Blackberry & Rhubarb Cider

[Beanhead]

Been saving my frozen rhubarb for a while and with some leftover blackberries I thought why not.

Here's what I did;

100g Blackberry
600g Rhubarb (Frozen)
Brewing Sugar (I didn't measure how much but I used enough to soak the frozen rhubarb)
A Few ml's of Welches 100% Pure Grape Juice (the fresh refridgerated one)
4 Ltrs Tesco Apple Juice (Not From Concentrate)
1 Lemon's Juice
1 Strong Tea (small mug with two teabags)
1 Tsp Pectolase
1 Tsp Yeast Nutrient
1 Tsp Yeast
2 Tsp of Sugar for Yeast Starter

1. Firstly I squished the berries into a very colourful mess, added the frozen rhubarb, soaked in brewing sugar and added a tiny bit of leftover Welches grape juice to give it a bit of liquidity.

2. I then left it covered in cling film for about an hour, mashed and sieved. I was really surprised by how much juice I got from this after sieving; I potentially could have gotten more but the mush was still quite cold and my hand went numb, lol. Here's how much juice I got;

2. I then added the fruit juice, apple juice, pectolase and tea to the DJ and checked the hydrometer reading; it was just shy of 5-5.5% which I was happy with and topped up to just below the neck with apple juice.

3. Made the yeast starter with tepid water, 2 tsps of sugar, yeast nutrient and yeast. I then added to the DJ and sealed with airlock.

4. Here's what I got;

I like the colour of it and although its not as deep as the Blackberry/Cherry wine, I'm still quite happy with it!

Colour Vs. My light, fruit Wine;

Cheers! :

 

[godfrey]

I have added a bookmark on this one !

will have a go myself :thumb:

been wanting to try a TC and this looks like a winner :drink:

 

[Beanhead]

So after three whole days of not much action from this, I come home today to the overwhelming smell of yeast and this :shock:

And it had sprayed everything in sight and covered the worktop.

So I did a botch job overflow airlock type thing as suggested by chipp_tea;

 

[Robbo]

I'll give this one a go, it sounds and looks nice.

At the moment I'm working on a Turbo Cider flavoured with Strawberry Jelly.

 

[godfrey]

Turbo Cider flavoured with Strawberry Jelly.

strawberry jelly ?

how does that work out

usually add pectic enzyme to fruit to stop jelly forming

strange choice of ingredient, I would be interested how this works out

 

[Robbo]

It's still in experimental stages at the moment and it's nearly finished fermenting.

I'll be posting a method and result thread about the jelly flavoured TC soon

 

[godfrey]

thanks robbo

I look forward to reading the results and conclusion on your experiment

 

[berrycrumble]

This looks fantastic currently got the end of the season's rhubarb in the garden so may give it a go!

 

[Beanhead]

Defo give it a go berrycrumble, it's going off like a champ, no chance of me replacing the current airlock with the normal type, it just hasn't stopped one bit :shock:

 

[whitts.]

2. I then added the fruit juice, apple juice, pectolase and tea to the DJ and checked the hydrometer reading; it was just shy of 5-5.5% which I was happy with and topped up to just below the neck with apple juice.

3. Made the yeast starter with tepid water, 2 tsps of sugar, yeast nutrient and yeast. I then added to the DJ and sealed with airlock.

how long after you added the pectolace did you pitch your yeast? i have found leaving the pectolace for 24hrs to work on the blackberry's and rhubarb and then making the yeast starter and adding it means a pretty rapid start to fermentation as the pectolace will slow the yeast down at the start

regards alex :hat: