First Cider Brew

I've just put together my first Cider brew, from concentrate Apple juice, some Wyeast WLP775 liquid yeast and a touch of yeast nutrient. I used this video as my inspiration!

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMY9yd9aiIU[/ame]

After putting together a simple starter last night, I've decanted half of the starter into a sterilised jar to use at a later date and put the rest in an empty 5 litre water bottle, with about 4.5 litres of apple juice and nothing else. Apparently this should produce a Cider of about 4.3% abv. More than happy with that as I'm not interested in high strength Cider.

I'm hoping this will compete with the Stowford Press my Wife likes to sample!

I watched that video a few weeks ago, and looked up where to get that yeast.
Never followed it through though.

I'm just going to start with dried yeast to start with. Maybe become more adventurous later.
I'd be interested to hear if you think the yeast makes a difference

Pirate_Pete said:

I watched that video a few weeks ago, and looked up where to get that yeast.
Never followed it through though.

I'm just going to start with dried yeast to start with. Maybe become more adventurous later.
I'd be interested to hear if you think the yeast makes a difference

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I don't have any direct comparisons with other brews or yeasts, as this is my first Turbo Cider brew. What I can say is that it's fermenting away like a beast at the moment. The WLP775 is expensive (about £6 for a vial) but I can see it lasting several batches.

I'll update as things progress.

It's getting late here and I've had two or three homebrews tonight.
It wasn't until after I posted that I thought, wow no messing around.
First brew and in with the good yeast.

It's Fathers Day here tomorrow and I'm getting a 15 litre FV. So I plan on doing my first cider this week.
I bought some dried yeast off ebay though.

Great choice on the yeast, it really makes a huge difference.

Should turn out excellent.

Citizen said:

Great choice on the yeast, it really makes a huge difference.

Should turn out excellent.

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Hope so! It certainly kicked off very well. It's now settling down and it's noticeable that the sweet smell of the apple juice has toned down and there's a deeper, more savory note to it. In the video I posted it's mentioned that it smells a bit 'hot doggy' when it's fermented, so I'm assuming this is what he's talking about.

nice work chief, I'll be interested to hear how the yeast makes it turn out, I always use the dried variety

If you're using all apple juice from concentrate (around 11g of sugar per 100ml) I think your abv estimate might a bit off...

I took a hydrometer reading of just plain apple juice before I made a batch of cider and it came in at 1.045 - assuming it ferments out to 1.000 (where mine usually finish), that would get you to about 5.9%... so don't go glugging it hehe 😵View attachment uploadfromtaptalk1441557265710.jpg

Roddy said:

If you're using all apple juice from concentrate (around 11g of sugar per 100ml) I think your abv estimate might a bit off...

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Ahhh, well that serves me right for believing everything I hear on the Internet :lol: The guy who did the attached video reckoned it was around 4.something percent, so I took his word. I've checked my apple juice and indeed it is 11.2g per 100ml.

I will proceed with caution :thumb:

I guess at bottling, I could add some water to reduce the abv? Is that liable to cause issues? If so, any advice on how to calculate the dilution amounts to get a set abv?

you could add a bit of water I guess but you wouldn't want to dilute it too much... the ca 6% brew by no means comes out as rocket fuel (in my opinion!), you might be best to try it 'as is' this time and if it's too strong, add some water at the start, next time. There also a thread advocating the use of a mug of tea for adding tannins, kicking around in this forum, again maybe something to consider next time ?

Roddy said:

you could add a bit of water I guess but you wouldn't want to dilute it too much... the ca 6% brew by no means comes out as rocket fuel (in my opinion!), you might be best to try it 'as is' this time and if it's too strong, add some water at the start, next time. There also a thread advocating the use of a mug of tea for adding tannins, kicking around in this forum, again maybe something to consider next time ?

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Cheers. Probably best to test at is it comes out. It's only a small batch, so if it needs something else, I can make adjustments next time. Thanks for the info. I didn't realise it would ferment out to 1.000, so that's useful to know!

I successfully bottled this this morning. after about 3 weeks fermenting. The final Gravity reading was 1.002, so worked out at about 5.6%.

I have great hopes for this, as a small sample at bottling was very nice indeed. Just the right side of dry for me and more importantly, my Wife!

I will squirrel this away for carbonation and I'm hoping it will impress my Wife enough to be a regular.

Sounds good Halfacrem. I'm jealous. My first cider isn't going to plan. At least I don't think so.

By the way have you seen another of the blokes videos. It's quite funny, but there is a bit of swearing.
[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOyzGCZZ5Kw[/ame]

Pirate_Pete said:

Sounds good Halfacrem. I'm jealous. My first cider isn't going to plan. At least I don't think so.

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He seems to enjoy his brewing! Hope your Cider works out.

It was test night for a few brews last night, including my first cider attempt.

First off, I've never tried any kind of Turbo Cider before. I have no experience of using dry Cider Yeast or experienced the renowned Turbo Cider Twang! I like a glass of Cider every now and then and I like Aspall's, Stowford Press etc. It's my Wife who is the Cider drinker, so I had high hopes this would turn out good.

After 11 days in the Bottle, I was a little disheartened when I flipped the top of the bottle and there was no hint of a carbonation hisssssss..:nah:

I poured anyway and there wasn't much head to speak of, so I hesitantly passed a glass to my Wife and had a sip myself.

My initial disappointment was negated by a really pleasantly dry, rounded apple Cider. Good mouthfeel, just a touch of sweetness. The only thing it's lacking is a bit more carbonation, which I hope will develop over the next week or two (on closer inspection there were lots of tiny bubbles in the Cider and in all honesty it didn't seem to lack any body)

My Wife was a bit hesitant at first, but She'd just finished a glass of White Wine, so I think She needed a few sips to recalibrate the taste buds! I think She liked it, but I think I'll leave it for another week to see if the carbonation comes.

First impressions are, for a simple recipe of Apple Juice and WLP775, this might be outstanding!! Certainly on a par with a shop bought bottle:thumb:

how much sugar did you add for priming ?

Roddy said:

how much sugar did you add for priming ?

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It was only a small tester brew, so only 4 litres after loss. I batch primed with 40g of Dextrose dissolved in a little water.

I used sugar to prime mine. I use dextrose when priming beer. However as everyone on here talked about priming with sugar I presumed that was the way to go.
I put all mine in Grolsch bottles. I've just opened a beer which is a month or so in the bottle. Pretty flat, but some of the same brew are OK. I'm thinking that with
my beer I put some in swing top & some crown top. I'm wondering if some of the rubber seals on the Grolsch bottles are no good. Perhaps it's time to replace them
with the silicone ones.

Pirate_Pete said:

I used sugar to prime mine. I use dextrose when priming beer. However as everyone on here talked about priming with sugar I presumed that was the way to go.
I put all mine in Grolsch bottles. I've just opened a beer which is a month or so in the bottle. Pretty flat, but some of the same brew are OK. I'm thinking that with
my beer I put some in swing top & some crown top. I'm wondering if some of the rubber seals on the Grolsch bottles are no good. Perhaps it's time to replace them
with the silicone ones.

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As far as I'm aware, Dextrose is the same as Corn Sugar, which, I believe, is a more simple form of Sugar than table Sugar. On the calculators tab at the top of the page, there is a Priming calculator which gives conversion amounts for priming with table sugar, corn sugar and dme.

My flip tops came with silicone seals. I can't tell you how long they last as I have only just started using them. I think my sample bottle was just a bit early as there were definite signs of carbonation.

Halfacrem said:

As far as I'm aware, Dextrose is the same as Corn Sugar, which, I believe, is a more simple form of Sugar than table Sugar. On the calculators tab at the top of the page, there is a Priming calculator which gives conversion amounts for priming with table sugar, corn sugar and dme.

My flip tops came with silicone seals. I can't tell you how long they last as I have only just started using them. I think my sample bottle was just a bit early as there were definite signs of carbonation.

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If the flip tops are new I presume that's not your problem. As you say hopefully it'll carbonate better in time.

From what I've read the Yanks call Dextrose, Corn Sugar.
Whereas as Corn Starch is Maltodextrin.
But I could be wrong. I'm still trying to get my head around all this.

Pirate_Pete said:

If the flip tops are new I presume that's not your problem. As you say hopefully it'll carbonate better in time.

From what I've read the Yanks call Dextrose, Corn Sugar.
Whereas as Corn Starch is Maltodextrin.
But I could be wrong. I'm still trying to get my head around all this.

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I'll pop another one next week and do an update with a piccie!