BUDGET CIDER BREWING !!! AROUND 12P PER PINT

[broona]

Received the Brew Buddy Yesterday (had already ordered it before reading your post Geezah, doh!) and it's supposed to come with the following :-

1 x 25 Litre fermentation container
1 x 25 Litre fermentation container lid
Hydrometer
Syphon tube and clip
1 x Beer pack
1 x Beer yeast
1 x Steriliser

But I appear to have 2 tinned beer packs, 1 labelled and 1 unlabelled, and possibly 2 little silver yeast packs, 1 labelled XOB, the other labelled AIB, any ideas please people?!

Not using them yet anyway, as I'm going to make a couple of batches of turbo cider first for the practice, just making sure I'm using the right stuff when I do!

[Thrush]

Ello gents,

I started my first brew last night, sadly we don't have demi-johns readily available here, in fact they don't make cider! (shock horror) So I have had to improvise and use one of their sake pickling jars to make my brew.

Anyway, last night I added one litre of apple juice to the jar (sterilized with ethanol) and a tea spoon of bread yeast. It was bubbling away quite happily and had a nice "cider" smell to it.

Today I added 2 more litres of apple juice and a cup of strongly brewed tea to the jar and everything has gone quiet.

Do you think I should add a bit more yeast to the mix?

[Geezah]

Was the tea cooled to below 25 c ?
Heat and cold can kill a yeast.
Can you hear any fizzing when you put your ear to the jar?
Did you give the jar a good shake to airate when you pitched the yeast and added the aj/tea?

[Thrush]

It's back to normal bubbling like there is no tomorrow!

I was worried that there wasn't enough yeast but I guess there was, as for the tea it was cold before I threw it in.

So all is well (at the moment)

[Geezah]

Just bottled up my Vimto TC.
started saturday, fermented to 1000 by wednesday, bottled tonight @ 10%ABV

My lemonade is still fermenting like mad!!!

I might try red, yellow, orange bell peppers, ginger and white grape juice this weekend.

[prezzy]

Just bottled up my Vimto TC.
started saturday, fermented to 1000 by wednesday, bottled tonight @ 10%ABV

My lemonade is still fermenting like mad!!!

I might try red, yellow, orange bell peppers, ginger and white grape juice this weekend.

Good man!

if it has got down to 1000 get it bottled

looking forward to seeing how you reckon the vimto . lemonade tastes think they are defo on my list to make.

Have just nicked a pressure barrel off my mate so gonna get 40 pints of lager on the go from kit next week

[Geezah]

Had a sip of the Vimto as I bottled it up.
Still got a slight vimto taste, but will have to see how it goes after a few weeks conditioning. I'm guessing the recipe could be improved by using 1.5l of vimto and 3l of red grape juice (my next vimto trial)
Will keep you updated as to how this vimto brew turns out though.

The lemonade is still going mad. Took a sample today and its gone down to 1020 and although its sharpe, its still retaining a little sweetness.
I might stop this at 1010 with campdem tablets and rack it off as its well cloudy at the moment. It should still be around 8.5%

I'm considering doing another lemonade in september... letting it ferment to 1010 then dropping it on to a elderberry mash for a secondary ferment and making a wine.
I think the lemon citrus against the dark red berries will make for a nice full rose wine.

[prezzy]

Bottled my last batch of turbo cider last Friday and have just cracked one now - a little early but wanted to make sure it was ok - gonna stick outside for another couple of weeks before I open any more.



Tastes quality - is clear and very fizzy

Just ordered a kit to make 40 pints of a Austrailian pale ale to go into the two pressure barrels I have acquired will get that on the go next week

[Geezah]

The mrs has complained that my ciders are too dry (perfect!) so I decided to try a quick ferment wine, so this is how it goes...

Ingredients.
1l Morrisons Summer fruit Hi Juice
3l Lidl grape juice
1/2 cup of strong black tea
400g white sugar
Youngs yeast nutrient
SB7 Champagne Yeast



I gently simmered the summer fruit juice for 20 minutes to remove additives and then added sugar and black tea. Left to cool.

Put 1/3 pint of grape juice in to a pint glass, added about 2 shots of the fruit juice & 1/4 tsp of yeast nutrients and added the yeast to make my starter.
As this has such a high sugar content, I guessed a starter would be needed or it might go slow or get stuck.



I took a hydrometer reading to get my SG.



I added remainder of the grape juice to my demijohn along with the fruit juice/tea mixture, and added a tsp of yeast nutrient and pitched my starter after giving it 2 hrs



Gave it a good old shake to airate the brew, left it to settle



The starter is working well..

SG1120

I'm hoping to get this down to 0.996 to make it about 16.5% then back sweeten it to taste.

I will probably throw another similar brew straight on to this yeast cake when i rack it off.




This is on the to-do list

[broona]

My current recipe is:

8 litres of cheap apple juice
1 litre of strong tea (5 teabags in just over a litre of tea)
520 grams demerara sugar
good squeeze of honey
some pectolase (helps to clear the cider)
14 grams malic acid (adds some bite to the cider to give the taste of biting into a fresh apple)
1 sachet of youngs champagne yeast
put into two dj

Binned my first attempt as it still tasted like vinegar, no way I could drink that, lol!

Mostly copied your recipe Prezzy, hope you don't mind, set my second attempt away on Saturday morning.

4 litres of Princes apple juice (on special offer at Tesco!)
0.5 litre of strong tea (5 teabags in half a litre of tea)
300 grams demerara sugar
some pectolase (helps to clear the cider)
8 grams malic acid (adds some bite to the cider to give the taste of biting into a fresh apple)
1 teaspoon Young's super wine yeast compound
1 teaspoon Young's yeast nutrient
put into a dj

Looks and smells 1000x than my first effort.

[RSV]

After reading this thread and doing a bit of research on other forums i started my first batch of TC on Saturday, my recipe was:-
5ltrs of Tesco own brand AJ
200g of Dark brown sugar
3 Teaspoons of Honey
1 Strong cup (3 yorkshire tea bags) tea (cooled)
1 pack of Champagne yeast.
1 lemon.
After sterilysing ALL the kit thoroughly i poured 3ltrs of the AJ into a DJ, i then dissolved into a ltr of AJ the dark brown sugar and honey, waited for that to cool and added to DJ.
Started yeast off in a cup of warm water with a teaspoon of granulated sugar which i lightly whisked and left for about 10-15 mins untill it started frothing then added yeast mixture to DJ.
Chopped up a lemon and put that into DJ too, gave it all a good shake and put the bung and water trap on. It was bubbling away within 20 mins. Wasn't untill the next morning i realised i'd forgotten the cup of tea so i then put that in.
It's bubbling away at a serious rate of knots now and i cant stop going out to the out-house (where its wrapped in blankets) to check it. Every time i open the door there's a really strong cidery smell

[RSV]

Topped up my DJ last night with the final ltr of AJ, havent had any froth/scum on the top just a real constant stream of fizz bubbles, the airlock prob bubbles 2-3 times per second!
Can really see myself getting in to this if it turns out good & drinkable. Was looking on ebay etc for some good swing top bottles but they all worked out well expensive (about £2 each) when i went to Asda last night they had Grolsch for £1.70 a bottle so i got a few, guess i'll just have to empty the beer somewhere

[Geezah]

4 days after bottling my Vimto / apple wine, it is VERY nice.
Not dry, not too sweet, a well rounded taste and feel and a nice strength.



I'm gonna throw another 1 on to my Summer Fruit wine sediment when its finished (checked today and its still 1100) but this time Vimto and red grape to compare the taste and strength.

Bottled up my Lemonade too today... gonna give that a few weeks before I try it. Wicked if you like grapefruit.
If it stays too sharp, i'm gonna mix it 50/50 with the Vimto wine and see how it tastes.

[matthewy2]

Just had a read of this thread. Awsome gents.

I think i may get on the TC bandwagon now.

just gonna put an order in now

[Geezah]

Wicked stuff!
My mate now works for Coor's brewery and has just dropped me off:
about 200 caps
load of bottles
citric acid
tannin
finnings
liquid yeast
yeast nutrient
and some straight out of the vat Carling lager - tastes sooooo much beter before it gets pasturised and watered down.

I can see me delving into the world of mash tuns and hops boilers lol

[TotallyRandom]

will be venturing down this path at the weekend will be interesting too see the outcome i am thinking A+E or ending up in some random place

[RSV]

Thought it had stopped bubbling the other day so i racked it off into a nice clean DJ to let clear up a bit before bottling. But to my surprise its started fizzing a little bit again. Took a lil taste when racking and it was very dry and tasted very very alcoholic! I've drunk a lot of differen't ciders in my time being a Westcountry boy and i have to say i've certainly tasted a lot worse and it's supposed to improve in taste over a couple of weeks i think.

[TotallyRandom]

The brewing begins
flavours from the left
Summer fruits, Pineapple, and 2 apple (different brands)
with some yeast nutrient and some Wine Yeast

see how this turns out

[Geezah]

good stuff. make sure you top up them DJ's and give them ll the time they need.

My Morrissons Summer Fruit Wine has been fermenting for a week now and has only droped from 1120 to 1070 so it got a lot to do yet.

UPDATE
The Vimto was so good its all been drunk already
Asda had 1l bottles of Vimto on offer for a quid a bottle so I got another 3 and put a new brew on this weekend.
The lemonade is still very sharp, next time i'd use 1/2 the amount of lemons.
Made for a wicked cider shandy last night though
My Summer fruits wine is down to 1055 today, so were slowly seeing progress.

[Geezah]

http://www.thethriftyshopper.co.uk/Default.aspx
Free delivery on orders over £25 , free lables with certain kits and Free beer enhancers with some kits too.
I just received this little lot for £27
Coopers Real Ale (40 pint)
Coopers Australian Pale Ale (40 pint)
2 x beer enhancers - FREE (alternative to using sugar for more body and creamier head)
1kg of Dried Malt Extract (As above but better)

Less than 35p a pint of 4.2% real ale goodness