# Black Rock Cider Opened First Bottle.



## pdilley (22/3/09)

Cider - Alcohol present and accounted for, Carbonation I dialed in perfect, loving it.

Taste - not there, not loving it. just too weak, nothing in the background, going to get some apple juice to mix with the cider to make it palatable.

Next time I'm going to try something else considering the $26 LHBS price of this tin. ALDI's $1.89 per 2 liter bottles of Apple Juice would probably taste the same as this and perhaps better at $18.90 for 20 liters or $21.70 for 23 liters.

Now if I only had a cider apple farm close to canberra that I can go buy freshly pressed cider from!


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## GMK (22/3/09)

Go see Colin at BYOAH in Kambah - He will put you onto an Apple Orchid Guy just out of Canberra to buy bulk apple juice from.

Yes - you need to add at least 6ltrs of Apple juice to the tin. Then top up with water. I also use Raw Sugar and not castor. Also - leave out the dry enzyme - use either a Pinot Noir yeast or Wyeast Sweet Mead (for a sweeter more full bodied Cider) or Wyeast Dried Cider Yeast.

Also add - 4 Granny Smith apples cut inot Eighths in the secondary - A term I call Dry Appling... 

Hope this helps.


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## chadjaja (22/3/09)

Makes great cider if you have the can, add coopers BE2, 3Lts of apple juice and one 1lt can of pear juice.

Turns out great!


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## pdilley (22/3/09)

Cheers guys that helps. I'm going to let this batch rest a while longer in the bottle and then back sweeten with some juice mixtures on serving. Anythng to add apple taste at this point wouldn't hurt. Ciders seem to need a good variety of apple juices to get a developed flavour profile and I knew that going in, just didn't think the tin would be that bad in flavour profile.


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## RdeVjun (22/3/09)

Brewer Pete said:


> Cheers guys that helps. I'm going to let this batch rest a while longer in the bottle and then back sweeten with some juice mixtures on serving. Anythng to add apple taste at this point wouldn't hurt. Ciders seem to need a good variety of apple juices to get a developed flavour profile and I knew that going in, just didn't think the tin would be that bad in flavour profile.


Yep, mine was much the same, can't rate that tin very highly, I must admit. Hence my sourcing of the fresh pressed juice to see if I can't destroy its quality just as badly!


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## brocky_555 (30/3/09)

Just been to Mark's Home Brew shop in Newcastle and he has a cider apple juice in bulk from an orchard for $40 per cube (15L) for making cider. I bought it for the missus cause she wanted me to make a cider. Any idea what sort of temp you should brew a cider at ?


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## pokedad (4/4/09)

Brewer Pete said:


> Cider - Alcohol present and accounted for, Carbonation I dialed in perfect, loving it.
> 
> Taste - not there, not loving it. just too weak, nothing in the background, going to get some apple juice to mix with the cider to make it palatable.
> 
> Next time I'm going to try something else considering the $26 LHBS price of this tin. ALDI's $1.89 per 2 liter bottles of Apple Juice would probably taste the same as this and perhaps better at $18.90 for 20 liters or $21.70 for 23 liters.



A mate and I had the exact same issue. 

He made a blackrock cider kit and it was crap. Weak and watery. He had to mix it with apple juice to get any flavour out of it. He also dabbled with mixing it with coke when he was low on juice, but ultimately he had to wade through it just to use it. 

I have been making something very similar to you for a few batches now. 

12 litres of Aldi Apple Juice, Westcliff. I got it for a price point of 96c a litre ( off the top of my head ).

9.6 litres of Berri Juice ( 4 x 2.4 L containers ) Apple and Pear. I get them for about $3 each. 

1.75kg of Dextrose ( I like it strong but just adjust this to suit ) 

A silver packet ale yeast from my LHBS ( the name escapes me right this minute ) I use this yeast cause it's forgiving on my 22c fermenting temp.

I really quite like this cider, got a good kick, nice taste, and tastes like drinking sparkling apple juice. I won't go back to make a cider out of a kit ever again, there is just no need. Also this way works out cheap too. 

My latest batch I've thrown in 250g of Lactose to take a little of the tartness out, but that's just to make it to taste. 

Give it a go, you won't be dissapointed.


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## pdilley (4/4/09)

Thanks Allan,


Yes, I've got Black Rock in the closet of long term storage, I'll pull it out in 6 months and give it another go.

The recipe you just gave is similar for German Apfelwein. Which is a recipe I want to get around to posting here.

The only problem is that to get the German Apfelwein to taste exactly like it does back in Germany, the recipe has balanced around Red Star Montrachet yeast. Both my LHBS can not get this yeast. And perhaps no one in Australia can.

I have two cartons (26 liters?) of the Aldi Apple Juice, Westcliff 
The dextrose is just about spot on for Edworts Apfelwein recipe, he likes it strong as well. The German one is less ABV but it does not effect the taste.

The Apfelwein has been brewed with many different yeasts but the Montrachet produces the best results form those who have done a multi-batch, multi-yeast-strain brew out of it and they all seem to return back to Red Star Montrachet.

Very annoying! 

Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## bennyq (29/10/14)

Hi, I am new to home brewing and would love some help with doing a cider from scratch. I have currently got a tin of black rock cider in a fermentor that is nearly ready to be bottled but did not add any extra apple juice as people on here have claimed helps the taste.. Hope mine turns out to be drinkable.

Anyway, my main question is the process of doing Allan's recipe, do you just pour in all the juice and dextrose, pitch the yeast and done? Also, could you use a safale 05 yeast, i have read elsewhere this yeast can work well with apple cider? Any pointers would be much appreciated, ultimately I would like to work toward a StrongBow clone...


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## indica86 (29/10/14)

The Blacrock kit is nice.
We have used it several times.
Needs some aging to really shine though. Sample after 4 weeks.
Next time I would not use US05.
I have used champagne yeast with great success and some other wine yeasts.
Read their specifications to see what leaves what king of flavours and see what you want.


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## bennyq (29/10/14)

Seems like alot of sugar to be adding, his recipe adds 1.75kg ontop of all the sugar that would be in the juice? And the process, do u just pour it all in and pitch the yeast ontop?


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## Jimrtl81 (29/10/14)

If you want it to be good it is a two can brew.


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## Dae Tripper (29/10/14)

This type of two can?


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## Dae Tripper (29/10/14)

On a serious note the Mrs loves the black rock can. She wants it just a tad sweeter next time, so I will put a tad of lactose in. 
I will have a taste and let you all know what I think after nightshift. From memory it was drinkable green but hope the few weeks has done some wonders.


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## Dae Tripper (30/10/14)

So I have just had a go... Tasted the same really, very dry. Would be an alright drop with some unfermentable sugar in there. I might get some and add it to the keg an see how it goes.


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## indica86 (30/10/14)

If it is kegged and cold, backsweeten it with Apple Juice.


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## Dae Tripper (30/10/14)

Will do champ, thanks!


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## blekk (15/11/14)

Got a can for Xmas brew. The missus likes a dry cider (Somersby double press comes to mind). Picked up some mangrove jack cider yeast to pop in and a kilo of dex. Should I add the fresh juice to this or should it be the dry taste she's after?


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## Simbob (15/1/15)

+1 Totally agree regarding how dry the Black rock cider is. I've made it twice now. The first time I followed the recipe and it was dry with a slight 'funky Apple' flavour at the end. The second time I made it (just recently), I tried to up the apple flavour and substituted 4l of water for unpasteurised Apple juice - the result, drier and less flavour.

Won't be trying a 3rd time.


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## Only1MADMaN (15/3/19)

I know this is an only post but I must agree. 
Black Rock let me down. 
I’m ganna go against what I’ve said before and say that, apart from the nutrasweet taste the Brigalow kit from Big W packs more flavor. 
And at $14 compared to $36 it’s an expensive experiment. 

I’m going to have to back sweeten with apple juice to make this even close to what I expected. 

PS: Lactose only makes a mouth feel and imparts no sweetness. 

So disappointed. [emoji30][emoji19]


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