal 22-26.
http://www.gozdawa.org/en/en-drozdze-fcg1
I hydrated it in warm water before pitching it as the package suggests.

 

[lektoraj]

21.06.2018 27 stopped

Bottling:
Day 21.06.2018
Gravity 0.998
Implied ABV% 6.0375

This time round I was a lot more careful. I didn't "rack" as such but I brought the fermenter on the worktop in the morning before bottling in the evening (rather than moving it immediately before bottling as previously) and I also left a small book under it at the tap side (to tilt it and give the tap a higher effective clearance above the floor of the fermenter). The first 31 bottles were decanted by tapping into a 1.5l jug before being poured carefully into the bottles, with some of the dregs thrown away after each jug.
Priming was
first 19 bottles 0.04ml apple juice per 0.5l (not for bubbles, mostly just so the yeast can eat the oxygen that will have got in during bottling).
next 12 bottles 0.18ml apple juice (to make bubbles.)
The tap was drying up so I took our the book and did another 6 bottles with 0.2ml apple juice – these picked up a fair bit of yeast obviously but hopefully they will still be nice.

Smell is normal. Colour is a bit more "golden" and opaque than normal I think, possibly due to the orange juice.

 

[lektoraj]

These have turned out pretty good. 3.5 months in the 0.04 ml ones seem slightly sourer than the others but both are good. The ones drunk after 1 month and 2 months were too sour. The colour is beautiful but otherwise this small amount of orange juice doesn't have a strong effect on it.