Brewnight: Spiced Apple WOW

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Roddy

Landlord.
Joined
Sep 6, 2014
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Location
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Evening all !

So fancied a punt at something christmassy, inspired by DW153's recent post :)

Kit
30L fermenting bucket
Large saucepan
Muslin bag
Hydrometer

Ingredients
16L Tesco AJ
1L strong tea (5 bag)
4kg tate & lyle granulated sugar
5tsp pectolase
500g raisins
5 x cinnamon sticks
8g (1/4 jar) of cloves
3 x star anise
2 heaped tsp nutmeg
Zest of 4 large oranges

Method
Gave the raisins a rinse under the tap and put in a large saucepan with a couple of litres of water. Added spices and orange zest, brought to the boil and simmered for 20 mins

Made up 1L of tea and left to stew

While that was going on, emptied 1L of AJ into FV and tipped in sugar. Added kettleful of boiling water and stired well until sugar dissolved.

Added rest of AJ, strong tea and pectolase (dissolved in a cup of warm water). Stirred well

Once pan of raisins etc simmered, I mushed them up a bit with a tattie masher and poured into the muslin bag (over a large bowl)

The strained liquid got chucked into the FV and topped up with cold tap water to 25L.

I tied up the muslin bag of spices/raisin mush and suspended in the FV with a bit of string.

Popped on 4tsp of yeast and chucked in the cupboard, sorted [emoji4]

Temp 22 deg
SG 1.090
Est ABV when fermented out to 0.990 = 13.11%

Smells nice !


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I think I might give something like this a go, 5l or so, mmmmmm Chritmassy Cider sounds like a plan.

You'll probably have people bamboozled with the term "tattie masher" :lol:
 
Forgive me if I missed it but what kind of yeast and how much? This looks killer!


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Forgive my ignorance, but I'm seeing a lot of references to "WOW" recently and I've no idea what it stands for. Help a newbie out?

On a separate note, spicy cider sounds an amazing idea. I often make mulled cider for bonfire night (two of those cheap 5l bottles of cider, bottle of spiced rum, brown sugar, mulling spices, couple of whole lemons, heat; comes out lovely), and I can see this tasting similar.
 
Took an SG reading tonight and it's pretty much at 0.990 It's an interesting taste, quite fiery !

Will intend to rack into a carboy (onto crushed Camden tabs), stabilise and degass on Friday night.

After a few days I'll add finings and a few days after that it should be clear and good to bottle

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Ok so finings went in on Tuesday night and it's still a bit on the hazy side [emoji53]

Will probably repeat Kwik Clear treatment tomorrow if still not crystal

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Second lot of finings went in a week ago and it's clearing super slowly, maybe 1/5 from the top so far, but moving down gradually....

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Ok so it seemed crystal when I bottled it but chills to a very hazy thing

Taste... hmm if the missus didn't think it was OK 'but with a slightly odd taste' I would probably consider jettisoning it.

I think I maybe overdid the spicing a little, although it seemed reasonable at the time, and in line with what I've used in turbo ciders before.

Juice content at 16L for 23 finished product is more than I'll usually use (it's usually 50/50 juice to water), so it could also be that.

One not to make again !

Mrs will drink it though so all is not lost [emoji23]


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