Cider from scratch

Copyerselveson

I have juiced about 8 litres of Bramleys from my garden and have the juice in a fermenting bin with a cider yeast since last night. Is it safe enough to add standard supermarket apple juice to the mix to bump up my yield and sweeten the bramley juice?

loyatemu

Copyerselveson wrote: »

I have juiced about 8 litres of Bramleys from my garden and have the juice in a fermenting bin with a cider yeast since last night. Is it safe enough to add standard supermarket apple juice to the mix to bump up my yield and sweeten the bramley juice?

yes - best to use "pressed" or "cloudy" apple juice rather than juice from concentrate. Lidl do a nice pressed juice for 1.39 a litre. It won't really sweeten the final product though as the sugar will all ferment out.

Khannie

As layatemu says, the sweetness will all go away because the sugar will ferment out. To add sweetness after the fact you can put in something that wont ferment. Splenda is the sweetener of choice generally. I find the lidl cologran to be just fine, but if you're sensitive to after taste from sweeteners you should go with splenda.

Copyerselveson

OK three weeks on and I have bottled my first batch. On tasting it as it stands it's quite bitter - but not bitter enough to be vinegary thankfully. I have added a spoon of sugar to each 1 litre bottle to encourage secondary fermentation and carbonation in the bottles, which are plastic bottles suitable for carbonated drinks.

How long do you folks think I should leave the cider before drinking?

Should secondary fermentation and storage change the taste of the finished product?

BeerNut

Copyerselveson wrote: »

How long do you folks think I should leave the cider before drinking?

Couple of months. I find cider is best after 6.

Copyerselveson wrote: »

Should secondary fermentation and storage change the taste of the finished product?

It will.