first turbo cider!!

[Harlequinuk]

Heya all

Am looking at brewing my first `turbo` cider - plan is for

20 litres of copella apple and elderflower juice (from Tesco - its rather tastey lol)

I also have 5g of Lalvin EC-1118 (is that enough?) and have some dextrose (1kg)

do I need anything else? or just a case of rehydrate the yeast warm the apple juice slightly mix (with sugar in a litre of water) and wait ?

or am I missing something crucial! thanks all btw

 

[Roddy]

Heya all

Am looking at brewing my first `turbo` cider - plan is for

20 litres of copella apple and elderflower juice (from Tesco - its rather tastey lol)

I also have 5g of Lalvin EC-1118 (is that enough?) and have some dextrose (1kg)

do I need anything else? or just a case of rehydrate the yeast warm the apple juice slightly mix (with sugar in a litre of water) and wait ?

or am I missing something crucial! thanks all btw

hey mate

I usually warm some aj in a pan, maybe about 3l if you're doing 20l

What's the sugar content of the juice ? Ordinary AJ is about 11g per 100ml which comes out at almost 6% abv when it's finished

Putting dextrose will ramp up the abv, but it all depends on what you're aiming for ! 😵 Another consideration is if you are planning a fizzy cider, priming sugar will add more abv on top of the above too 😃

I usually put pectolase in my tc's too, meant to eliminate haze so make it nice and clear.

1 x sachet of yeast will be fine, just sprinkle on the top when you're ready to rock.

Best to take a hydrometer reading before doing this, and you want to have your mixture at around 22-25 deg ideally, slightly cooler than this will still work, but just take longer.

At the ideal temp it should take about a week to 10 days to ferment out down to about 1.000 on the hydrometer.

 

[terrym]

Heya all
Am looking at brewing my first `turbo` cider - plan is for
20 litres of copella apple and elderflower juice (from Tesco - its rather tasty lol)
I also have 5g of Lalvin EC-1118 (is that enough?) and have some dextrose (1kg)
do I need anything else? or just a case of rehydrate the yeast warm the apple juice slightly mix (with sugar in a litre of water) and wait ? or am I missing something crucial! thanks all btw

I did 12 litres of TC recently as an experiment, to see what it's like .
I used 12 litres basic Tesco AJ @11g/100ml sugar, 100g raisins, liquid from 3 stewed teabags, juice from 2 cooking apples, 0.5 tsp pectolase, 150g table sugar, 2 tsp yeast nutrient.
I concocted this recipe based on what I had picked up from others who had posted on here i.e. tea to give the TC some tannin content which is low in dessert apples but present in cider apples, cooking apples to provide some malic acid which again is low in dessert apples but present in cider apples (others actually add malic acid), and raisins for a bit of flavour and as a source of nutrient for the yeast in addition to the nutrient I added.
If its any help to you my SG started at 1.050 and ended at 1.000, and I used a 6 g packet of Harris cider yeast, which I hydrated in 50ml water before pitching, and it went fine.
Since I knew it would turn out dry I have also back sweetened some bottles with Lidl's own brand Cologran sweetener tablets at 4 tabs per litre.
I also split my bottles into still and sparkling to eventually find out which I liked best. The sparkling were primed with 40mlAJ/litre which seems to have carbed up nicely, I know this because I use PET bottles.
It took about three weeks to clear properly in store.
Finally although the taster was promising, cider is like beer, better with keeping, and so one month on from bottling, I've resisted trying any for the time being.
Hope this helps.

 

[Harlequinuk]

thank you for the replies!

sugar in the coppella is 9.8g/100ml (hence adding extra) ; will it brew dry? wanting a more medium one?

 

[terrym]

My very inexperienced view on cider making is that they will mostly ferment dry. So two ways of correcting that are to backsweeten using a non-fermentable sweetener (like I have done) or use a yeast with added sweetener, or you kill the yeast in the cider at the end of the fermentation using Campden tablets and then add sugar to taste. There may be other ways which others may be able to advise you on.
As far as adding extra sugars to your Copella its really down to how strong do you want your cider to be. Using the calculator http://www.brewersfriend.com/abv-calculator/ gives my TC about 6.5% which is fine for me.
So to give the same, given you have more juice to ferment, you would need, approximately
1. Ordinary Added Sugar required = (20/12) x 150= 250g
2. Added sugar to make up the juice difference (assuming all fermentable):-
AJ sugars in mine = 11x 10 x 12 = 1320g
AJ sugars in yours to 12 litres = 9.8 x 10 x 12 = 1176g
Extra sugar needed for 12 litres = 1320 - 1176 = 144g
So, extra sugar for 20 litres = (20/12)x 144 = 240g
3. Total sugar required to achieve OG 1.050 for 20 litres = 250 + 240 = 490, so use 500g.
Hope this makes sense!!

 

[Harlequinuk]

again thank you!

so I need 1/2 kg dextrose to make it approx. 1.050OG for 20 litres

how would I work out potential OG for 4kg of dextrose?

also was thinking of flavouring with elderflower cordial ?

 

[terrym]

again thank you!

so I need 1/2 kg dextrose to make it approx. 1.050OG for 20 litres

how would I work out potential OG for 4kg of dextrose?

also was thinking of flavouring with elderflower cordial ?

If you are really considering using 4kg dextrose :-o the alcohol taste will completely dominate in your finished product imo. You may also have to consider using a more alcohol tolerant yeast.
Re ABV my only suggestion is to use this to calculate the OG assuming all your fermentables are dextrose.
http://www.brewersfriend.com/homebrew/recipe/calculator/
And this to estimate an ABV assuming it will end up at somewhere around 1.000
http://fermentationriot.com/abvandattenuation.html.
However because of the potential high alcohol content the yeast may not get down that far.
Can't help you on the elderflower cordial, although people on here do use Polish fruit syrup.

 

[Harlequinuk]

I was lead to believe lalvin was for high ABV? - btw its just a challenge by a work mate - blow my socks off cider , personally I wouldn't but he said I couldn't do it lol (I usually make beer not cider)

 

[terrym]

I was lead to believe lalvin was for high ABV? - btw its just a challenge by a work mate - blow my socks off cider , personally I wouldn't but he said I couldn't do it lol (I usually make beer not cider)

Unless you got a deal you must have spent upwards of �£20 on your premium AJ and I'm sure you don't want to waste your money.
Why not split it into two batches? One you like, lower ABV perhaps, and one at higher ABV like wot your mate wants. If the higher ABV stuff turns out to be more like rocket fuel than cider he could buy it off you :whistle:.

 

[Harlequinuk]

lol! haven't actually got the copella yet - so maybe some much cheaper stuff would be better lol

 

[Harlequinuk]

didn't use 4 bags in the end - used 2 , along with the inbuilt sugar of the tesco value AJ , came in at 1.08 OG. will flavour with some French peach syrup a friend brought over


now to stop secondary fermentation - been advised to use potassium sulphate? is that right?

 

[Roddy]

didn't use 4 bags in the end - used 2 , along with the inbuilt sugar of the tesco value AJ , came in at 1.08 OG. will flavour with some French peach syrup a friend brought over


now to stop secondary fermentation - been advised to use potassium sulphate? is that right?

you making it fizzy mate ? in which was no need to stop 2ndry ferment ?

that stuff will be rocket fuel btw !

 

[Harlequinuk]

aye it`ll be fizzy - but the syrup my friend has has 88g of sugar per 100ml - currently if it goes to 1 - then it`ll be weighing in at 10%!

so why stop secondary? want to add some sweetness / flavour back in as I'm using champagne yeast

 

[Roddy]

aye it`ll be fizzy - but the syrup my friend has has 88g of sugar per 100ml - currently if it goes to 1 - then it`ll be weighing in at 10%!

so why stop secondary? want to add some sweetness / flavour back in as I'm using champagne yeast

I reckon if you stop secondary then you'll be fooling with how fizzy it comes out, you might have to go with some artificial sweetener

 

[Harlequinuk]

wanted a peach flavour - so what do you suggest?

 

[Harlequinuk]

well - as an update its all brewed nicely! went to 1 from 1.070 and flavoured with white grape and elderflower in the end.

yes its strong but a sweetenss as well , really quite drinkable in moderation

 

[terrym]

A small update on the TC I did at the beginning of December, as an experiment, as I mentioned earlier in this thread.
After about one month in bottle I opened one and tbh was quite disappointed, it was quite thin to taste and nothing like scrumpy which is what I had been secretly hoping for!
So this week I opened another bottle, that's about three month in bottle. This was one of the batch with artificial sweetener (4 tabs Cologran/litre) and primed with 40ml AJ/litre.
The sweeteners were spot on, but the carbonation was not really noticeable, barely sparkling, not that I was looking to have a fizzy drink. However the flavour had definitely improved.
So first lessons, if I ever do this again, I will use the sweeteners as above and probably double up on the AJ priming.
Next one I'll open in another month or two.....

 

[Pirate_Pete]

A small update on the TC I did at the beginning of December, as an experiment, as I mentioned earlier in this thread.
After about one month in bottle I opened one and tbh was quite disappointed, it was quite thin to taste and nothing like scrumpy which is what I had been secretly hoping for!
So this week I opened another bottle, that's about three month in bottle. This was one of the batch with artificial sweetener (4 tabs Cologran/litre) and primed with 40ml AJ/litre.
The sweeteners were spot on, but the carbonation was not really noticeable, barely sparkling, not that I was looking to have a fizzy drink. However the flavour had definitely improved.
So first lessons, if I ever do this again, I will use the sweeteners as above and probably double up on the AJ priming.
Next one I'll open in another month or two.....

Thin. That's exactly how I described my first effort too. The second lot I made was better. However on the third lot I've added glycerin, which supposedly adds "mouthfeel". The third effort has only been in the bottle a couple of weeks. I'm hoping to keep this one at least two months before opening. If you have a look around I think you'll find that some people put what I would call a significant amount of sugar in their ciders to prime. I like mine dry as, so no artificial sweeteners end up any near mine. Just a note about that, my missus seldom drinks these days but she reckons some of the artificial sweeteners bring on her asthma.

 

[terrym]

Just a note about that, my missus seldom drinks these days but she reckons some of the artificial sweeteners bring on her asthma.

That's an interesting comment.
I don't get asthma and normally don't use sweeteners so I'm unlikely to be affected but I have just done a quick search on tinterweb and there is some suggestion that there may be a link between the two.

 

[cheapbrew]

In my opinion after finishing some TC last night that I didn't like 3 months ago is they need a minimum of 6 weeks to get good and reach best by 3 months.

I resorted to using squash with sweetener in one for the missus and one with a bottle of Rasp lowicz to try and get one she likes.