Turbo fruity cider experiment

[kentmark]

So, having read lots and lots of recipies, some very simple some more involved I thought I'd have a crack at a TC using ingredients I had laying around the kitchen, combined with some of the simpler recipies.

Recipie:
3 x cartons 100% cloudy apple juice
1 x carton 100% orange juice
1 x can peach slices in syrup
250g sugar
Mug of strong tea made from 2 teabags
1tsp bakers yeast

Method:
Make mug of strong tea, leave to brew
Boil half a carton apple juice in a pan
Add the sugar
Pulp the peaches/syrup in food processor, add this to pan
Add the tea to the pan
Stir well
Contents of pan into DJ
Add 2.5 cartons of apple / 1 carton of orange
Swirl DJ to mix well
Take OG reading
Airlock on, leave it be!

Will be topping up with the other apple carton once things have settled down a bit.

OG was 1.066

We'll see what happens!

 

[weepete]

Be warned mate, my own trial with bakers yeast produced a very bitter wine. It'll be interesting if yours turns out or if its sommat I did!

 

[kentmark]

Cheers. I've read mixed reports on using bakers yeast. Obviously proper brewing yeast would be preferable, but part of the experiment is see what I can concoct using things we usually have around the house. SWMBO makes all our own bread so always has a supply in! I'll just have to wait and see.

Piccy of her bubbling away after one night in the DJ, it's sitting in a towel on our kitchen worktop underneath our boiler at the moment. It started bubbling pretty much straight away last night and has continued to do so, so seems happy there :thumb:

 

[kentmark]

Something I've not got my head round yet is racking. I'm going to leave in this dj whilst it bubbles away, do I then rack into another dj, leave to stand then bottle? Where would a camden tablet come into play?

Cheers guys.

 

[oldbloke]

If you want it to condition in the bottle, you don't want Campden.
I never rack TC. It's all over too quickly to need it - unless you're doing the malic acid thing that needs a long time for the malolactic fermentation.
I just wait until it clears then bottle. That may be hard to spot as you've use cloudy juice though.
Let it have a full two weeks then bottle.
The peaches /may/ make racking a good idea, though, actually, if they produce lots of light pulp that may get stirred up by your siphon.

 

[kentmark]

Cool, cheers for the advice. I was a little impatient to get it going, hence got the cloudy apple juice (all that tesco had in the 100% not from concentrate range). But at the same time I think it will make for a different and interesting brew.

Good point on the peaches, I think I will let fermentation finish then rack, leave for a while then bottle, just to help eliminate any pulp from the end brew.

Although I have just picked up a 1 gallon pressure barrel, having evil thoughts about using that for this one rather than bottles :evil:

May not last long that way though!!!

 

[oldbloke]

The from-concentrate juices work just as well, for future reference

 

[kentmark]

Ahhh cheers. Had read mixed reviews of them to be honest. Will make the next brew easier and cheaper, most of the tesco ones were from concentrate!

 

[ScottM]

Brave man going with orange. That's going to be seriously bitter IMO. Good luck with it :)

 

[kentmark]

Update on my creation.....

It's been in the DJ bubbling away for 9 days now, with bubbling almost stopping yesterday/today. As it seems to have settled I've racked it and taken a sample for a gravity reading. When I racked there was a lot of sediment at the bottom of the DJ (to be expected really with the addition of the pulped peaches) so it meant the level in my racked DJ was down a little. I topped up with some clear apple juice and popped the airlock back on, will see what happens there.

Gravity is now reading at 1.000. OG of 1.066, so using the forum calculator I make that 8.7%.

Taste test - You can definatly taste the strength of it! Very dry at the moment (as suggested in previous posts, thanks guys), but I think if a little sweeter will take the edge off it and be a nice dry drink.

Next steps - leave it to settle again in new DJ, investigate back sweetening :)

 

[cask is best]

Thanks for the updates Kentmark. Been very interesting. : keep em coming.

 

[kentmark]

Cheers mate.

Checked it again, some activity in the airlock again, guessing the additional apple juice is fermenting. Will leave it some more see what happens.

At the moment I'm thinking of leaving it to settle off again, then rack/back sweeten and bottle. Any thoughts on that guys?

 

[kentmark]

The top up of apple juice really gave it a new lease of life! Has been steadily bubbling until today. Looks like its finally settled now so will rack again over the weekend (lots of new sediment) then backsweeten and bottle.

Any tips on back sweetening guys? I've got powdered sweetener to back sweeten with.

 

[oldbloke]

I like mine dry, but some advice I heard was to get a pint of water and add sweetener to it until it has the level of sweetness you want. Then you know how much to put in the cider. Seems logical.

 

[kentmark]

Makes sense. So just add the sweetened water to the dj when i rack, mix it up then just use some normal sugar in the bottles as normal for some fizz?

 

[dirty squid]

I like mine dry, but some advice I heard was to get a pint of water and add sweetener to it until it has the level of sweetness you want. Then you know how much to put in the cider. Seems logical.

Wouldn't the natural sweetness in the cider affect this method?

 

[graysalchemy]

Once the cider HS fermented out there IDNO natural sweetness, hencrwhy you have to back sweeten.

 

[kentmark]

And from the taste i had when i racked and topped up its brewing very very dry this one. But with a nice underlying flavour so i think with a little sweetening will be quite nice.

 

[oldbloke]

Makes sense. So just add the sweetened water to the dj when i rack, mix it up then just use some normal sugar in the bottles as normal for some fizz?

Well, I was thinking use the water-sweetening thing to judge how much sweetener to add direct to the brew, rather than using the sweetened water - it'd be diluted by the brew anyway so that doesn't really work.
However you calculate it, I suggest you err on the side of undersweetening, as you can always add something sweet when you serve but you can't take away any cloying oversweetness (like some of the ciders I had in a pub in WestonSuperMare earlier this year).

 

[kentmark]

Well I am pleasantly surprised! Racked again tonight (lots more sediment when its been fermenting from the top up apple juice) and back sweetened using powdered sweetener. It has actually gotten a smoother albeit very dry taste, after sweetening perfect. Used 70 teaspoons of sweetener. Little at a time until I got the flavour I wanted. Going to leave to settle again tonight and bottle tomorrow. Going to use 1L pet bottles and a teaspoon of sugar to carbonate. Very pleased with how my kitchen cupboard experiment is going!