Turbo Cider - a question or 2

Khannie

Mister Burns wrote: »

For 25Ltrs of Juice
- How much water would you use for simmering the tea bags to tar - using 4 tea bags?

I don't really measure it, but I'd say about half a litre. I wouldn't worry too much about the difference between 500ml and a litre at that point though tbh. It's a very small fraction of the total brew.

Mister Burns wrote: »

- I'm assuming about a cup full of raisins. I don't have a blending wand but can I just chop the sh1t out of the raisins before putting them into the boil?

Ah yeah, sounds good to me. One thing to note is that most raisins have vegetable oil on them to help with preservation. The sunmaid ones don't. It is possible to get the oil off the cheaper raisins by boiling them a little first, but it's a fair bit of effort. The sunmaid ones are worth paying the extra for unless you've already bought (props to beernut for that tip).

Mister Burns wrote: »

- How much Cider Yeast should I use?

One full packet should just about cover you.

Mister Burns wrote: »

- Am I reading it right that for priming in the secondary I should use 2.5 additional litres of Cloudy Apple juice and if I want bulmers sweet Cider I should add 250 Lidl tabs at this time?

You will lose about 2 litres in trub etc. You'll probably come out with 25 ish litres after you prime. For priming, I would say 2.5 litres would cover you nicely alright (that's 11g per litre of fermentable sugar if you get 25 litres total, which is on the very fizzy side - just the way I like it personally).

I would say 200 lidl tabs should cover that too. Under sweet is better than over sweet. If needs be you can throw a tab into your pint and it will dissolve, but you can't take it out if it's already dissolved.

Mister Burns wrote: »

Thanks for any help/direction you can give me.
MB

More than happy to help. I've received super direction from others on the forum so I'm happy to pass anything I can on.

giftgrub

Ok just so i'm clear on this...perhaps Khannie could throw an eye over this list to make sure I'm 100%

1. Lamp 23 litres of Lidl cloudy apple juice into the ferment bin
2. Boil 4 teabags in 500ml water with 1 cup raisins
3. Remove teabags and blitz raisins with a hand blender and add to apple juice
4. Add Yeast
5. Leave 2 weeks
6. rack off to another bin containing 2l fresh juice
7. Bottle
8. Leave 2 weeks
9. Lamp it into ya...

Where do the sweetner tabs come in again? do they go in the bottles?

howamidifferent

Put the sweetening tabs into the 2nd bucket dissolved in the 2 litres of apple juice.

Brewie

Khannie wrote: »

Depends how sweet you want it. Bulmers sweet is probably five lidl tabs or four splenda tabs per half litre. You'd need to dissolve them in the batch prime mix. The splenda tabs need heat. the lidl ones don't.

My cider is bubbling away at the moment, 6 days in now. I was scared as it took nearly 2 days for the airlock water to bubble.

I'm looking around now for as much info as I can get for bottling. In the above quote, Khannie states that the lidl ones do not need heat so I will use them. What I need clarification on is can I put the tablets into the bottles and then fill them instead of into the batch priming bin. I ask this because I do not know how sweet they will turn out so I want to divide the brew into 3 levels of sweetness. 3 tabs, 4 tabs & 5 tabs per bottle. It just seems to me to be the easiest not effective way to figure it out.

Khannie

Brewie wrote: »

What I need clarification on is can I put the tablets into the bottles and then fill them

Yes you can. After you've filled the bottles, you'll see the tablets fizz away into nothingness. It's a good idea as you say when you want to have a variety of levels. I discovered this by accident (having forgotten to add them to the batch prime mix), but used it much the same way as yourself.

eurofoxy

what are the lidl tabs you refer to? is it just sweetener for coffee/tea? but their own brand...
Does the taste differ much from either the splenda or lidl tabs?

Khannie

eurofoxy wrote: »

what are the lidl tabs you refer to? is it just sweetener for coffee/tea? but their own brand...

Yeah, it's "Cologran" or similar. 1000 tablets will set you back around 1.20 if memory serves.

eurofoxy wrote: »

Does the taste differ much from either the splenda or lidl tabs?

Splenda is better, but I don't think I could taste test the difference myself. Others definitely could.

Its two major disadvantages are cost (significantly more expensive) and slightly increased hassle.

Brewie

I had planned to prime & bottle my cider on Sunday. However due to unforeseen circumstances I won't be able to bottle it for until at least Friday. It has clearly finished fermenting (no more bubbles).
Will leaving it as it is make any difference? Will it ruin the cider?

Khannie

Wont make any difference at all. I've heard of cider being left in primary for months.

Mister Burns

So another set of rookie questions as it will be my first time racking to a secondary bucket and batch priming.

Am I right in thinking I should add the 2.5ltrs of new juice and the 200 tablets to the secondary bucket first, then syphon the Primary to this?
At this point should I stir the mixture? Gently or vigorously?
Does it need to be left to stand in the secondary for any amount of time before bottling?

Thanks again for any help
MB

joctcl

Mister Burns wrote: »

So another set of rookie questions as it will be my first time racking to a secondary bucket and batch priming.

Am I right in thinking I should add the 2.5ltrs of new juice and the 200 tablets to the secondary bucket first, then syphon the Primary to this?
At this point should I stir the mixture? Gently or vigorously?
Does it need to be left to stand in the secondary for any amount of time before bottling?

Thanks again for any help
MB

200 tablets of what?:eek:

Khannie

Mister Burns wrote: »

Am I right in thinking I should add the 2.5ltrs of new juice and the 200 tablets to the secondary bucket first, then syphon the Primary to this?

Yep. That's the way to do it alright.

Mister Burns wrote: »

At this point should I stir the mixture? Gently or vigorously?

The siphon does the stirring, usually. I've never stirred afterwards, but I don't see it doing any harm. I just wouldn't be vigorous.

Mister Burns wrote: »

Does it need to be left to stand in the secondary for any amount of time before bottling?

No, you can bottle straight away.

Good luck!

giftgrub

So if i'm making 1 gallon, as a trial. I just divide everything accordingly? by 4 or so? Alos i picked up some Youngs Super Wine Yeast compound in tesco the other day...would that make any difference?

Khannie

giftgrub wrote: »

So if i'm making 1 gallon, as a trial. I just divide everything accordingly? by 4 or so? Alos i picked up some Youngs Super Wine Yeast compound in tesco the other day...would that make any difference?

Yeah, just divide accordingly.

Not sure about the super wine yeast. I honestly don't know much about yeast but I would guess that white wine yeast is unlikely to do any damage to cider. Cider yeast is just champagne yeast as I understand it.

Mister Burns

So that's 37 bottles filled and ready for summer .......

Thanks Khannie

blueshed

42 bottles filled on Friday, primed 38 of them with approx 50ml of apple juice and the other 4 with 1.5 coopers carb drops.

should be around 9%, in the hotpress for a week then the attic for another 4 weeks and plan on drinking the May bhol.

Brewie

I bottled my first batch 18/03/2013. 25litres in total (including primer)

Tasted one bottled on Sunday night (31/03/2013). It tastes alright (certainly drinkable), next batch I will make if slightly fizzier and slightly sweeter.

Only tasted a bottle as I was waiting for the fridge to cool my beer. End of April it'll be nice!

Worked out at 5.98% according to the formula. I knew I was drinking after the 1 bottle (330ml)!!

giftgrub

Whats main differencfe with priming with fresh juice versus drops? more fizz in drops? My own fizz preference would be bulmers-esque

Khannie

It's minor. I have a slight preference for using juice, partly because you get more cider out, partly flavour. You have slightly greater control (imo) using juice too.

For bulmers level of fizz, 11g of fermentables per litre is about right. That's 1 litre of juice added to 9 litres of fermented cider.

kevc2

I started making this on the 24th of March the SG was 1053 and is currently at 999. I added 1 orange and 1 lemon to the mix, thought it would give it a kick. I also added some sugar. Is it too early to bottle it? Also I will be priming with sugar per bottle, will this make it drinkable? I don't want to leave it on too much longer as it's already going to have a big kick. Thanks

Khannie

Go for it. One more day and one more reading to be safe though.

kevc2

Khannie wrote: »

Go for it. One more day and one more reading to be safe though.

Thanks! I tasted it when I took the reading and it doesn't taste great, very sour, do you reckon it will improve after second fermentation?

Khannie

Ah yeah - and some sweetener (or it will end up overly dry, unless you like very dry cider). It usually tastes pretty filthy after primary though.

kevc2

That's great thanks, thought it had gone bad. There's a "crust" of crap on the top of it, is it recommended taking this off, letting it settle again or just bottle it and watch out that none of it goes in. I blended the raisins so I think they floated to the top.

Khannie

I usually try to get that out with a sanitised sieve. I invested in some muslin bags recently though to try and avoid it.

oldscoil

Hi Folks,

New to this thread, hoping to brew soon.

Is thi svid what you mean by Turbo Cider?

Thanks,
b

kevc2

Thanks for the help with this, it turned out really good!

22-23 litres of cider
Cider yeast
Literally a handful of raisins blended
An orange and a lemon blended
3 tea bags in one cup
I added about 300-400 grams of extra sugar to bring the SG up

Mix it all, I let the yeast settle on top for 15 minutes and then mixed it in.

When bottling I put 2 tea spoons of normal sugar in the bottle followed by half a tea spoon of sweetener.

I just cracked open a bottle after 1 weed (dying for it) and it tastes amazing! A lot of fizz after 1 week. I'm not a person to wait for the batch to improve.

It turned out at 8.2%

Feel free to ask any other questions

oldscoil

kevc2 wrote: »

Thanks for the help with this, it turned out really good!

22-23 litres of cider
Cider yeast
Literally a handful of raisins blended
An orange and a lemon blended
3 tea bags in one cup
I added about 300-400 grams of extra sugar to bring the SG up

Mix it all, I let the yeast settle on top for 15 minutes and then mixed it in.

When bottling I put 2 tea spoons of normal sugar in the bottle followed by half a tea spoon of sweetener.

I just cracked open a bottle after 1 weed (dying for it) and it tastes amazing! A lot of fizz after 1 week. I'm not a person to wait for the batch to improve.

It turned out at 8.2%

Feel free to ask any other questions

Hi Kev.

Gonna give this a crack I think, (first brew in 20 years :eek:)

When you say "22-23 litres of cider", do you mean finished product or what you put in, and do you mean apple jiuce?

Thanks in advanve.

b

kevc2

oldscoil wrote: »

Hi Kev.

Gonna give this a crack I think, (first brew in 20 years :eek:)

When you say "22-23 litres of cider", do you mean finished product or what you put in, and do you mean apple jiuce?

Thanks in advanve.

b

Yeah I had 23 litres finished product. I used the lidl cloudy apple juice. I forgot to mention that a layer of crap builds up at the top from the raisins and other stuff I added. I filtered that out with a sieve a day before bottling. My brew was only on for 11 days and I can't believe the amount of fizz after 1 week in the bottle. I'm going to leave it a couple of weeks before drinking any more.

giftgrub

Just bottled a gallon of this today. Used carb drops in the end, simply because I forgot to get any juice. I also have another gallon on the go with cheap concentrate, just to see what its like.