Priming with apple juice

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RichK

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I'm just preparing for my first attempt at a turbo cider & have decided to prime with apple juice rather than sugar. The question is how much to use?

I'm starting with 11 litres of AJ (9.3g / 100ml sugars). Will probably use that same AJ for priming, so total volume is 11 litres plus priming volume.

One calculator is suggesting 5.5g/500ml which is more than double the quantity I'd use for beer so sounds excessive to me.One calculator is suggesting 5.5g/500ml which is more than double the quantity I'd use for beer so sounds excessive to me. That would suggest in excess of a litre needs adding whereas as I'm thinking more like half to two thirds of a litre???

I'm confused.

TIA.
 
I bottle 10ltrs into 500ml and add 1ltr aj for priming, does make it very fizzy tho. 750ml would probably be enough but I wouldn't use the remainder so just Chuck it in = more cider anyway.
 
I bottle 10ltrs into 500ml and add 1ltr aj for priming, does make it very fizzy tho. 750ml would probably be enough but I wouldn't use the remainder so just Chuck it in = more cider anyway.

Thanks. You've given me an idea. I'll add about 250ml a couple of days before bottling, then keep the rest (in the fridge) for priming.
 
I'm just preparing for my first attempt at a turbo cider & have decided to prime with apple juice rather than sugar. The question is how much to use?

I'm starting with 11 litres of AJ (9.3g / 100ml sugars). Will probably use that same AJ for priming, so total volume is 11 litres plus priming volume.

One calculator is suggesting 5.5g/500ml which is more than double the quantity I'd use for beer so sounds excessive to me.One calculator is suggesting 5.5g/500ml which is more than double the quantity I'd use for beer so sounds excessive to me. That would suggest in excess of a litre needs adding whereas as I'm thinking more like half to two thirds of a litre???

I'm confused.

TIA.

I tend to find that 5.5g of sugar is to my taste of fizzy when it comes to cider. I find anything less a bit disappointing but anyway... you can try adding less per 500ml if you wish

If using apple juice I do the following:

  1. Find out how much sugar is in a litre of you chosen apple juice. In your case it's 9.3g times 10 which is: 93g of sugar per litre
  2. If using a formula of 5.5g per 500ml(bottles) OR 11g per litre you either times by 22(bottles) or by 11(litres)..... so 5.5g times 22(bottles) OR 11g times 11(litres) you get 121g to prime the whole lot.
  3. So..... if you now know you need 121g of sugar to prime the whole batch(11 litres) you basically divide 121g by 93g(step 1) and you get 1.3litres of apple juice required to prime your 11 litre batch of cider.
If you re just going to use sugar to prime then all you need to do is just calculate 5.5g (500ml) OR 11g (litre) by how much you have and you get 121g of sugar which you can just tip into another FV with some water and dissolve it before adding fermented apple juice and then bottle it up.

Take this potentially cack handed maths with a pinch of salt.... please wait for someone with more experience to either confirm or correct my maths before proceeding.

I have recently created a blueberry cider using the maths above and it had a nice fizz(not too much)

I also DO NOT recommend adding sugar per bottle... its really inconsistent in the end results
I also DO NOT recommend using brewing sugar(dextrose) to prime.... you may as well throw the 5.5g of sugar calculation out of the window as it has less sugar in it than standard granulated (I screwed a whole batch up using brewing sugar and it tasted funny).

Good Luck
 
Thanks both. Very useful & those calculations do make sense to me. Do I take it that TC will require a bit more priming (& subsequent fizz) than beer then???
 
Thanks both. Very useful & those calculations do make sense to me. Do I take it that TC will require a bit more priming (& subsequent fizz) than beer then???

When you say "a bit more priming" do you longer?? or more sugar? Beer is different as beer will not completly ferment out or at least it won't be allowed to... this basically means that there will be some sugar left over from fermenting to create fizz over time whilst stored.... on the other hand you have cider which you can apply the same process to create a sweet cider as opposed to a dry cider. A sweet cider would need a little more sugar and fermentation would need to be stopped sooner.

Hope that makes sense.
 
Thanks. I meant more sugar for priming. I think I'm looking at something 11g / litre (for TC) as opposed to 4 (for beer). If I hadn't asked, I'd have been priming at nearer 4g/l which now appears to be way too low.

I'll be adding a touch of splenda (or suchlike) to sweeten half of the batch (for MrsK).
 
Thanks. I meant more sugar for priming. I think I'm looking at something 11g / litre (for TC) as opposed to 4 (for beer). If I hadn't asked, I'd have been priming at nearer 4g/l which now appears to be way too low.

I'll be adding a touch of splenda (or suchlike) to sweeten half of the batch (for MrsK).

Oh yes 4g a litre would be nowhere near enough for lets say a cider you would get on tap at the local pub. I'd say that's what you are aiming for and 5.5g of sugar should do that just fine... its about experimenting really so a rule of thumb should be to start small with a demijohn and see how you get on... The first mistake I made when brewing cider was to basically brew 22 litres with unknown yeast and unknown amounts of sugar... the end result was cider... but the cheap tasting nasty stuff. The cider I was hoping for was an old english tasting cider you normally get from somerset around this type of year.

In my latest batch I have used a sweetner called Xylitol which is more expensive but fantastic in flavour as it just tastes like sugar.

You can see my post here on my experiment with a wet yeast as opposed to a dry one... the taste by the way is just streets apart: https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/trial-turbo-cider-recipes-wlp775.82289/
 
So far, so good. Bottled it. MrsK thinks it tastes OK but needs some fizz (obviously). With today being so hot, she said it was a pity it wasn't ready already. Ended up with about a litre of Aldi apple juice added to 11L. Will be tasting in a week. :)
 
Quick update. Chilled & cracked open a bottle yesterday. It's a little bit tart but very drinkable. probably overdid the additional sugar (came out 7.4%) & could have done with a bit more sweetening (easily fixed). Carbonation was done with 0.9L (11g / 100ml) apple juice added to 11L. Carbonation is just about spot on for me. Next time, I'll probably just chuck the whole litre in for carbonation & not add extra sugar at the outset. There will be a next time, I've just bought a bottle of Lowicz raspberry & am going to Aldi tonight for the weekly shop. A dozen litres of their apple juice could be getting added to the trolley.
 
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