Woop! My First TC Brewday!

[Ceejay]

So, first Turbo Cider (or anything else for that matter) brew day today. This is going to be a quick 17 day brew as I want to drink it on the 18th December.

Ingredients are 22l of Asda Smartprice Apple Juice and a sachet of Vitners Harvest SN9 yeast, which I was assured would be fairly neutral and was ideal for cider. I don't want this to be rocket fuel and I thought it'd be a good idea just to do apple juice + yeast to get a feel for what it tastes like first and then experiment with tea, honey, sugar etc in later brews. It has to be a quaffable brew so with the apple juice already having an SG of 1.045 I didnt bother adding any sugar. Assuming it ferments down to 1.000, it should yeald and ABV of 5.8% ish

Method - Just sanitised everything, sloshed half the apple juice into the fermenting bin from height to airate it. Stuck the yeast in and then sloshed the rest of the apple juice in. Lid on, bubbler in. Nothing happening after an hour or so although the temp was about 15 degrees so I'm not too concerned. It's sitting near a radiator in the warmest room in the house and I'll wrap it in a sleeping bag once it's got up to 20 degrees ish. Now the wait :whistle:

 

[robsan77]

I wrapped an fv of beer in a sleeping bag once when the cupboard was at about 10c. It ended up fermenting at around 35c :shock: too hot and the beer tasted bad. Once fermentation is going it will kick out a lot of heat... dont keep it in

 

[Ceejay]

Ah, right-o!! Thanks for the tip Sleeping bag is back in the cupboard!

 

[evanvine]

I normally leave the top off and cover with a teatowel untill the madness has subsided before fitting the trap.
It may even ferment out to 0.996, so be prepared to sweeten with Splenda.
Hope all goes well :thumb:

 

[Ceejay]

Cheers for the advice. I've already jumped the gun and done up a label:

:lol:

 

[Ceejay]

Well, after a slow start the yeasties have woken up and this morning it's bubbling away at a rate of about 1 bubble every 5 secs or so. :thumb: Ambient temperature of teh room is aout 18 degrees so I've done away with the sleeping bag. Bubbler is still in though, as I've got plenty of headroom in the FV and it's not going absolutely bonkers, just nice and steady. :thumb:

I think I suddenly see how exciting it is. In a couple of weeks I'll have 22 litres of cider! Cor! :party:

 

[evanvine]

In a couple of weeks I'll have 22 litres of cider! Cor!

:thumb:

 

[Ceejay]

Hurrah! Day 3 and the yeasties are in full flow - getting loads of bubbles every 1-2 seconds. I took the airlock out last night and gave the fv a good shake as I was convinced the slow start was due to there not being quite enough oxygen. I don't know whether this has "woken it up" or it's just coincendence and the yeast has multiplied on it's own accord and caused the increase in fermentation...

In any case, rock on yeasties! :party:

 

[Ceejay]

Day 4: Sorry if this is turning into a bit of a blog, but hopefully someone might find it useful on their first TC brew.

Fermentation has slowed a little - 1 bubble every 4 seconds or so.

They main thing I notice today is that the smell has changed. Yesterday it smelled like apples; quite crisp, with a hint of alcohol. Today, it smells distinctly sour, and more like cider. I wouldn't describe it as "off" particularly but it smells yeasty - if anyone bakes their own bread, it smells like the dough when it's fully risen, only stronger.

Does that sound right to anyone? :hmm:

 

[simco999]

If its still bubbling I would leave it alone until its been fermenting for about 7-8 days. Then test the SG every day until it stays the same for two days running. It should be easily ready by the 18th.

 

[Ceejay]

Cheers- that was indeed the intention - good to know I'm on the right track though

One question; for the 18 day brew, once it's stopped fermenting would you

a) rack it off to the primed keg straight away and let it condition in the keg for 7-10 days
b) keep it in the FV for x days for it to settle and then rack to primed keg
c) another option

I'm too not bothered about it being fizzy or clear and I'll be pouring it straight from an old plastic keg my dad's lending me (I think its' an old rotokeg IIRC), so no bottling.

EDIT: would 2l pop bottles be a better bet?

 

[evanvine]

I let my TC ferment for 10 days, bubble rate is then between 2 and 3 minutes.
You can then keg, bottle or 1/2 and 1/2.
It won't need priming as there is still some yeast activity left, but it will need sweetening.

 

[Ceejay]

Day 8 and the bubble rate has slowed to 5 per minute (1 every 12 secs or so). I couldn't resist the urge to see what it was looking like, so I sanitised a glass, dunked it in and took a quick SG reading. 1.001 it measured, temperature corrected to 1.000 so it looks like I have reached my target of 5.8% ABV :party:

Had a quick taste (well I drank half a glass of it, even though I'm supposed to be working :nono: ) and it's certainly not unpleasant. About the required dryness, but somewhat lacking in flavour. It's got a nice appley aftertaste, but there's no "balls". I imagine that's why some people add tannin. Also, surpsrisingly, there's no harsh alcohol taste.

I'm going to leave it a couple of days but take an SG reading each day to see what it's doing, but I have to say I'm quite tempted to rack it off into the pressure keg tomorrow and sweeten it with a bit of splenda :hmm: so I can get on with batch #2

I'm now starting to realise I should have probably added sugar into this to increase the OG. The yeast will have fermented the sugar first, instead of the apple sugars and if racked early I would have ended up with a tastier, fuller bodied cider at the same ABV. Does that sound right?

 

[evanvine]

Does that sound right?

Nice idea, but unfortunately it doesn't happen.
The yeast isn't particular about which sugars it devours

 

[abeyptfc]

mate you will probably wish u put more sugar in to start with but you will regret it the next day, you will be dying quite literally!
i made up some TC and the OG was around 1.060, cant remember what it fermented down to though,maybe 1.008, i had 2 bottles one night along with a few beers, went to bed at 12sh, got up for work at 7.30 and i was as rough as a badgers hole, what a headache and i was rattling like an auld washing machine, ive still got about 12 bottles sitting about my room but im honestly too scared to try it again!

 

[Ceejay]

Lol! I see what you're saying. In which case, batch #2 - the New year's batch will be sans sugar. Is there anything I can do to give it a bit more body and flavour? Different yeast perhaps? Spraymalt? Tannin and Citric Acid?

I understand TC is supposed to be a simple, rough and ready drink but I wouldn't mind refining it a little bit...

Oh, bottling up today (decided to bottle up in 2l pop bottles and some really nice 75cl flip tops I found, which will be decanted into a jug as needed) and my name for Brew #1 is "Frosty Sacks" :lol:

 

[evanvine]

I understand TC is supposed to be a simple, rough and ready drink but I wouldn't mind refining it a little bit...

It is a simple drink, I dispute the "Rough and ready", but as you've spotted it does need a couple of little tweaks!
It's simple (turbo) because you don't have to gather, crush or press the apples.
The method I favour for 24 litres is:
20ltrs in FV + cider or champagne yeast.
After "mad period", norm 2 days, add last 4 ltrs.
Ferment for a total of 10 days.
Rack into 2nd FV + 5.5 campden tabs and tea from 4 or 5 T-bags.
Bottle or keg after 24 hrs.
Mature/condition for min 4 wks.
I prefer to use 500ml bottles, you can then decant into a pint glass.
The longer you can leave it, the better it gets!

Edit - I also add, at the same time as the Tea and CTs, 10 table spoons of "Splenda" to take the dry edge off.

 

[Ceejay]

Awesome, thanks - so in theory i could rack into secondary today, sweeten with splenda and add strong tea, ready for bottling tomorrow? This lot won't get 4 weeks (10 days until it's scheduled to be devoured!), although I'll keep a couple of bottles back to go the whole way :grin:

 

[evanvine]

I wish you well CJ :thumb:

 

[Ceejay]

Thanks mate, and thanks for all your help - couldn't have done it without you