Cider brewing first attempt

Hi all,

It's my first attempt at brewing home cider. I got a home brew kit which came with a John Bull Cider kit. From the reviews I've read it doesn't sound too great. Weak in taste. I was wondering if it's possible to mix the kit concentrated apple with more cartoons of concentrated apple juice from a super market to give it a better taste? Has anyone done this before and any tips if so? I watched a video on YouTube and a guy said he bought another John Bull Cider kit and added that and it tasted better having the two kits in there fermenting?...

Thanks

Welcome to the forum :

I don't make cider but am sure someone will be along soon to advise.

Hey Bluerooster83

I tend to make cider from juice and have to say i've never made it from a kit, but i'm guessing it's an apple juice concentrate then you add 1kg of sugar and top with water?
I'd say adding a few cartons of apple juice, i.e. Value 65p from concentrate cartons will enhance your kit. 1 litre of juice contains around 110 grams of sugar (but check the carton), so for every carton added just reduce the recipe sugar addition by 110 grams and that should keep the abv in check. Maybe 5 cartons in a 23 litre batch will improve the kit? Just a thought :-/

My Father in Law has just done this and said its okay but not very tasty.

I haven't tasted it yet to see but I would imagine like already suggested by Stemsi and yourself to replace sugar and water with Apple juice.

I once made a kit cider many years ago and found it very disappointing. Last couple of years I've made real cider from crushed apples and found it... also disappointing. Fact is, real cider doesn't taste anything like the stuff you buy from the supermarket, so if that's what you imagine you're making you're going to feel very let down!

Just to put a positive out there...



I've made cider from Apples, and carton juice. I have to say that while they don't taste like the mass produced ranges available from the supermarket, they have all had their own unique flavours.



We've had plain old apple cider, apple and raisin cider, apple and pear, toffee apple cider and most recently Ribena cider.



The one downside is I've never made a "kit" wine or cider, my view on homebrew is its our take on booze and it should be as cheap as possible, the Mrs takes the same view that we should be able to produce it how we want it.



On that note, make the kit but substitute as much water and sugar for 100% pure apple juice. As said above 1 litre of apple juice has 110g of sugar in it, so for each one of these you add, remove that amount of sugar from the bag and save it for other things, like bottle priming!

Hi Bluerooster

I'm pretty new to this too, just since last summer....

I've made about 5 batches of cider so far (225 pints), 3 of which were kits and two from juice

I reckon they all benefit from leaving alone after bottling for a bit (at least a couple months), although I guzzled most of mine more quickly than that.

Tastiness-wise, the first kit (bulldog strawb and lime) was pretty weak in flavour and alcohol content. Better kits I've found were the 'On the Rocks' kits which make up to about 6% and have a flavoursome 'add back' sachet that goes in when bottling.

I've made one that was entirely from asds 65p apple juice cartons, which tasted pretty rough for a while but got much better after a month or so (I had nearly finished it by then haha)

My second juice attempt was 16x asda apple and 6x cherrygood cartons (30/70 cherry/apple). I got my sugar calculations a bit screwed up and added too much, so it came out at about 10% abv. Pretty tasty but I would lose the latter part of the evening and wonder what happened ! I also put a 225ml bottle of cherry concentrate from Holland and barrett in there. Both of the juice ciders I've made in just one fermenting vessel, although I now have a carboy (big glass dj looking thing) that I siphon (rack) the stuff into before adding priming sugar (to make it fizz) and bottling.

I would def make the apple and cherry one again, but add the extra sugar towards the end of preparing the brew, so I don't make another batch of blackout juice

"I reckon they all benefit from leaving alone after bottling for a bit (at least a couple months), although I guzzled most of mine more quickly than that."

I believe traditionally, you brewed your cider in the autumn and didn't drink it until the following spring at the earliest.
Having said that I have started on the cider I made back in october and very nice it is too - not that it tastes anything like the apple flavoured stuff you buy from the supermarket, even the expensive `craft' cider in glass bottles.

I made a few of the brewbuddy cider kits, they are ok if left to mature for a few months and make a decent cost effective staple. The last couple i brewed short and added a 4 litres of of AJ from concentrate, (in place of water) which seemed to help add more body to it.

My latest version is somewhat more modified using the brewbuddy kit as the base and again brewed short but with 2 litres of tropical juice and 2 litres of orange juice. Just bottled that one and it seems to have added a nice twist to the flavour.

Next one currently on the go is a mango turbo cider, no end of possibilities for experimentation with turbo cider and wow's :drink:

I made thr wilko cider kit. It was tasteless.
Ive now made 120 bottles of turbo cider, 100% aj and its great. Adding a kilo of sugar makes its strong. Probably a bit too strong. You only need to drink 1 pint strong!
Might try a black cherry type cider next.