How to make Turbo Cider.

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I know someone who makes TC with Ribena. How would I change the Recipe?
I thought that Ribena had preservatives in it and was problematic when trying to ferment it.
I've never used it but I recall there being comments on here about it. Are there two versions of Ribena available in the UK or something.
I vaguely remember something like that.

I seem to recall Chippy Tea mentioning it.

You'll have to let us know what your friend's recipe was before anyone can help you change it.
What were you after?
 
I thought that Ribena had preservatives in it and was problematic when trying to ferment it.
I vaguely remember something like that.
I seem to recall Chippy Tea mentioning it.


You are right Pete i made wine with ribena and as instructed boiled it for 15 minutes to get rid of the preservative it didn't work and stopped short and was so sweet it was undrinkable i never again used anything with preservative so i would advise members not to use juice containing preservative.
 
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I'm no chemist but I'd imagine ud have to dilute it to the point where the metasulphite was ineffective and use sugar to get the abv and back sweeten with Ribena at the end of fermentation. Maybe that's how he gets away with it with cider but not wine.
 
A member once gave me some great advice about ribena and other juices with preservative in them and that was "The best place for those juices is on the supermarket shelf" he wasn't wrong. wink...
 
I tried making a Vimto cider with yeast from Wilko. Boiled the Vimto for 15 mins as I think I had read somewhere that... Anyway, I have to say it was absolutely disgusting and chucked it.
 
I've done several TC with ribena strawberry and blackcurrant, boiled them for 10-15 minutes and never had a problem with fermentation i use an ale yeast. Brewmaster Ben has a video on YouTube making strawberry cider I just followed that.
 
Maybe cider isn't effected as much by the preservative as it doesn't ferment as long and if its sweet it's kind of normal but when making wine it definitely is.
 
I've done several TC with ribena strawberry and blackcurrant, boiled them for 10-15 minutes and never had a problem with fermentation i use an ale yeast. Brewmaster Ben has a video on YouTube making strawberry cider I just followed that.

How much apple juice & how much Ribena?
I wonder if the Ribena was diluted enough for it to ferment.

4 or 5 years ago I put a couple of litres of AJ & something raspberry (Could have been Ribena, I can't remember) into a demijohn and added yeast.
Nothing happened. Added more yeast, still nothing. Left it and several days later it had started to ferment.
It fermented out and I bottled it. Tasted bloody awful, so I chucked it.

I recently boiled some lemon cordial for 20 minutes. Added 1.5 litres to 8 litres AJ. That fermented out OK.
I only bottled it on Sunday, so not sure what it'll be like yet.

I've done several TC with ribena strawberry and blackcurrant, boiled them for 10-15 minutes and never had a problem with fermentation i use an ale yeast. Brewmaster Ben has a video on YouTube making strawberry cider I just followed that.
This one I presume.
 
I’ve got all the basic things I need. Just waiting on the yeast and the yeast nutrient, will
let you guys know how it goes acheers.
 
How much apple juice & how much Ribena?
I wonder if the Ribena was diluted enough for it to ferment.

4 or 5 years ago I put a couple of litres of AJ & something raspberry (Could have been Ribena, I can't remember) into a demijohn and added yeast.
Nothing happened. Added more yeast, still nothing. Left it and several days later it had started to ferment.
It fermented out and I bottled it. Tasted bloody awful, so I chucked it.

I recently boiled some lemon cordial for 20 minutes. Added 1.5 litres to 8 litres AJ. That fermented out OK.
I only bottled it on Sunday, so not sure what it'll be like yet.


This one I presume.

Yes that's the one turned out nice for me.
 
I ran a search to see what preservatives are in Ribena, and the two main culprits are (Potassium Sorbate, Sodium Bisulphite),
1,Sodium Bisulphite, This sulphur gas permeates the liquid it was added to and then eventually dissipates into the air over the coarse of several hours. The sulphur gases that are released from the Sodium Bisulphite act as a sanitizer, killing wild moulds, bacteria, germs and other unwanted little nasties.
2, Potassium Sorbate, It is a preservative that stops yeast from reproducing, and prevents any renewed fermentations from other yeasts or bacteria. Potassium sorbate is added to many products, like grape juice to prevent spoiling. If you add the potassium sorbate at the beginning, you are preventing any fermentation from starting.

This is my opinion based on what I've read on different sites and my experience.
Once you've boiled the Ribena the Sodium Bisulphite shouldn't be a problem as you hopefully have boiled off the sulphites.
The Potassium Sorbate is a different matter, I added stabiliser to my wine in error and stood for 2 days before I realised what I had done, Potassium Sorbate stops the yeast cells from reproducing ,so there lies the solution , start by creating x2 yeast starters with a bit of grape juice and some yeast nutrient and x2 spoonfuls of sugar and add some water , cover loosely and leave one for 24 hours and one for 48 hours, you should by then have two good cultures multiplying happily , once added they should kick start the fermenting process, if the wine taste too sweet at the end add another starter to get it going again, that said I agree with chippy "The best place for those juices is on the supermarket shelf"
 
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Decided to give this a go, new to brewing. When i took SG of the liquid prior to fermentation starting it was 1.038, so if I get that down to 0.999 before bottling it works out just over 5% abv, does this all sound right? I am using EC1118 with nutrient instead of the yeast in the recipe. Thanks for any help.
 
Historically made still, dry cidre from windfalls and pears start by adding enough sugar to get an SG around 1.060 (Not a season cidre) and ferment until sugar exhausted around 1.000. At bottling I add Xylitol to sweeten. Sadly I'm the only one who likes it so need to sweeten further & add bubbles. I've got 45l ready to bottle now but need to make it more palatable / acceptable to the wife!! Any suggestions?
 
Historically made still, dry cidre from windfalls and pears start by adding enough sugar to get an SG around 1.060 (Not a season cidre) and ferment until sugar exhausted around 1.000. At bottling I add Xylitol to sweeten. Sadly I'm the only one who likes it so need to sweeten further & add bubbles. I've got 45l ready to bottle now but need to make it more palatable / acceptable to the wife!! Any suggestions?
Use yeast stopper and sweeten with sugar. Then keg and force carbonate
 
My first brew of cider - of anything, actually - is now on the go!
I am just doing a tester 5L to start with while I await delivery of my siphon kit, proper yeast and hydrometer. Interested to see what ( if anything) comes out.
 
I started my TC off 5days ago, it had an SG of 1.038, I've kept it around 20°C the whole time and just taken its SG again and already its at 1.004 so surely not far off done. In 5 days lol. Is this because I used EC1118 yeast instead of the yeast in the recipe do you think?
 

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