Made my first TC

[MarkMayf]

I had a go at a little experiment last night, making my first TC.

Not sure if it will turn out OK, but it's cheap!

I'm wondering if I should add some sugar though?

Here is what I made (in each fermenter)

3 litres Lidl apple juice concentrate
1 litre summer fruit drink
250 ml strong tea (3 tea bags in 500ml of water)
Top up to 5l with water.

It is bubbling away merrily now and has clouded up.

 

[MarkMayf]

Ingredients of juice drink attached.

I'm wondering if it will be too 'watery'?

NB - i'm not intending on making rocket fuel!

 

[MarkMayf]

Hmmm, I did a bit more reading on t'internet.

I reckon there is around 3.5g of sugar per 100ml in there. Rough guess this will give me around 1014 gravity and a final ABV of <2%

In with some sugar!

200g of brewing sugar in solution going into each bottle.

 

[cheapbrew]

Always add up the sugar content of ingredients and adjust to the OG you prefer.

 

[MarkMayf]

Wish I'd done that first!

Another interesting development now I have added the sugar. No foam/krausen is forming in the fermenters. The airlocks are going mad, and I can see the surface shimmering with bubbles bursting, but there isn't one bubble holding up. It's like the surface tension has completely gone.

 

[BrewFanatic]

I very rarely get much krausen in any of my brews.

Are you planning to prime and carbonate your cider?

 

[MarkMayf]

Yes. I'm going use the same batch prime method as I use for my beer. Maybe up the sugar a smidge.

I tend to use 150g of brewing sugar to prime 23 litres of ale. If I were to work on 175g for 23 litres, then for the 10 litres of cider I'll prime with 75g.

 

[BrewFanatic]

Sounds good mate. I'd like to try a TC myself. Will you be adding finings and such to help it clear?

 

[Pirate_Pete]

Sounds good mate. I'd like to try a TC myself. Will you be adding finings and such to help it clear?

No need for finings mate. It should clear fine by itself.
Before you make some have a look at a few threads and see what other people are doing. Then ask if you have any questions. I'm happy to post some of the recipes I've used. Personally I wouldn't add any water if I were making TC.

*Oh, I see you're brewing a few WOW's. So you know what you're doing anyhow.

 

[MarkMayf]

I bottled this, along with gallon of a plain apple TC I knocked up last night and I have to say, I'm pleasantly surprised! Half the batch I added a sweetener and half I left dry, for comparison.

I wasn't expecting much from it to be fair. While bottling I had one bottle that wouldn't cap, so drank it. It was a sweetened bottle, and although flat it was really nice.

I also had a sample of the plain apple, unsweetened from the bottling bucket. Very dry! But, not unpleasant.

29 bottles now primed and carbing up. I added 6g/litre of brewing sugar for the carbing, so I'll be into those in a few weeks!

 

[VillageBrew]

What yeast do you use in your TCs?

 

[MarkMayf]

I used Safcider in these.