# Woolworths Cider.



## Dave70 (4/1/13)

Whilst waiting for the bank to open this morning I decided to kill a little time by purchasing all the ingredients for an experimental batch of cider from Woolies. 

Plus, I had the young bloke with me and riding in the trolly whilst yanking items off the shelves keeps him happy - and more importantly, quiet.

Actually, If Absolute HB was open, it would be Pats shelves he'd be clawing at. 


Still, If this shows potential, I'll be giving a bigger batch a go. And most likely using a serious  different yeast..









Of course, only finest produce was used.








This chunk of candi sugar was the only ring in. 







A sugary 1.050. Don't know what the alcohol tolerance for bakers yeast is, but going by some past mead's, its _enough_. 








After a mere 2 hours, the yeasties are teeing off big time and it resembles a lava lamp.
I should have suspended that improvised spill tray above the air lock. 
The gentle 'pop' I heard from the lounge room was a money shot of blackberries giving the ceiling a quick touch up. 
Mercifully, the wife was in another room on the phone, and I'm handy with the sugar soap and chux. 


So that's your lot.

Between this remotely upscale version of jailhouse hooch and manticles hi-brow French odyssey, we must have just about all bases covered I reckon.


Let ya know how it goes.


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## JDW81 (4/1/13)

I'll be interested to hear how the bakers yeast goes. 

Ingredients look like they'd make a good batch of cider.


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## winkle (4/1/13)

Dave70 said:


> Whilst waiting for the bank to open this morning I decided to kill a little time by purchasing all the ingredients for an experimental batch of cider from Woolies.
> 
> Plus, I had the young bloke with me and riding in the trolly whilst yanking items off the shelves keeps him happy - and more importantly, quiet.
> 
> ...




"Money Shot" Cider, hey, good work.


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## NewtownClown (4/1/13)

Pat did open, albiet informally, between 11am and 3pm.


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## AJ80 (4/1/13)

Out of curiosity, how much bakers yeast did you pitch? I'm keen to try something similar...

Thanks!


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## Dave70 (4/1/13)

AJ80 said:


> Out of curiosity, how much bakers yeast did you pitch? I'm keen to try something similar...
> 
> Thanks!



1 sachet, which is 7g, dumped straight on top then sloshed about.


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## AJ80 (4/1/13)

Dave70 said:


> 1 sachet, which is 7g, dumped straight on top then sloshed about.



Thanks for the quick response...looking forward to giving something like this a crack.

Cheers.


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## pokolbinguy (4/1/13)

I can see the yeast and ferment temp being the potential un-doing for this. If it doesn't work trick those two parts up and give it another go and see. If you don't want to potentially "waste" as much ingredients just scale it back in size and try it

Deffinatley interested to hear what its like, my GF is a cider fan.


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## shmang (4/1/13)

I might have to give it a go tomorrow,
I've got a spare FV, a local woolies and a pack of US-05.

I love a good experiment ^_^


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## nathan_madness (4/1/13)

Some minor changes will make this an awesome cider:

1: Use SN9 yeast
2: Control temp to 18deg 
3: Primary ferment the apple juice 2 weeks then dump berries into secondary and leave it alone for 4 weeks.


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## Phoney (5/1/13)

nathan_madness said:


> Some minor changes will make this an awesome cider:
> 
> 1: Use SN9 yeast
> 2: Control temp to 18deg
> 3: Primary ferment the apple juice 2 weeks then dump berries into secondary and leave it alone for 4 weeks.





Pretty much. I'm pretty baffled as to why you would do what the OP has done when you could do a bit more and end up with an awesome drop :blink:


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## stux (5/1/13)

NewtownClown said:


> Pat did open, albiet informally, between 11am and 3pm.



Doh, 

I needed an America ale (non us05/1056) today 

Anyway dee at country brewer kingswood has hooked me up with some norwest, btw you should check it out since ownership changed. Great for the epicurean side of homebrew


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## Dunkelbrau (5/1/13)

Stux said:


> Doh,
> 
> I needed an America ale (non us05/1056) today
> 
> Anyway dee at country brewer kingswood has hooked me up with some norwest, btw you should check it out since ownership changed. Great for the epicurean side of homebrew



Was never a fan of the old owner there, very.. Stand offish.
I've seen Dee a few times when I didn't have time to make it to Pat (Absolute is the opposite direction to home going from work and I go straight past country brewer otherwise) and she has been good, I haven't picked their brain yet though!
I do like the sound of the adjusted steps mentioned above, I might give it a go in the next few months


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## Dave70 (5/1/13)

pokolbinguy said:


> I can see the yeast and ferment temp being the potential un-doing for this. If it doesn't work trick those two parts up and give it another go and see. If you don't want to potentially "waste" as much ingredients just scale it back in size and try it
> 
> Deffinatley interested to hear what its like, my GF is a cider fan.



It went down into the garage last night to keep the temp in check. Still bubbling nicely.


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## Dave70 (5/1/13)

nathan_madness said:


> Some minor changes will make this an awesome cider:
> 
> 1: Use SN9 yeast
> 2: Control temp to 18deg
> 3: Primary ferment the apple juice 2 weeks then dump berries into secondary and leave it alone for 4 weeks.




I've never really seen the point of racking into a secondary full of fruit, or actually racking to a secondary full stop. The yeast is going to do what its going to do once it hit's the fruit anyway, right? 
Unless you killed off the yeast through pasteurization or whatever before you racked onto the fruit, whats the point?
We're not talking dry hopping here.

If there _is_ a solid reason., I'd like to hear it as I'll do it next time round.


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## Damien13 (5/1/13)

The reason I would rack onto fruit into a secondary is that (most of the time) you would want the fruit to cut through a fair bit. Especially with blueberries which are a little subtle, a lot of the aromatics will bubble out that money shot bubbler of yours if you chuck it in with the initial yeast.

As you are adding all canned ingredients, there isn't the added reason of having some alcohol in the cider already, which will inhibit wild yeast bending over your hooch and giving it a nice lacto/funky kick... unless that is what you are after... 

which would be awesome by the way.


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## manticle (5/1/13)

Dave70 said:


> I've never really seen the point of racking into a secondary full of fruit, or actually racking to a secondary full stop. The yeast is going to do what its going to do once it hit's the fruit anyway, right?
> Unless you killed off the yeast through pasteurization or whatever before you racked onto the fruit, whats the point?
> We're not talking dry hopping here.
> 
> If there _is_ a solid reason., I'd like to hear it as I'll do it next time round.




Taking the healthy yeast in suspension and leaving behind the trub would be the main reason. Whether you feel that's necessary for 4 weeks of sitting on fruit is up to you - if I rack onto stuff, it usually sits there for 6+ months (up to 2 years so definitely a point then).

For something that is obviously meant to be the simplest of simple ciders, I wouldn't be trying to overcomplicate. Seems like a 'let's see how she goes - nothing lost if she doesn't' kind of brew.


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## Dave70 (5/1/13)

manticle said:


> Taking the healthy yeast in suspension and leaving behind the trub would be the main reason. Whether you feel that's necessary for 4 weeks of sitting on fruit is up to you - if I rack onto stuff, it usually sits there for 6+ months (up to 2 years so definitely a point then).
> 
> For something that is obviously meant to be the simplest of simple ciders, I wouldn't be trying to overcomplicate. Seems like a 'let's see how she goes - nothing lost if she doesn't' kind of brew.



If I were doing some kind of Kriek or Framboise knock off - which indecently I like to do one day - I could totally see racking it. I guess the alcohol content of the pre fermented beer / cider goes some way to both preserving and extracting the fruit flavor. For a giggle like this though, hardly worth it. 

However, the aim is to produce something totally drinkable here. 
Failing that, something I can at least sell to the people from the local caravan park. 
Gotta be better than those magnum cans of Woodstock they're always armed with.


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## manticle (5/1/13)

My point exactly


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## Dave70 (24/1/13)

OK, here's how it turned out.

The yeast managed to strip most of the flavours out, but lightly carbed, it _is_ kind of 'spritzy'.
The honey and sugar additions obviously played a role there. No really..
Would have been quite nice otherwise and certianly worth going large scale.
If you could imagine a low carb version of a apple & berry Bacardi Breezer, this would be it.

Food paring:
Low fat ice cream with diet topping.


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## shmang (24/1/13)

Looks tasty Dave70, Shame the flavours didn't come through.
I decided to add the fruit during secondary (which I did on Tuesday), I ended using mixed berry's.
Tasting prior to secondary was promising, hopefully the fruit flavours will come through.
I will post the results soon.


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## jrsy85 (24/1/13)

I've been making coles cider for a few years now, Apple Pear and Honey is a hit in my family. I wrote up my Christmas cider here 

http://goo.gl/yJ0OS

Cheers


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## troopa (28/1/13)

I've been using bread yeast in most of my cider lately 
to me it beats the he'll out of most cider and champagne yeasts I've used 
20l for 20bux ... and I havnt thrown out a batch
it's great for when you just cbf doing a brew


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