Semi-Turbo Cider!

NickW · Jan 17, 2009

I've just realised my TC doesnt taste like it did at the start. Still a good taste - perhaps its matured?

Although its got a little "fart" smell to it

- though not taste, thank god!

BrewStew · Jan 17, 2009

:lol: that might be sulphur, especially if it's a more eggy smell. sulphurous smells are common in ciders... my bedroom stinks when i do a TC.

see what i mean about the changing flavour though?

NickW · Jan 17, 2009

Yeah I do!

The sulphourus smell - is it normal? Or does it suggest the brew is going off? My mate was taking the **** when he smelt it - albeit necking the cider all night anyway :lol:

How many TC's have you done over the years stew?

BrewStew · Jan 17, 2009

you must've had quite a few this evening to have missed;

sulphurous smells are common in ciders

:lol:

how many have i done? oh christ! ummm lemmie think

i've done 3 TC's at my new house which i've lived in 6 months
one kit cider that was ****
did 2 at my old house last year and must've done at least 4 the year before

all of those are 40 pints at least.. more commonly 25L batches though.

i'm sure i'm forgetting some but i know for a fact i've done over 400 pints of cider, 360 of those TC :thumb:

NickW · Jan 20, 2009

Well, 5 days and its down to 1.010!!

A bit further than I wanted but hey what ya gonna do..

OK, heres the tricky bit. I dont have any time / clean bottles / awakeness to bottle this drink yet! - But I dont want it to carry on fermenting!

I want it to be slightly fizzy when I come to drink it, so I'm not sure about using the stuff that kills the yeast (the name escapes me)..

What you reckonm I should do? The first and only thing that comes to mind is to put it in the outhouse in the cold to halt the fermentation? - Or perhaps a campden tablet will stunt the yeast until tomorrow?

BrewStew · Jan 20, 2009

OK, heres the tricky bit. I dont have any time / clean bottles / awakeness to bottle this drink yet! - But I dont want it to carry on fermenting!

i think you'll be needing a couple of cups of coffee

I want it to be slightly fizzy when I come to drink it, so I'm not sure about using the stuff that kills the yeast (the name escapes me)..

potassium sorbate ?

What you reckon I should do? The first and only thing that comes to mind is to put it in the outhouse in the cold to halt the fermentation? - Or perhaps a campden tablet will stunt the yeast until tomorrow?

any of those options could drop the yeast out for good.

you could stick it outside for the night, then just some flick the sediment up and get it back into suspension again before you rack tomorrow.

or you could drink some coffee and get it out of the way now, that way you wont run the risk of flat cider.... :twisted:

NickW · Jan 20, 2009

damn you brewstew.. you always get me going

ok ill have to sterilize 5 plastic bottles now... I hope too much sediment doesn't build up in the bottom of the bottles, hopefully a lot of it has settled now.

ill let you know how it goes!

I'm scared

:lol:

BrewStew · Jan 20, 2009

hangon... your moaning about sanitising FIVE plastic bottles!

fer feck sake ... get off your **** :lol:

NickW · Jan 20, 2009

:rofl:

NickW · Jan 20, 2009

just racked the brew into bottles. doesn't seem clear at all and very murky. I've got a feeling I might have rushed it!

although.. there was no other choice other than racking into bottles I don't think. didn't want to leave it in the fv much longer.

guess ill have to learn how to pour from the bottle without disturbing sediment .. although it looks like the sediment might end up being 3inches thick :lol:

BrewStew · Jan 21, 2009

give it a week to prime itself... keep squeezing the bottles to check the pressure isn't too great... when you think it's had enough stick it out in the cold and it should clear eventually.

it's probably really murky because you didn't press the pulp through muslin.

NickW · Jan 22, 2009

Just opened one of the bottles slightly to test for fizziness.. and by GOD!

The yeast from the bottom shot up to the top of the bottles and it looked like a volcano in there. Way way way way too fizzy.

I have no idea what to do with them now :lol: , I've put them outside in the outhouse.. out of sight out of mind :P

BrewStew · Jan 23, 2009

well at least they're not flat!

if you leave them under high pressure in the cold, they'll get even more carbonated :shock: so it might be an idea to leave them in the cold to drop the yeast, but let the excess gas out on a daily basis until they reach a satisfactory level.

i had a sneaking suspicion this would happen :lol: good thing i pursuaded you to use plastic bottles eh?

minalth · Jan 23, 2009

Hi
I have been trying to cold-crash my cider in the bath (it's freezing outside and I don't want to crack my demijohn). It's been 48hrs now, and I think it's been at or below 3*C the whole time, but it's still bubbling once every 9 or so seconds and I can't see any settled yeast that wasn't there before.
I waited until it was below 1.010 before putting it in the bath...

NickW · Jan 23, 2009

I'm not sure what you've done!

Leave it outside long enough and the yeast will drop out of suspension.. I'm not sure of the history of the brew so I'm not sure.

If you need any more advice wait for brewstew to sign in :lol:

minalth · Jan 23, 2009

You're right, i wasn't very clear.

I used about 4.5L sainsbury's basics apple juice (clear, 10g/100ml sugar), some lemon juice (squeezed) and a load of sugar (too much, so it's around 12% alcohol now if I worked it out right).
I pitched a whole sachet of Gervin gold label champagne yeast (good for 5 gallons), then waited 'til the SG went below 1.010 before cold crashing.

Hope that helps. It might just be that 48 hours isn't long enough then? I read 24-48, but I haven't read loads about it...

Thanks!

BrewStew · Jan 23, 2009

give it till tomorrow.. if the airlocks still not slowed then that's a super strong yeast!

you can try adding campden to stun it long enough to make it drop out of suspension so that when you rack, you leave it all behind. campden is added at a rate of one tablet per gallon for stabalising/stunning purposes.

if you really want to be sure, you can pick up potassium sorbate from your local brew shop.,.. that'll kill the yeast dead in it's tracks

of course all these methods will mean you'll have to force carbonate to give it sparkle for drinking. there will not be enough yeast for it to naturally carbonate.

minalth · Jan 23, 2009

That or the thermometer is bad, or I used it wrong.

I had assumed that there would be enough yeast left for carbonation after cold-crashing, but I can carbonate it with a pinch of yeast from the bottom as long as I don't sorbate it. I'll have to buy some campden tablets if the cold doesn't work.

Thanks BrewStew! Good luck with the fizzyness crE.

percival · Jan 24, 2009

potassium sorbate doesn't kill the yeast, but it does stop it from multiplying. i'm not sure if this is essentially a pedantic point because i don't know how long yeast lives for but bear with me a moment ...... if you don't add campden to stun it and only add sorbate then your brew will ferment until all the existing yeast is dead of natural causes/old age so to speak :grin: . don't ask me if this is long enough to carbonate your brew to a satisfactory level tho as i don't know. of course if you have a big population of yeast it will ferment much more than a small one and this may be the decisive factor in some sort of a controlled way to end fermentation and still get some carbonation. there's bound to be someone around who can guide you on how best to achieve this, or tell us if this is more of a craft/black art than a reproducible way to achieve the desired aim. All i know is that its a possibility ...... however unlikely it may seem

..... who feels like experimenting?

minalth · Jan 24, 2009

Sounds like a good idea Percival. Next time I buy from a brewing shop, I'll get some.

I just realised crE - If you are using plastic bottles, you can leave it really fizzy. Just have to turn the bottles upside down and make sure all of the yeast comes off the bottom (now top) of the bottle. When it all settles, tap it so that it ends up in the neck of the bottle, then open the lid a little to shoot the yeast out without wasting too much cider.
To make this less messy, submerge the bottle in a bowl of water - stops it from going everywhere.

If I misinterpreted and you already planned on doing that later, sorry for being pedantic. Can't remember if it was mentioned further up this thread...

Semi-Turbo Cider!

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