Turbo Cider

Quite excited about brewing in general has lead me to have a go at something which will be ready to drink a little sooner...

07th July 2012

Ingredients

• 5L 100% Pressed Apple Juice (Aldi Rio Dora)
• 150g Dark Sugar
• 2 tsp Allspice
• Black tea (2 tea bags steeped for 10 mins)
• Bakers yeast - 1 teaspoons

Preparation

• Brewed tea for 10 mins
• Heated a small amount of juice to dissolve sugar and spices.
• Added solution to container with juice to make 4.5L total
• Measured original gravity 1.054
• Shook for 5 mins to aerate
• Setup blow-off tube, seal and secondary vessel
• Pitched yeast

Due to limited fermenting equipment I am brewing this in a 5l water bottle. I have constructed an airlock from siphon tubing and a bottle with water in it. This will act as an overflow if this really takes off!

All indications from other peoples attempts are that this should come out at about 6-7% ABV. Tasting the sample used for measuring the OG, it was just about the right mix of flavors.

08th June 2012

I was initially concerned that the yeast was very slow to start, as I had only pitched half the normal amount. This was because it was clear from other recipes I was over-pitching my yeast.

However fermentation started and there is a good foam building. The ad hoc airlock/blow off tubing is working fine and the headroom is proving sufficient.

Now we wait...

10th July 2012

Interestingly the brew has lost all its foam, which was looking quite unsightly and was causing mild panic. Plenty of activity, and since covering it with a blanket, it has picked up nicely.

15th July 2012

Fermentation appears to have slowed and there is a lot less activity.

26th July 2012

Racked the cider to a new demijohn, and measured the specific gravity and tasted.

Specific Gravity 1.000. Tasted like cider (which is reassuruing). Could taste the dark sugar and spices. Definite fizziness with a surprisingly bitter aftertaste. Mixing the sample with sugar corrected that bitterness.

28th July 2012

Stabilised the Cider in preparation for sweetening with sugar later in the week.

31st July 2012

Sweetened with some sugar and another litre of apple juice to bring it up to a nice rounded flavour. I suspect because of the baking yeast it had developed a bitter flavour.

The bottling went rather well with 16 284ml bottles capped. Used my grandfathers hand bottle capper which was effective but noisey and not suitable for evening brewing once baby is asleep.

03rd August 2012

Now onto labelling the bottles. As my first attempt at labelling it was a very interesting design exercise, with the most promising label as this one.

Sadly my printer wasn't up to the task and so I'll use a laser jet next time round. Still, the cider is labelled and looks more presentable.

I'm happy to call that one done.