Turbo cider help

[Turbo cider luver]

I've made a few batches of tc using just apple juice and yeast sometimes use strong cup of tea.
I've noticed that it always turns out very dry. I've been using young's multi purpose dry active yeast.

Would another yeast make any difference

If adding another flavour juice would that end up the same. Would All the flavour and sweetnes ferment away.

Or should I add flavour after fermentation is finished

 

[Justin Dean]

Use a medium sweet yeast?

 

[mickthetrick]

i used bulldog cider yeast in my last batch and its sweet.

 

[Scottyburto]

Brewmaster Ben on YouTube did a trial on various yeasts:
This is the results video.
Other forumites swear by a cider yeast with sweetener from ebay. I don't know it exactly but it's on the turbo cider recipe thread.

 

[Scottyburto]

I have only made turbo cider once and I used a leftover MYO India Pale Ale yeast. (Used Crossmyloof Haze for the MYO IPA)

8 x Asda Apple juice
4 x Sainos Apple juice (Red apple juice)
pectolase
yeast nutrient
1lt tea
5 tbs of sugar
Topped up to 15l

Taste is similar to Thatcher's gold but less bite/sharpness. Might try a little citric acid next time. It's not overly fizzy either but bottled in 1lt Schweppes tonic bottles. (Lock down no caps)

 

[Graz]

Turbo cider does tend to ferment out to being pretty dry, personally I don't mind that but it's not to everyone's taste but there a few options to make it sweeter.

1. Add an artificial sweetener that is non fermentable. You can do this before or after it has fermented. You've probably seen it mentioned but you can buy a cider yeast that has artificial sweetener added and is enough for 5 gallons. Must use a fairly concentrated sweeteer as it's only a small sachet. Most cider kits also come with a sweetener. Alternatively you can use any old artificial sweetener that they sell in the supermarket (e.g. Candarel) and dilute to taste.
2. Stop the fermentation early. Monitor the gravity as it chugs along and when it hits the point where it has mostly fermented all the sugar but there's enough left for sweetness (e.g. 1.010) add stabiliser (potassium sorbate). The problem with this is that if you want fizzy cider you can't secondary ferment so you can either drink still cider or force carb it in a corny, Sodastream or some other contraption.
3. Add sugar when serving. This is my preferred method. Before pouring add a little sugar syrup to the glass, look up simple syrup made up for cocktails, dead easy to make. You can add also other flavours here by using something like a sugary cordial (e.g. Bottle Green, Lowciz) or cocktail syrups like Monin. Just add whatever to taste.

 

[Turbo cider luver]

Thanks for the replies guys. Will take a look at that vid when I get time.

 

[Turbo cider luver]

I got 20 litres of tc brewing atm.

Was thinking about adding some sweetener to it prior to bottling. Maybe do a few different measurements for comparison. Or maybe could sweeten with squash

 

[Justin Dean]

Medium sweet cider yeast from ebay does the job.

 

[Turbo cider luver]

One more question. I'm going to syphon off into another bucket to add sugar for carbonation. How much should I add?

 

[Scottyburto]

Check the turbo cider recipe thread. Someone was gonna do an experiment a few months back because a few people had issues with low carbonation. I had a similar issue as mentioned above and I used 5g per litre. Next time I'm gonna add a few teaspoons of nutrient and possibly some wine yeast day before bottling. I have no knowledge basis for doing this other than it seems like a logical solution.

 

[Shirley Bassett]

10g of white sugar per litre gives a good level of carbonation in turbo cider, but chill it before opening it. If opened at room temp it may gush.

When I bottle a batch I put most of the brew in dark glass bottles, but I put one in clear glass to enable to check how it is clearing. I also put one in a half litre sprite bottle, or similar, so that it can be squeezed to check carbonation.