Vimto cider

[andylanc1975]

Hi folks!

At the weekend I kicked a vimto cider off, but I only had youngs wine yeast knocking about... It took a few days to get going, but it's now fizzing away happily.

What effect will using a wine yeast compared to a cider yeast have had on the finished brew? Anything I can do to help?

Cheers :

 

[RobWalker]

A lot of people use champagne yeast anyway. The taste may be slightly different but it won't damage the cider particularly. :)

 

[Steve]

Got my vimto cider going this weekend too. It peaked yesterday in terms of airlock activity and is starting to calm down now but still fairly active.

 

[andylanc1975]

Cheers for the reply Rob :thumb:

What yeast did you use Steve?

 

[awalton007]

i used the wilkos stuff but i cant remember if i followed the vimto wine recipe or the cider recipe lol

 

[Steve]

What yeast did you use Steve?

Just used a teaspoon of youngs cider yeast. I didn't bother with any of the extras just kept it simple with AJ, vimto, sugar and yeast. If it goes down well I'll try it again to see what kind of difference they make.

It was fermenting strong earlier this week and it's still going well now on day 7 in the DJ

 

[andylanc1975]

I've gone for the same, keep it simple except for using a wine yeast instead of a cider yeast. Think I need to get a stock of cider yeast up so I can do more of these spur of the moment brews!

 

[Gayle]

Watching this thread with interest, to see how your ciders turn out! I picked up a bottle of Vimto today, just to try something with it. I was thinking of using it to prime the bottles (after boiling it) to see if that made it more flavourful. I tend to use whatever yeast I have to hand, cider doesn't really seem to mind!

 

[andylanc1975]

Added some more apple juice last night, topping up to the 5 litre mark and it's still bubbling away in a nice controlled manner, really interested to try this and see what the flavour is like.

Loving the idea of priming use the Vimto Gayle, that will preserve a load of the berry flavours. If you do get round to trying, defo post it up and let us know how it tastes.

 

[Steve]

Just a small update. I've not had the hydrometer in it yet but there is still airlock activity coming from my brew. Gave it a quick shake yesterday at the 2 week mark to release the CO2 and to try and make sure the yeast stays in suspension until I (hopefully) bottle next weekend. Going to get the hydrometer in friday onwards to see how its going and if it's steady then it will be in 1 litre PETs sunday to make way for the next brew.

 

[BigDDunc]

I kicked off a Vimto TC on Saturday, and it's being very slow to get started. I'm upping the temperature a bit (from 18-19) to 24 to see if that's going to help it get started.

 

[Steve]

Just bottled mine today after 3 weeks in the FV. The only sample I had was the dregs in the syphon tube at the end which I sucked out and I have to say it was tasty. Will have to see if the missus agrees in a few weeks when it's had time to carb up :.

 

[andylanc1975]

Cool, sounds like you're about a week ahead of me then. There is still a very faint bubbling action at the surface of the cider still, so going to leave it another couple of days until that stops (and it'll give me a chance to get the last couple of bottles I need!).

Hope the tasting goes well :

 

[Steve]

Tried one of these at the weekend. The flavour is nice but just disappointed that there is zero carbonation. I put a heaped teaspoon per litre PET bottle to get them nice and fizzy and there is nothing at all. At the moment I'm blaming the PETs leaking the pressure as its the first time I've used them but my next brew is going to be bottled in a mix of PETs and glass to make sure.

 

[andylanc1975]

I've no idea how quick carbonation will happen, so not sure if your 9 days is enough or not. Mine is finally getting bottled tonight into glass bottles and capped, after it was still fizzing gently until the weekend. Absolutely no idea how much sugar to do, so I'm going to batch prime, using 7g/l as was recommended for a bog standard cider recipe and see what happens!

What's the flavour like?

 

[Steve]

Carbonation was slow and has only increased a little so not sure if its the bottles or not. I like the flavour but can't really describe it. I don't drink it the girlfriend does and she's been having a bottle at weekends. In her opinion it actually tasted better 2 weeks in the bottle than 3 weeks. I don't think I could drink masses of it as it's not my style of drink but I could be persuaded to have a small glass to finish the bottle.