home brew cider

jap gt

hi lads

i want to make some cider, i was looking at the site in the link, what do i need for this kit thats in the link

http://www.thehomebrewcompany.ie/index.php?main_page=product_reviews_info&products_id=636&reviews_id=8

oblivious

You can also just buy apple juice in your local supermarket and just add yeast, can’t be easer!

jap gt

oblivious wrote: »

You can also just buy apple juice in your local supermarket and just add yeast, can’t be easer!

yea i have been looking in to that, nearly every site has different ways of doing it though, different gear etc. if any one has done it will ye post up what ye used etc

guildofevil

There's nothing to it. Any idiot can brew

FOXHUNTER1

If your using the cloudy apple juice and yeast do you still need sugar or not?

oblivious

FOXHUNTER1 wrote: »

If your using the cloudy apple juice and yeast do you still need sugar or not?

standard apple juice fermented out will produce a cider of around 6% ish, for me that's enough but you may want to boost alcohol content with sugar

FOXHUNTER1

6% would be more than enough as I don't drink a whole lot anyway
I just like the process of making the stuff.

oblivious

FOXHUNTER1 wrote: »

6% would be more than enough as I don't drink a whole lot anyway
I just like the process of making the stuff.

Have fun and enjoy

HMD

Lidl are selling apple juice for 64c/ltr. I've used the cloudy stuff and it worked grand. Would this juice be ok?

http://www.lidl.ie/ie/home.nsf/pages/c.o.Half_Price_Weekend.Half_Price_Weekend

oblivious

HMD wrote: »

Lidl are selling apple juice for 64c/ltr. I've used the cloudy stuff and it worked grand. Would this juice be ok?

http://www.lidl.ie/ie/home.nsf/pages/c.o.Half_Price_Weekend.Half_Price_Weekend

As long as it’s just juice, then yea

loyatemu

that stuff on special offer in Lidl is not pure juice - its 50% juice with water and sugar.

The "pressed cloudy apple juice" they sell is much better - I used it to top up my own pressed apples for cider and it came out very nice.

stimpson

Lidl had a problem with a supplier so they have packs of 5x125 ml of apple juice on special instead. Works out at 68c per litre. It's 100% juice from concentrate. No added sugar and it's clear, not cloudy. Picked up 20 litres for 15 quid this morning and it tastes pretty good. Never brewed Turbo Cider before. Should be fun.

Degsy

stimpson wrote: »

Lidl had a problem with a supplier so they have packs of 5x125 ml of apple juice on special instead. Works out at 68c per litre. It's 100% juice from concentrate. No added sugar and it's clear, not cloudy. Picked up 20 litres for 15 quid this morning and it tastes pretty good. Never brewed Turbo Cider before. Should be fun.

Go for it..i shall be buying a few gallons of that myself later...might add some grape juice as well to see what happens.

stimpson

Degsy wrote: »

Go for it..i shall be buying a few gallons of that myself later...might add some grape juice as well to see what happens.

You may be out of luck. I think they were only half price on Saturday and Sunday. I'm sorry I didn't get more tbh.

stimpson

Heads up Turbo Cider fans - Tescos have Princes Juice at 1/2 price (87c/litre) until 22 March. Reading some of the UK brew forums, it seems that it's a particularly good juice for brewing. Apart from Apple, they also have Apple and Pear, Grape and a load of citruses.

mrtickel

I have used the lidl stuff and the cider i made it to be 8% i have in the bottle 7 months and it tastes good now

Henno30

Has anyone here had a go at brewing that warm German cider?

Tasted it for the first time there before Christmas and since it's not that widely available here I thought I'd have a go at it for the craic. Doesn't look overly complex and everyone should try to brew something at some stage in their lives.

Any advice for a first time cider brewer?

stimpson

Henno30 wrote: »

Has anyone here had a go at brewing that warm German cider?

Tasted it for the first time there before Christmas and since it's not that widely available here I thought I'd have a go at it for the craic. Doesn't look overly complex and everyone should try to brew something at some stage in their lives.

Any advice for a first time cider brewer?

The best advice I can give you is to make sure anything that touches your cider is sanitised. Bacteria getting into your brew can give off flavours.

Cider is about as easy as it gets. I use demijohns which hold a gallon. In reality you can use coke bottles, water cooler bottles or whatever you can lay your hands on. The easiest recipe I've seen is to get a gallon bottle of juice - open it and add yeast then close. Loosen the cap one a day to allow co2 to escape. When no more co2 is present you're good to go.

The recipe I use is
3.5 litres of juice
1 cup of very strong tea (3 teabags)
Juice of half a lemon
200g of honey (increases potency)
1 pkt champagne yeast

Dissolve the honey in some of the juice by warming it in a pot. Allow to cool to room temp. Add to your sanatised demijohn along with all the other ingredients. Give it a vigarous shake. Put airlock on with a little vodka in the lock. Leave somewhere at room temp. After a day or two the fermentation will slow down a bit and you can fill up to the neck of the demijohn with juice.


Give it about a week and then siphon off into a new sanitised demijohn. Airlock back on. Wait 2 weeks and bottle. If you want fizzy cider you need to add sugar at this stage. 250 ml of juice per gallon does the trick for me. Stphon into sanitised bottles and leave to carbonate for about a week. Test a bottle after a week. If it's fizzy enough put all your bottles somewhere cold to stop fermentation and to condition. Give at least 3 weeks to condition. Longer if you can.

There will be sediment at the bottom of the bottle so pour in one smooth motion and stop when you see the sediment starting to move. You should aim to leave about half an inch in the bottom of the bottle.

philstar

loyatemu wrote: »

that stuff on special offer in Lidl is not pure juice - its 50% juice with water and sugar.

The "pressed cloudy apple juice" they sell is much better - I used it to top up my own pressed apples for cider and it came out very nice.

+1 on that


> this a great video on cider making

harr

guildofevil wrote: »

There's nothing to it. Any idiot can brew

Jesus i am just after tasting the batch of home made cider i made following the instructions in this video and it tastes rough there is alcohol in it and that is for sure,but it tastes so bad it is undrinkable.
i can Imagen ending up in A&E if i drank the lot of it,where did i go wrong??i was looking forward to drinking some cider i had made myself but i think i am going to have to bin it in case i come home from the pub drunk and think its tastes great.I am only after drinking quarter of a glass and my stomach is roaring at me:(

BeerNut

harr wrote: »

where did i go wrong?

How old is it? Cider needs at least three months to settle and is best after six.

stimpson

I find turbo cider made with cartons of juice to be perfectly drinkable within a month of bottling. It tends to be very dry, but not what I'd call rough.

harr

BeerNut wrote: »

How old is it? Cider needs at least three months to settle and is best after six.

its made about 17 weeks i only took it out to have a taste,should i leave it another few weeks or just bin it? there is a lot brown gunk at the bottom of the jar?

BeerNut

harr wrote: »

there is a lot brown gunk at the bottom of the jar?

Yes, that's yeast. That's supposed to be there. I'd be inclined to leave it -- it may get better. You can try backsweetening it with apple juice, mulling it, making gravy with it: that sort of thing.

Can I ask how you were expecting it to turn out? I mean, you weren't expecting Bulmer's, were you?

harr

BeerNut wrote: »

Yes, that's yeast. That's supposed to be there. I'd be inclined to leave it -- it may get better. You can try backsweetening it with apple juice, mulling it, making gravy with it: that sort of thing.

Can I ask how you were expecting it to turn out? I mean, you weren't expecting Bulmer's, were you?

thanks for the tips, will try back sweetening it,no was not expecting bulmers but would have liked for it to taste a little bit like cider or apple juice even. but all i could taste was a bitter alcohol taste.what volume of alcohol would be in the likes of this or does it vary a lot depending on yeast and if sugar was added.

BeerNut

From Lidl cloudy apple juice I've got ~5.5% ABV. Did you put anything in for body: tea, grated apple, raisins or the like? Apple juice is really just water and sugar so the yeast will gobble that up and not leave much else.

When you say you expected it to taste like cider, what do you mean? Double LL, Aspall's?

mrtickel

I must try another bottle of the cider i made its in the bottle 8 months now and at the start it tasted rank but i tasted a bottle after 6 months and it wasnt to bad and it had started to clear.
I will try a bottle 2day and see how its getting on.

harr

BeerNut wrote: »

From Lidl cloudy apple juice I've got ~5.5% ABV. Did you put anything in for body: tea, grated apple, raisins or the like? Apple juice is really just water and sugar so the yeast will gobble that up and not leave much else.

When you say you expected it to taste like cider, what do you mean? Double LL, Aspall's?

no noting in it only apple juice and the yeast, don't know the brands double LL or aspalls.i was hoping for it to taste of apple juice well that's cider is after all is alcoholic apple juice or am i wrong? I normally drink bulmers when i am out but i was not expecting to get bulmers out of 4 cartons of apple juice and some yeast:rolleyes:.when i am in the south of England i love to drink some real scrumpy but that is very hard to source in Ireland,could anybody tell me if scrumpy is available in Ireland or what could i get in a good off licence.

BeerNut

Kid Charlemagne wrote: »

Maybe im picking you up wrong, but this plus your bulmers line gives me the impression that you think your somehow better than the chap and are some sort of snob, n hes a plank. Real condescending vibe. Unnescessary.

And unintended. I'm trying to help figure out why the cider isn't satisfactory, with the possibility of suggesting how to improve it. I've already offered advice on what to do with it that doesn't involve throwing it down the sink.

Kid Charlemagne wrote: »

It was quite clear what he meant to everyone else.

You mean all the people who have offered him no assistance whatsoever? Good stuff, well I hope their advice is at least as beneficial as mine. When it's posted. If it's posted.

harr wrote: »

no noting in it only apple juice and the yeast

I think what you have there is a first draft. If you can pick out what you don't like about it: not appley enough, not sweet enough, not fizzy enough, too fizzy, any off flavours, then there are different things you can do to fix this.

harr wrote: »

that's cider is after all is alcoholic apple juice

Not really, it's not like adding grain spirit to juice. Yeast eat sugar, so cider is going to be much drier than apple juice and thinner of body. You can add tannins (from tea or fruit) to bulk up the body which in turn should bring out more apple flavour, and there are ways of sweetening it which the yeast won't simply chomp through like it chomped through the sugar in the apple juice. And yes you can't expect something as good as a properly made commercial cider because you're not using proper apples or the ideal yeast, but it is possible to make drinkable results.

harr wrote: »

:rolleyes:.when i am in the south of England i love to drink some real scrumpy but that is very hard to source in Ireland,could anybody tell me if scrumpy is available in Ireland or what could i get in a good off licence.

The better off licences often have the like of Old Rosie or other English cider and scrumpies. I don't know where you are, but the like of Redmonds of Ranelagh, Abbots Ale House in Cork or the Wine Centre in Kilkenny would be worth checking if they're any way convenient.

My best advice would be to let it sit and condition some more. Time will smooth out the harshness and hopefully give you more of an apple flavour. If you fancy trying again, try adding a cup of strong tea to the juice. One thing to consider might be your sanitation regime: it's possible it tastes bad because it got infected. How did you sanitise the jar?

harr

Thanks,i am going to leave it for another few months but i am going to start a new batch tomorrow and try a few of your tips.i used milton to sanitise everything.what yeast is best to use? and should i add sugar to it?

BeerNut

harr wrote: »

i used milton to sanitise everything.

that should be OK as long as you rinsed everything after.

harr wrote: »

what yeast is best to use?

I've had good results with Young's Cider Yeast.

harr wrote: »

and should i add sugar to it?

That'll just make it stronger. One thing I tried to make it sweeter was, when priming the bottles I added the usual priming sugar plus half as much again of Splenda. Splenda is a natural sugar but the yeast can't digest it so it keeps the cider sweet. Another thing to try.

fryup

after a hard days slog in the garden today, I quenched my thirst by having a drink of homebrew that i bottled back in december......ahhh delicious

stimpson

How do you resist the temptation for so long? I decided the only way I'll be able to age mine is by increasing production beyond what I can drink. So after bottling 3 gallons last night I immediately put on a new 5 gallon brew. I also dropped into Superquinn as they have Fruice on Buy one get one free. 50 liters for 34 quid. I think the offer ends tomorrow so be quick if you want to pick some up!

One thing I noticed is that my last batch tastes more appley than my first attempts. I put it down to using a mixture of 3 different brands of juice.

tony 2 tone

Am trying me hand at this home brew stuff, have started some "turbo" cider and need some advice about how long to leave it. I take it as the longer the better.
I have 5 litres of juice in a demi with a packet of cider yeast and a yeast nutrient. Will the nutient shorten the fermenting time at all? Its only been five days so far but the bubbles seem to have stopped.
Or will I just go by the 1-2-3 method (that I read here) don't have a secondary container though.
It smells savage, I would nearly drink it now!

stimpson

If you haven't added sugar (ie it's just juice) then it's probably done fermenting. The only way to tell for sure is to check the gravity with a hydrometer. When you get the same reading 2 or 3 days in a row then you're done fermenting and can bottle. You can also calculate your alcohol content.

If you're not sure then I'd leave it a couple more days. I have a 5 gallon batch on the go about 2 weeks now and it's still bubbling away (although I did add nearly 2 kilos of golden syrup!)

Having a second demijohn isn't strictly necessary, but it makes it easier to leave the yeast behind when you are bottling. If you're not fussy about that and are happy to drink it flat then you don't even need to bottle - you can serve straight from the fermenter.

tony 2 tone

Thanks for that. I didn't add any extra sugar, first brew, will experiment with future attempts. On closer inspection it is still bubbling, so will have to be patient.
Have four 750ml swing top bottles, and a 1L one that I will use to bottle and stick the remainder in plastic coke bottles and hope for the best!

GY A1

Degsy wrote: »

Go for it..i shall be buying a few gallons of that myself later...might add some grape juice as well to see what happens.

made a batch of turbo cider using apple and grape juice from liddle and bottled 2 weeks ago,
added
12 ltrs apple juice
6 ltrs grap juice
300 grams sugar in 1 ltr water
cup strong tea
cider yeast
wrote down sg and fg but cant remember off hand,
tried a bottle this evening and its carbonated nicely but kinda dry,
has a fairly sour ish after taste but drinkable
i suppose this after taste is from the grape juice,
anyone else tried a apple/ grape mixture

hardCopy

stimpson wrote: »

If you haven't added sugar (ie it's just juice) then it's probably done fermenting. The only way to tell for sure is to check the gravity with a hydrometer. When you get the same reading 2 or 3 days in a row then you're done fermenting and can bottle. You can also calculate your alcohol content.

If you're not sure then I'd leave it a couple more days. I have a 5 gallon batch on the go about 2 weeks now and it's still bubbling away (although I did add nearly 2 kilos of golden syrup!)

Having a second demijohn isn't strictly necessary, but it makes it easier to leave the yeast behind when you are bottling. If you're not fussy about that and are happy to drink it flat then you don't even need to bottle - you can serve straight from the fermenter.

Any particular reason for using golden syrup over regular sugar? Does it contain unfermentable sugars?

stimpson

GY A1 wrote: »

made a batch of turbo cider using apple and grape juice from liddle and bottled 2 weeks ago,
added
12 ltrs apple juice
6 ltrs grap juice
300 grams sugar in 1 ltr water
cup strong tea
cider yeast
wrote down sg and fg but cant remember off hand,
tried a bottle this evening and its carbonated nicely but kinda dry,
has a fairly sour ish after taste but drinkable
i suppose this after taste is from the grape juice,
anyone else tried a apple/ grape mixture

I did a gallon of 50/50 apple and grape with 200g sugar. Finished at 8.1%. Opened one the other night and it was pretty good. I do like my cider dry though. I got some wine tanin today so it will be good to see how it effects the flavour. I was advised to use Malic acid instead of lemon juice as it's meant to be more "appley". Will get some soon and try it out. Also glycerine is meant to improve mouthfeel so I'll try some of that too.

stimpson

hardCopy wrote: »

Any particular reason for using golden syrup over regular sugar? Does it contain unfermentable sugars?

It was on sale in Aldi after pancake Tuesday

_blank_

I want to try my hand at something "different".

The mrs likes Kopparberg Strawberry & Lime, and I happen to have some home grown strawberries that I was going to use to make jam, but I'm thinking I'll try to flavour some cider with them.

I'm going to use Lidl Apple juice, and make perhaps 5 litres of cider to start off, and maybe tweak in later recipes.

How much lime juice would I need to impart a discernible flavour?

I'm going to try and make a strawberry syrup by boiling them in sugar and water and straining them to give me something to add to the cider at priming time.

Would I still need the tea in there?

Degsy

Des wrote: »

I want to try my hand at something "different".

The mrs likes Kopparberg Strawberry & Lime, and I happen to have some home grown strawberries that I was going to use to make jam, but I'm thinking I'll try to flavour some cider with them.

I'm going to use Lidl Apple juice, and make perhaps 5 litres of cider to start off, and maybe tweak in later recipes.

How much lime juice would I need to impart a discernible flavour?

I'm going to try and make a strawberry syrup by boiling them in sugar and water and straining them to give me something to add to the cider at priming time.



Would I still need the tea in there?

The thing is that strawberry juice and lime juice will ferment out dry as a bone if you put them in at the primary phase..i did the same with blaccurrants and although it turned the cider a different colour it hardly affected teh flavour..the same with strawberries.

Best thing to do is make a basic turbo cider and add your starwberry syrup or lime juice into a secondary vessel for a while before you bottle...also it will help if you sweeten with Splenda or something similar as the secondary fermentation will use up most of the sweetness in the sugar and give you a very dry drink.