# Need A Good Strongbow Cider Recipe



## grinder (23/1/07)

Just After a good recipe for a Strongbow original cider recipe.

Any Help would be appreciated

Cheers


----------



## Aaron (23/1/07)

Get yourself an OzTops kit and a decent bottle of preservative free apple juice. You will produce something pretty decent with that.

http://www.oztops.com.au


----------



## danbeer (23/1/07)

grinder said:


> Just After a good recipe for a Strongbow original cider recipe.
> 
> Any Help would be appreciated
> 
> Cheers




http://www.thbs.intas.net/kit_recipes.htm

Look at the 'pear cider'

The addition of pear juice does make a difference, lending a little bit more mouth feel to the cider, compared to just using apple juice. I'd go 6L Apple + 1 or 2 of Pear + Kit, and some dextrose.


----------



## albrews (23/1/07)

grinder said:


> Just After a good recipe for a Strongbow original cider recipe.
> 
> Any Help would be appreciated
> 
> Cheers



hi ,, sanitarium brand of apple juice produces a very good cider, but i have not been able to find a local supplier recently, and can anyone help?

blackrock cider kit produces a very good result and worth a try.


cheers
alan


----------



## redbeard (23/1/07)

there's a few cider recipes on here, but as to an actual strongbow recipe, mmm perhaps u could try a few modifications & tell us ? ;-)

i think strongbow tends to be sweet, so perhaps a yeast that doesnt attenuate / eat all the sugar, perhaps an ale yeast, or add some sweetner in. search for cider for a few threads.

cheers


----------



## Wortgames (24/1/07)

I'm a bit of a cider drinker myself from way back when, but I'm not much of a Strongbow fan. There is definitely a lingering artifical sweetness to it, presumably saccharin or aspartame.

Avoid any cider kits that have malt in, I don't know why they do that but I've found many of them over the years. Cider doesn't contain malt, so adding it won't make the result cidery. Maybe it's an attempt at giving the brew some body and sweetness.

For reasons that should be obvious, it is very difficult to make a 'real' cider with any sort of residual sweetness. Real cider is either very dry, or it is drunk from the cask when most of the fermentation is complete but there is still some sweetness left. If your missus drinks Strongbow she may not enjoy a very dry cider.

It is especially hard to avoid a really dry result if you intend to bottle it, as obviously you need full attenuation and viable yeast in the bottle to carbonate.

Despite several attempts, I've never produced a decent cider, and I've kind of given up - although I might be tempted to have another go at it. There is definitely an art to it and it is different from brewing beer.

As I see it, the options for some sweetness are:

1. Brew a dry cider and add a drop of syrup or sugar in the glass to sweeten it to taste. I reckon this is probably the easiest option, and I suspect it will probably prove to be the best one with the cleanest flavours, and it will let you find a sweetness level you like.

2. Stop the fermentation when the desired attenuation has been achieved, using campden tablets / sodium met (or possibly even heat?!) This may work well if you are kegging. It may require a bit of trial and error to allow for the flavour effects of carbonation and to work out the right dosing rate.

3. Use artificial sweeteners (which all taste foul if you ask me).

I would avoid the temptation to use champagne yeast, that is just deliberately asking for a mouth-puckering dry champagne-like result. If anything, and if I was going for a really authentic cider, I would probably use a lambic blend (real cider ferments spontaneously from yeasts and bugs on the skins).

If you decide to use real apples, traditionally cidermakers use about 50/50 cooking apples and eating apples.

I know all this doesn't help specifically with a 'Strongbow Clone', but unless you are happy to mess around with artificial sweeteners and pear juice I think it might be trickier than you think.


----------



## warrenlw63 (24/1/07)

Yep. I gave up too WG. My ciders were drier than a nun's nasty.  

I found that buying a bottle of the apple syrup which you could get from the health food section of Coles. I'd add a teaspoon of this to a pint of Cider (in the glass). Would do the trick... :beerbang: Bit of a compromise but better than overly dry cider.

Warren -


----------



## pint of lager (24/1/07)

A couple of other ways to get sweetness into the glass.

When pouring from the bottle into the glass, blend some sweet commercial lemonade into it. That way you can control the amount of sweetness. Don't try adding plain sugar to the glass as it will fob everywhere. That is, the dissolved carbon dioxide comes out of solution when it touches the sugar crystals.

If you keg, you could try adding sugar when you keg, chilling everything down to shut down the yeast and force carbonate. Keep the keg cold all the time or the yeast will fire up and produce a heap more carbon dioxide.


----------



## vitalogy (24/1/07)

Hi Guys,

I've added between 150-250g of lactose to the two ciders I've made so far (both Blackrock kits with champagne yeast). Neither has turned out dry, and both have been enjoyed by my Mercury Dry drinking SWMBO. 

HTH,
vitalogy


----------



## pint of lager (24/1/07)

The commercial kit and kilo ciders have varying amounts of artificial sweetner in them. Some people don't mind the flavour of artificial sweetners, some hate them.


----------



## Wortgames (24/1/07)

There is a thread on the Black Rock kits here - worth a read for anyone considering them.


----------



## albrews (24/1/07)

Wortgames said:


> There is a thread on the Black Rock kits here - worth a read for anyone considering them.




hi, a blackrock cider kit and 1kg of lyle and tate golden syrup makes a tasty cider. beware of becoming an addict to it.

cheers alan


----------



## Airgead (24/1/07)

Folks

I'll put in my vote for the Austro Vinio cider kit. Sold through www.ibrew.com.au. Look under winwmaking and then sparkling cider.

I make this for the missus and its not bad at all. All juice. No malt. No artificial sweetner. I gave some to a mate from the UK and he said it was the closest thing to a UK draft cider he has had since moving here (and he loves his cider and has tried just about everything available).

Cheers
Dave


----------

