Pirate Pete's Turbo Cider...

... it'll leave you legless, arrgghh.

I actually started this on Friday before I read Roddy's thread where he warmed some of the the juice, and didn't have to post it then.
I've been reading a bit on the forum and decided on this recipe.

9.6 Litres Berri Apple Juice
125g raw sugar disolved in 250 ml water
Tannin - The juice from 4 tea bags in 500 ml water
Pectolase - 2.5 tsp
Mad Millie Cider Yeast - 4.5 grams
Yeast Nutrient
SG 1046

This is the juice I used http://shop.coles.com.au/online/national/berri-favourites-juice-apple
Yeast packet said it enough for 23 litres so I presume half a packet would be OK.

The problem I have is I'm not sure if it's fermenting. I thought it was but not so sure now. It's in a 15 litre FV with an airlock. No bubbles are coming out of the airlock, but that could be because the seal isn't tight on the lid. I have it in the garage with a heat belt around it. The heatbelt is connected to an STC 1000 set at 22C, but the sensor is taped to an FV next to it.

I'm beginning to wonder, am I using the wrong juice?
Not enough yeast?
Should the ferment be vigorous / obvious?
I'm thinking about buying more apple juice and starting the rest of the packet of yeast.

* When I first looked at this, this morning I tightened the lid up. When I just went out to take the pics it looks like the level of the fluid in the airlock has moved.
I was expecting a vigorous ferment. Also I'm not totally convinced there a great seal around the airlock & grommet. The two airlocks I have seem to have quite a burr
where the tow halves are molded together. I might try and get a new one.

Nice set up.

Chippy_Tea said:

Nice set up.

Click to expand...

Thanks Mate. My beer fridge/fermenter is just to one side of that.
That beer brewing is just a cheap brew to drink while the better stuff
is being brewed in the fridge.

You could put some petroleum jelly around the base of the seal to the bubbler.
Also maybe around the lid. That should make it air tight and give you a better idea. You should probably see evidence of a crown by now though.

Last time I did a cider this way, after two days I had foam and brown froth in the airlock. You certainly should be seeing some sort of activity by now.

I have hardly any froth on mine, did for about a day....

day 4
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9214IswqPyMTzZRZmNNY080Z1k/view?usp=docslist_api

it's turning over nicely, vid is pretty **** but you can just about make out some cloves floating around at the end
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9214IswqPyMS194V1VNZlQ3ajQ/view?usp=docslist_api

Roddy said:

I have hardly any froth on mine, did for about a day....

day 4
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9214IswqPyMTzZRZmNNY080Z1k/view?usp=docslist_api

it's turning over nicely, vid is pretty **** but you can just about make out some cloves floating around at the end
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B9214IswqPyMS194V1VNZlQ3ajQ/view?usp=docslist_api

Click to expand...

Mmmm, thinking about it I might have used the whole packet of yeast for 6 litres....

Thanks everyone. I did buy some more juice on the way home in case i need to get it started again with the other half of the yeast.
Just checked it now. There's definitely quite a burr around the airlock. Pretty useless really.
I don't think petroleum jelly is any good for sealing as it breaks down the rubber grommet and seal in the lid.
I was told vegetable oil was supposed to be smeared on the rubber seal inside the lid.

I'll leave it a couple of days and see what happens. Although I'm sorely tempted to get it going with more juice & yeast.
I might try and drop into the health food store where I buy my homebrew stuff and see if the airlocks he has are better.

I vaguely remember using glass airlocks when I made wine 30 odd years ago. I suppose they're unheard of these days.


** So yesterday I went and got a new airlock. The one I had was the S bend type. This one is three part. The bit that goes through the grommet is as smooth as.
I dismissed the idea of putting petroleum jelly around the grommet pretty quickly. However thinking it about those grommets are pretty cheap so it might be
worth it for this. I was thinking of using Lucas' Papaw, but was surprised to find that that contains petroleum.
I usually use a silicone gel on rubber seals, but in this case it really has to be food friendly.

But today there still doesn't seem to be much activity. I think on Friday I might check the gravity and if it hasn't come down I might make a yeast starter before
adding it. Today I did make a start on making a box for my second STC 1000. Next project is a stir plate.

Well it seems my fears about not fermenting were unfounded.

I've just checked the gravity and it's about 996.
It must have fermented out in just a few days.
I guess I'll just leave it another week and then bottle it.

This is nearly as amazing as when one of our chickens who we were sure was a rooster laid an egg....

I still call her Rooty Rooster, but the kids renamed her Duchess.

Cheers i will drink to that. Ive got a few FV's that leak.

Bottled it yesterday. Tried a bit. Wow it was tart. I wanted it to be quite fizzy, but I couldn't decide how much sugar to use.
Trouble is I was bottling some beer too, and I can't remember exactly how much sugar I did use. 8g per litre I think.

FV is now empty. I'm not sure what to do next. I've got a few bottles of juice I collected when it was half price over
the last couple of weeks.

the tartiness should improve after a few weeks, one of my first straight aj varieties was rough as a dog for the first few weeks. .. by the time it had mellowed out I had drunk most of it though haha

I like mine fizzy and have gone up to 6-7g per 500ml in the ciders/punches I've made with no ill effects. Fizzy so that I can't just dump it quickly into a glass with ice without it fizzing over, bit like a commercial cider.....

Is it more aj you have left over, or are going to branch out and make a WOW ?

Roddy said:

the tartiness should improve after a few weeks, one of my first straight aj varieties was rough as a dog for the first few weeks. .. by the time it had mellowed out I had drunk most of it though haha

I like mine fizzy and have gone up to 6-7g per 500ml in the ciders/punches I've made with no ill effects. Fizzy so that I can't just dump it quickly into a glass with ice without it fizzing over, bit like a commercial cider.....

Is it more aj you have left over, or are going to branch out and make a WOW ?

Click to expand...

G'day Roddy

thanks for the info regarding the tartness. To be honest I haven't had cider in years, but I fancied some last summer but was put off by the price. When I did drink it I liked it dry, so I was steering away from putting an artificial sweetener in. Hopefully it will improve.

At the moment I have..
15 Litres of Apple
8 Litres Red Grape
4 Litres Grapefruit

Now I love grapefruit juice and I was hoping to just throw the grapefruit juice in a DJ with Champagne yeast. Ideally I'd like to make a sparkling grapefruit drink. However from what I read I don't think that's going to work is it? I'm going to have to add AJ aren't I?

What's peoples opinions?

My favourite tc is grapefruit Pete. 3.5ltr aj to 1ltr grapefruit works well. Bottle with 1 tsp sugar and 1tsp granular sweetener. You can even do half aj and half other which I did with pineapple juice which was very nice too.

Frogbrew said:

My favourite tc is grapefruit Pete. 3.5ltr aj to 1ltr grapefruit works well. Bottle with 1 tsp sugar and 1tsp granular sweetener. You can even do half aj and half other which I did with pineapple juice which was very nice too.

Click to expand...

yeah thanks mate. you did send me a recipe. I kind of forgot about that. Sorry
Must be age and drinking too much. It's really hot here today. A bank holiday and I've had two or was it three beers already.

Actually Frogbrew I think I replied to your PM with some questions. Did you get it?

I was hoping to do the Grapefruit without AJ. Is that possible?
Should I just try it and see?

cheers

I was told to stay away from citrus fruits or any exotic fruits for that matter when home brewing. The reason being was that it killed off the yeast and basically it did not turn to alcohol. The lady in the shop that any flavourings are best put in after the brew is made...... That kind of upset me a bit lol

But that is something I was told. I am constantly learning new things and there are always conflicting theories so best to do a bit of reading about the forum before maybe spoiling a batch of grapefruit or pineapple homebrew.

Have a look at video number 2 in this thread from a minute in, this is orange and white grape juice and only a litre of each, as you can see there is no problem with fermentation.

http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=49462

As for the lady in the shop all i can say is she is talking out of her a**e.

Thanks for the link!! This now opens up alot more recipes for me as I was very limited to what I thought I could do based on what I was told.

yeh I'll second that, I've made a grapefruit and a tropical juice WOW that turned out fine 😃

There will be a grapefruit brew in the near future. I don't have any yeast nutrient on hand. When I get some or some raisins I'll start one.
The lady in the shop might be distantly related to the lady who I talked to in my LHB store. She was lacking in info and that's putting it nicely.
Luckily I found a health food store closer for my supplies.

I'll start a thread when I get the grapefruit going.

By the way I tried my cider at the weekend. I was a bit apprehensive as it was extremely bitter / tart when I bottled it.
Two weeks on it's quite good. My main concern is that it's a bit bland. I had had a couple of beers before though.
I'll definitely be making it again. I might just add a dash of Raspberry Syrup to give it a bit of flavour.
My daughter patrols at the beach some weekends. There's a bloke on her patrol who's also from Bristol.
I said I'd let him have a bottle of cider to try. What was I thinking? Giving free grog to a City fan .
I follow The Rovers.