Advise for new to cider, but not to homebrew?

[Wabby]

Anybody any tips and direction for somebody thats not new to brewing (been brewing 60l batches of IPA, ale, lager etc for a while now) but that has a sudden hankering after cider?

I like the Thatchers Vintage/Katie types and want to make something to stick in a corny and force carb and drink off tap.

Do any of the premium kits turn out any good?
How about TC?

 

[Clint]

I have made one batch of TC...don't normally drink cider but well impressed with this....
20 l supermarket pure apple juice, cheapest they have,
2 TSP yeast nutrient
2 TSP citric acid
8 teabag black tea in about half litre of boiling water
Cider yeast l used CML...

drinking this now!

 

[Wabby]

Nice. Which apple juice did you use?

 

[Clint]

Asda own brand...they were out of the smart price stuff so I just bought the next cheapest in the 4 PK...it quite dry but very thirst quenching...I don't like sweet cider but suppose you could add some sweetener to it...for pence per bottle is great!

 

[Wabby]

How sweet did this turn out? How do I go about sweetening considering I can cold crash and force carb I should be able to just stop fermentation earlier?

 

[GerritT]

Lidl has a sweetener Cologran, seems to work for a lot of people.
After my current ciders have finished, I think I'll prime a few with sugar + add sweetener, and some without sweetener. Maybe add some honey to the glass if it's too dry.

 

[Wabby]

Well its fermented out so started the cold crash. Down to 0.5c now.

Will sample before kegging to see if needs back sweetening.

 

[SmallSpacesBrewing]

It gets really dry. I've tried many different sweeteners (stevia, splenda, etc) but didn't like it a lot. I'm talking FG of 990. Best results was with Cider yeast with sweetener from eBay.

 

[Wabby]

Dry as ****. Gonna bang a couple cartons of juice in to sweeten it I recon.

 

[SmallSpacesBrewing]

Dry as ****. Gonna bang a couple cartons of juice in to sweeten it I recon.

Like I said. Try out Cider yeast with sweetener from eBay. It's good.

 

[Wabby]

Can I use lowicz after fermentation just to sweeten/flavour?

If so, how much would you recommend in a 18l keg batch?

Tried the syrup with soda water and its not bad.

 

[SmallSpacesBrewing]

Can I use lowicz after fermentation just to sweeten/flavour?

If so, how much would you recommend in a 18l keg batch?

Tried the syrup with soda water and its not bad.

The syrop contains 86g of sugar per 100ml. The yeast will eat it up, producing more alcohol. If you bottle your Cider you may risk bottle bombs if used when adding priming sugar for co2. This is the reason why sweetening Cider and carbonating it is hard. You have to use umfermentable sugars. I've tried many and the best results was with Cider yeast with sweetener from eBay. Many also use sugar-free lemonades in their Cider. I didn't like the ones I tried.
If you keg. You'll have to stop the fermentation first with yeast stoppers and then after some time add sugar to your liking

 

[Wabby]

It’s sat in my keezer at 1c and aint coming out so I cant see the yeast eatig any of the sugars?