Turbo cider question

[ajt24]

I like sweetish cider (old mount) but looking around the forum it seems if you add tropical juice for example, its turns out dry with no or not much flavour, so could you make the TC with apple juice, then add the tropical juice to prime the bottles to make it fizzy and add flavour?

or do you prime with sugar and add the juice ( would this not make it over fizzy bottle bomb)

ive read about sweeteners aswell they could be added at bottling, but i have the apple juice ready just unsure when to add the tropical juice at primary or at bottling? or half at primary and half at bottling.

if I added the sweeteners at primary would this keep the fruit flavour from fermenting out?

sorry for all the questions

 

[Dutto]

I'll answer the last question first.

"No." adding sweeteners doesn't keep the fruit flavour from fermenting out. To stop fermentation you need a Stabiliser like this ...

http://www.wilko.com/homebrew-accessories+equipment/wilko-wine-stabiliser-30g/invt/0022657

"Yes." Adding fermentable liquids when priming is a short cut to possibly making "bottle bombs" because you won't know how much fermentable sugars are in the mix.

I add my exotic juices at the primary stage. I am always amazed how the fermentation process removes the taste so my advice is to add a lot.

Finally, I prime normally and then use Splenda as a sweetener because it suits my palate and (for me) leaves no after-taste.

 

[IainM]

Lets assume that you're not going to sweeten with sugar (i.e. you're using unfermentable sweeteners, or nothing at all). The general idea for any TC/punch/sparkling wine, is to make an initial brew which ferments out completely, then prime so that the liquid has the right amount of sugar to give you the level of carbonation you want for the volume you want. For arguments sake, lets say you want to make 5 litres of cider and prime with tropical juice (with 105g/L of sugar in it, which is what the Tesco's one has). To make 5 litres of a nice fizzy drink, you will need about 35g of sugar to prime with - this 35g corresponds to one third of a litre of tropical juice. So, you would do the primary fermentation with 5 - 1/3 = 4.67 L of apple/tropical juice mix at whatever ratio you would like, let it ferment out, then rack onto 0.33 litres of tropical juice, mix in whatever non-fermentable sweeteners you want to use, and then bottle straight away.

 

[IainM]

The alternative would be to stop fermentation with stabilisers, as Dutto says, such as the potassium sorbate / metabisulphate mix you can get in Wilko. After stabilising you can add sugar to taste. If you don't want to add chemicals, then you can skip the stabilisation step and instead pasteurise with an oven or water bath after bottling.

 

[ajt24]

thanks for the input its always reassuring to get others opinions, think i will use 3/4 of the tropical juice and prime with the remaining juice, the once i get the first one on i can start tweeking it to suit my tastes. its all panic panic panic until that first one is under your belt then its relax what was i worrying about.
once again thanks guys

 

[IainM]

thanks for the input its always reassuring to get others opinions, think i will use 3/4 of the tropical juice and prime with the remaining juice, the once i get the first one on i can start tweeking it to suit my tastes. its all panic panic panic until that first one is under your belt then its relax what was i worrying about.
once again thanks guys

No problem, though remember that fermentation will take at least a week, and its best to leave it longer, so you might have to freeze the part opened juice so that it keeps that long.