How to make Turbo Cider.

[LED_ZEP]

I have now got 3 litres of apple juice and a litre of red grape juice, to try my first attempt, can you please let me know the process with or without sugar?

Decide what ABV you're wanting first then work out how much sugar is in the juice you're using from the ingredients/nutrition information on the pack. Once you know how much sugar you're starting with in the juice you can calculate how much more sugar you need to add to hit the ABV you want in 4.5l (one dj) of cider.

As guide you would need approx 550g sugar in total (including the sugar in the juice) to get 6% ABV if it stops fermenting at 0.998

 

[Craig57]

Decide what ABV you're wanting first then work out how much sugar is in the juice you're using from the ingredients/nutrition information on the pack. Once you know how much sugar you're starting with in the juice you can calculate how much more sugar you need to add to hit the ABV you want in 4.5l (one dj) of cider.

As guide you would need approx 550g sugar in total (including the sugar in the juice) to get 6% ABV if it stops fermenting at 0.998

Thanks Led Zep thats really helpful, now the sugar being calculated do i add this at the start during initial fermentation, or as some other recipes read, this is added to the bottles once fermentation has finished. As you can guess im somewhat confused on this and any guidance is always good for new comers.
Thanks again

 

[LED_ZEP]

Thanks Led Zep thats really helpful, now the sugar being calculated do i add this at the start during initial fermentation, or as some other recipes read, this is added to the bottles once fermentation has finished. As you can guess im somewhat confused on this and any guidance is always good for new comers.

This is added at the start to hit your ABV. Then you would add a small amount of sugar to the bottles to get the fizz. Use bottles that can take pressure (beer bottles glass or PET) and I add no more than about 1/2 - 1tsp to each 500ml bottle.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Ive made the WOW wine in a demi and again this recipes adds sugar at the start?

I will chuck my two penneth in, i don't make cider so i am no expert.

When you make wine you are aiming for 13% this takes 1100g of sugar so you need to add more sugar with what is already in the juice to the Demijohn, when making cider there is enough juice already in the cartons you dont need to add more but can if you want to raise the ABV.

 

[LED_ZEP]

when making cider there is enough juice already in the cartons you dont need to add more but can if you want to raise the ABV.

As Chippy says there may be enough sugar in the juice for you to get the ABV you want so no need to add more at the start. The apple juice I use has 110g per litre, if yours is the same and the grape juice is the same that's 440g. This would give you ABV of about 4.5 - 5% so you may not want to add additional sugar.

 

[Craig57]

I will chuck my two penneth in, i don't make cider so i am no expert.

When you make wine you are aiming for 13% this takes 1100g of sugar so you need to add more sugar with what is already in the juice to the Demijohn, when making cider there is enough juice already in the cartons you dont need to add more but can if you want to raise the ABV.

You mean sugar Chippy i take not juice?
This does get confusing i have to say as some say add it to the demi, you and other recipes leave the sugar out? Now this first batch will either be as flat as a witches tit or blow my head off.. (either way it'll get drunk)
Thanks once again Chippy

 

[Craig57]

As Chippy says there may be enough sugar in the juice for you to get the ABV you want so no need to add more at the start. The apple juice I use has 110g per litre, if yours is the same and the grape juice is the same that's 440g. This would give you ABV of about 4.5 - 5% so you may not want to add additional sugar.

just looked at my bottles. Red grape juice is 16g per 100 and Apple juice is 12g per 100. Not sure how to work out the ABV of anything ive made as yet, as ive only done kits and a WOW wine whee i just followed a recipe given.

 

[Chippy_Tea]

You mean sugar Chippy i take not juice?

Yes for wine you have to add around 800g of sugar to the demijohn as the cartons will have 300g (ish) meaning 1100g total.

For cider (as LedZep) says there is enough already in the cartons for 5% (ish) so you don't need to add more unless you want to make it stronger.

 

[LED_ZEP]

just looked at my bottles. Red grape juice is 16g per 100 and Apple juice is 12g per 100. Not sure how to work out the ABV of anything ive made as yet, as ive only done kits and a WOW wine whee i just followed a recipe given.

That's 520g so would give about 6% ABV.

 

[Craig57]

That's 520g so would give about 6% ABV.

Thats great, one more question how did/do you get to that figure?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

just looked at my bottles. Red grape juice is 16g per 100 and Apple juice is 12g per 100. Not sure how to work out the ABV of anything ive made as yet, as ive only done kits and a WOW wine whee i just followed a recipe given.

To be honest there isn't really much to work out, if you have a demijohn of juice and the total content of the sugar in it is 550g you will have roughly 6% ABV which is cider territory, if you double that to 1100g you will have 12% ABV which is wine territory.

 

[Craig57]

Yes for wine you have to add around 800g of sugar to the demijohn as the cartons will have 300g (ish) meaning 1100g total.

For cider (as LedZep) says there is enough already in the cartons for 5% (ish) so you don't need to add more unless you want to make it stronger.

Chippy, the one thing im very confused at ( well a few actually) this is pretty much a WOW recipe so how does it become a cider and not a wine? And i have added a bag of sugar to my wow and it wasnt too strong?
Im sure all this will become clear one day soon.

 

[LED_ZEP]

Thats great, one more question how did/do you get to that figure?

apple 12g / 100ml x10 = 120g/litre x3 = 360/3l
Grape 16g / 100ml x10 = 160g/litre x1 = 160g/1l
add the two 520g

 

[Craig57]

apple 12g / 100ml x10 = 120g/litre x3 = 360/3l
Grape 16g / 100ml x10 = 160g/litre x1 = 160g/1l
add the two 520g

Led Zep i understand that, apologies for not being clear, i meant how did you work out that ABV or any other ABV ?

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Chippy, the one thing im very confused at ( well a few actually) this is pretty much a WOW recipe so how does it become a cider and not a wine?

My view is if its over 10% its wine under 10% cider, having said that i wouldn't want to drink pints of 10% or 8% cider.

And i have added a bag of sugar to my wow and it wasnt too strong?

A bag of sugar (assuming it was 1Kg) should have given you double figures with the juice you say it wasn't too strong by what are you measuring that?

 

[Craig57]

My view is if its over 10% its wine under 10% cider, having said that i wouldn't want to drink pints of 10% or 8% cider.



A bag of sugar (assuming it was 1Kg) should have given you double figures with the juice you say it wasn't too strong by what are you measuring that?

Ability to speak really, nothing technical.

 

[LED_ZEP]

Led Zep i understand that, apologies for not being clear, i meant how did you work out that ABV or any other ABV ?

There's loads of calculators out there that will do the calculation for you. A rough guide is 17g/l = 1% abv

 

[Chippy_Tea]

Ability to speak really, nothing technical.

Are you making sure it ferments fully by using a hydrometer, we dropped the added sugar to by 200g as SWMBO found it a bit too strong for a Saturday night watching the TV it used to make her nod off after a couple the newer weaker version sorted that.

 

[Craig57]

Are you making sure it ferments fully by using a hydrometer, we dropped the added sugar to by 200g as SWMBO found it a bit too strong for a Saturday night watching the TV it used to make her nod off after a couple the newer weaker version sorted that.

I started to hydro at the start and finish and used a calculation (which ive lost) to work it out, then i thought it tastes ok and did the trick so stop bothering with the hydro for the same amount on the following batch

 

[Craig57]

There's loads of calculators out there that will do the calculation for you. A rough guide is 17g/l = 1% abv

That doesnt register with me now, i think im being really dumb here. 17g/l = 1% ABV.
So the juice sugar content alone is approx 520 g /4.5 l, that equates to 115?