Turbo Cider - a question or 2

dasdog

howamidifferent wrote: »

Yeah, I was thinking they might not be great at so cheap a price.
Unless you went for the Muntons Gold @ €30 for the kit...

Got one of these to see what they are like and threw in a couple of litres of apple juice to bring it up to ~20L. Maybe its because I primed with light spray malt and its only 2 weeks in the bottle but it looks like a Weissbier and retains a head. Bit sweet and underwhelming. I've had much better results with juice.

Clear ALDI pressed juice with wine yeast/nutrient has been my favourite so far. Lots of ice required when drinking but seriously crisp and quite strong.

SouthTippBass

Currently brewing my first batch of Turbo cider, a demijohn full. I'm after jumping into this head first so need a little help! I made this batch with demerara brown sugar, do I need to use the same type of sugar when bottling? How much sugar when bottling? Does it even matter what type of sugar you use? Any help appreciated!

Khannie

You can prime with whatever you like. Personally I prefer to use apple juice, but 4-5g of sugar per half litre (8-10g per litre) will get you a nice fizz.

Devi

Had a taste of my first lidl cloudy apple juice turbo last night, wow could not believe how nice it was. Missus liked it as well which doesn’t happen very often. Sorry I didn’t do a full 20l batch now. Did you every perfect your Kopparberg fruit mix cider Khannie? Love to give that a go next.

Khannie

I think I have it more or less perfected alright. I have 30L of it conditioning right now and another 20L in the bucket. Exactly the same steps for primary, then I siphoned off the cider to secondary and added a muslin bag with a blend of lidl frozen "fruit of the forest" berries and raspberries (with some more apple juice to help the blending, but you could easily use some of the cider instead).

If you leave the berries until the apple juice has fully fermented out, you get much more berry flavour from them. The muslin bags mad a massive difference too. Nom nom nom.

RATM

Khannie wrote: »

Ah I'd probably just toss in the extra half bag myself, but yeah, that's the ratio that I used.

Khannie, just wondering what kind of flavour this ratio gives, could you compare it to anything on the market ? And also wondering how much the berries over power the apple ? Is it just a slight hint of berries or a lot stronger than that ?

Khannie

It's similar enough to the kopparberg mixed berries just heavier (for want of a better word - there's a nice texture to it).

It does somewhat overpower the apple alright, but it's still there as a flavour so it's not a bad thing.

stuchyg

Actually just put on a brew of Khannie rocket fuel. Good tip for people is to pour the juice into the fermenter through a fine mesh sieve, you manage to catch a lot of the brown gunk that way.

SouthTippBass

I just bottled my first batch at the weekend, it was fermenting for ten days. Activity in the bubbler slowed to movement every 40 seconds. Now I'm thinking I bottled it too soon as someone said I should have waited for activity every two minutes. Any advice?

Lovely Bloke

SouthTippBass wrote: »

I just bottled my first batch at the weekend, it was fermenting for ten days. Activity in the bubbler slowed to movement every 40 seconds. Now I'm thinking I bottled it too soon as someone said I should have waited for activity every two minutes. Any advice?

Stand a safe distance from your bottles :pac:

How much primer did you put in at bottling time (sugars and/or juice)? Anything in and around the 5-7grams per 500ml and you should be fine.

It probably won't be as strong a brew as it could have been though.

Best advice you could get here is to go and get a Hydrometer, to measure the activity in the Fermenter - when the activity stops, then you bottle.

SouthTippBass

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

Stand a safe distance from your bottles :pac:

How much primer did you put in at bottling time (sugars and/or juice)? Anything in and around the 5-7grams per 500ml and you should be fine.

It probably won't be as strong a brew as it could have been though.

Best advice you could get here is to go and get a Hydrometer, to measure the activity in the Fermenter - when the activity stops, then you bottle.

Oh sh*t, you serious? I left the bottles in a box out in my parents house, hope to god they dont explode so! I put in a level teaspoon of sugar into each 500ml bottle, is this batch fooked?

I'm still a noob with this home-brew craic, live and learn I guess...

evolving_doors

SouthTippBass wrote: »

Oh sh*t, you serious? I left the bottles in a box out in my parents house, hope to god they dont explode so! I put in a level teaspoon of sugar into each 500ml bottle, is this batch fooked?

I'm still a noob with this home-brew craic, live and learn I guess...

Level teaspoon ! Reckon a flip top could take two heaped no bother..keep temp below 18 though! And in a refuse sack, just in case

SouthTippBass

Armelodie wrote: »

Level teaspoon ! Reckon a flip top could take two heaped no bother..keep temp below 18 though! And in a refuse sack, just in case

I had the bottles capped with one of these....
http://www.homebrew.ie/emily-capper-boxed-710-p.asp

Seemed fairly secure, I though so anyway. I dont have anyway to monitor their temperature, I just have them left in the sitting room drinks cabinet. So they will just stay at room temperature I guess.

They're in a plastic bag placed in a box, so if the worst happens it will minimize the mess.

Getting nervous now, I feel like I'v left a ticking time bomb in my parents sitting room! :eek:

Lovely Bloke

One teaspoon should be grand, I would say they 99% won't explode

Super-Rush

I'm just about to start my brew and was wondering what temperature i should be looking for to get a successful brew. The room i'm planning on using is currently reading 17.5 degrees.

Khannie

Be grand. Cider's not so fussy for temperature. Good luck!

Super-Rush

Cheers Khan.

Has it been two weeks already?

RATM

Khannie wrote: »

It's similar enough to the kopparberg mixed berries just heavier (for want of a better word - there's a nice texture to it).

It does somewhat overpower the apple alright, but it's still there as a flavour so it's not a bad thing.

Thanks for that. Reckon I'm going to get my brew of berry cider on tomorrow, I'm about to go down to Lidl to get the ingredients.

Just wondering about when to add the berry mix in a muslim- I don't have a secondary so the whole brew is in a primary. I'm not looking to achieve a really strong berry flavour, I still want to taste the apple cider and have a hint of berries. So should I use less of the berry mixture or should I use the full does (3 bags Fruit of the Forest blended with juice) but put it in later during the 2 week primary fermentation ? Or both ?

Lovely Bloke

RATM wrote: »

Just wondering about when to add the berry mix in a muslim

Ask her nicely first tbh

Khannie

I would use fewer berries in that case. Wait for the cider to finish brewing before adding the berries though.

RATM

So as I'm planning on leaving the brew in primary for 2 weeks would you say 3 days with the berries in the mixture is sufficient? (after fermentation has finished of course). I was thinking of just using one of the 750g bags of Fruit of the Forest from Lidl

Just for anyone else about to try this recipe Sunmaid Raisins do not seem to be available in Lidl, Aldi, Tesco or Dunnes. I went to all four and all of them have their own brand raisins with vegetable oil listed in the ingredients- not good I believe. The only place I could find them was Superquinn at 3.39 a pack. I hope that will save someone the running around I had to do to find them !

blueshed

RATM wrote: »

So as I'm planning on leaving the brew in primary for 2 weeks would you say 3 days with the berries in the mixture is sufficient? (after fermentation has finished of course). I was thinking of just using one of the 750g bags of Fruit of the Forest from Lidl

Just for anyone else about to try this recipe Sunmaid Raisins do not seem to be available in Lidl, Aldi, Tesco or Dunnes. I went to all four and all of them have their own brand raisins with vegetable oil listed in the ingredients- not good I believe. The only place I could find them was Superquinn at 3.39 a pack. I hope that will save someone the running around I had to do to find them !

only place I found the sunmaid raisins was in Tesco Maynooth.

matrim

I was able to find the sunmaid in tesco but they were a little bit off from the normal raisins. Instead of being a big bag, it was a bag with individual single serving boxes of raisins.

Super-Rush

Should I be seeing some sort of action by now?

Khannie

Super-Rush wrote: »

Should I be seeing some sort of action by now?

Yeah, you should be seeing something alright. Have you a bubbler / airlock thingy?

matrim wrote: »

I was able to find the sunmaid in tesco but they were a little bit off from the normal raisins. Instead of being a big bag, it was a bag with individual single serving boxes of raisins.

:eek: They are shockingly expensive in those little boxes (great for kids though). You can wash the oil off the other ones in a pinch. I've done it a few times. The sunmaid raisins boxes are worth getting though. I expected them to be more expensive, but they turned out cheaper per KG than supervalu own brand.

RATM wrote: »

So as I'm planning on leaving the brew in primary for 2 weeks would you say 3 days with the berries in the mixture is sufficient?

I always leave it a week myself. Current one has been in secondary for 10 days.

Super-Rush

Khannie wrote: »

Yeah, you should be seeing something alright. Have you a bubbler / airlock thingy?

Yep, everything is secure.

Have checked it again just now and I'm not seeing any movement.

Super-Rush

Day three and no bubbles.

matrim

Took a gravity reading on mine tonight.

The original gravity was 1.046. Gravity now is 1.000. So looks like about 6.3%

I plan to bottle tomorrow evening. I'll be looking at using dextrose to prime, do you still need splenda to sweeten it up.

I've about 10L of cider so was looking at about 60g dextrose. How much splenda would people recommend?

BeerNut

Super-Rush wrote: »

Day three and no bubbles.

No bubbles doesn't mean no fermentation. Is there any foam on the surface of the liquid? If not, check the gravity.

Super-Rush

BeerNut wrote: »

No bubbles doesn't mean no fermentation. Is there any foam on the surface of the liquid? If not, check the gravity.

Will i not do damage if I remove the lid?