# Bit Of A Nooby Question



## joelea (14/11/12)

hi
I'll start with-last night i was having a few drinks of home brew beer :beerbang: and for some stupid reason i topped up my beer with homebrew
apple cider.
At the time it tasted good, my question is can i do a beer kit but with apple juice instead of water?
will i get a beer
a cider
a beer that tastes like cider
a cider that taste like beer
or rubbish
am i just being silly?
is it done as a normal thing?

cheers


----------



## chunckious (14/11/12)

This is how Mikkellar makes his beers.


----------



## bignath (14/11/12)

joelea said:


> hi
> I'll start with-last night i was having a few drinks of home brew beer :beerbang: and for some stupid reason i topped up my beer with homebrew
> apple cider.
> At the time it tasted good, my question is can i do a beer kit but with apple juice instead of water?
> ...



give it a try and report back.

It will be ridiculously high in gravity. It will be way sweet (and not in a born in 2000's kind of way either).

People have made beer from beer before too (all grain though). IIRC, they ended up being able to drink a couple of them.

no, it's not normal.


----------



## Nick JD (14/11/12)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snakebite_%28shandy%29


----------



## Liam_snorkel (14/11/12)

joelea said:


> my question is can i do a beer kit but with apple juice instead of water?


buy a packet of cider yeast from your LHBS, give it a go and report back.
:beerbang:


----------



## joelea (14/11/12)

*Big Nath [*It will be ridiculously high in gravity. It will be way sweet (and not in a born in 2000's kind of way either)*]

*i am guessing i wont need to add all of the 1kg sugar as per kit instructions


*Liam_snorkel *


> buy a packet of cider yeast from your LHBS, give it a go and report back



i use S-04 for alll my ciders ( 29 @ 18lt batches since june 2011 and there all the same-juice and yeast no sugar)

*Nick JD

*snakebite hey love the name

thanks guy will definitly make this next free fermenter


----------



## Wasabi (14/11/12)

Beer/Cider hybrids have come and gone over time, but with the resurgence in the cider market, experimental brewers have again turned to them.

Have a look at http://mobile.drinks.seriouseats.com/2011/...r-and-beer.html

I say give it a go and report back...


----------



## Nick JD (14/11/12)

Snakebite is the name for 50/50 beer cider with a splash of blackcurrent cordial in it. 

Lubricates the slappers good n proppa.


----------



## Bribie G (14/11/12)

There's a Tassie craft brewery that uses apple juice in some of its brews. 
As impoverished students in Wales many years ago my mates and I used to blend cider (was way cheaper than bottled beer back then) with various drinks to get hammered cheaper:

Black Velvet - Guinness and cider (should be Guinness and Champagne, but talking students here)
Viking - lager and cider

plus all sorts of other tricks like cheap apricot wine. However from the beer point of view, the equivalent of 1kg sugar in the form of juice would produce a palatable brew IMHO. 

You could check sugar content on the bottle with a bit of fancy calculating - I see that Coles has pure apple juice 2L two for five bucks at the moment. I'd go a cider or sparkling wine yeast with this one.
edit: and use a fairly bland kit such as Cerveza or Canadian.

Damn can't find my Calorie King book to check it from there but an online search should get you the kilojoules for sugar / juice.


----------



## C-MOR (14/11/12)

If its a shit house drink it may still make excellent vinegar


----------



## joelea (14/11/12)

no probs, my next free F.V. me will do it - without adding 1kg sugar as per instructions on tin.
my normal cider i do has ABV of about 4.8% pending on how much under 1.000 it gets hopefully this wont be any higher

cheers

ps. i use coles apple juice 3lt for 3.35$ @ 103 grams sugar p/litre

pss. ingredients are RECONSTITUTED APPLE JUICE 99.9% ,CITRIC ACID,FLAVOR AND COLOR


----------



## SuiCIDER (25/11/12)

Check this recipe out:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/graff-malt...d-cider-117117/

Sounds like something you'd be interested in.


----------



## bum (25/11/12)

Big Nath said:


> It will be way sweet


Have you fermented apple juice before, Nath?

It has the potential to be way drier than any beer you've ever made, joelea. If you ferment with a cider/champers yeast (as suggested) the juice will likely ferment out lower than the SG of water - unless your other ingredients include a tonne of dextrines you're not going to end up with a sweet brew at all. This may not be your aim, of course. Just suggesting an alternative view to the advice above.



Bribie G said:


> There's a Tassie craft brewery that uses apple juice in some of its brews.


2MetresTall. Huon Dark Ale is one such beer of theirs and it is right up there amongst the most horrible shit I have ever drunk in my life.


----------



## bignath (25/11/12)

bum said:


> It has the potential to be way drier than any beer you've ever made, joelea. If you ferment with a cider/champers yeast (as suggested) the juice will likely ferment out lower than the SG of water..



Well, i didn't know that. 

Quite obviously i haven't fermented apple juice before...well actually i have, but one of those oztops things a decade ago. Only time i've done it.

Quite happy to be corrected, thanks Bum.


----------



## bum (25/11/12)

There are many previously discussed methods he could follow should he wish to allow it to be sweet, of course. My post is based on the assumption that being a "beer" it would be allowed to ferment out completely (several assumptions here).


----------



## joelea (26/11/12)

Ive only brewed cider and lots of it
but i did start my cider/beer brew on the 18/11/2012

1 beer kit - which includes a unknown yeast packet
2lt water - to dissolve the kit goo
15lt clear apple juice
into a 20lt fermenter, well the OG was 1.068 was is way to high for my liking
so i racked some of and topped up with water till i got OG 1.052
added the yeast and it took off really quickly

the beer kit instructions say to bottle and add carb drops when SG hits 1.005 - 1.002
ill just follow the instructions and hopefully get a beer that don't taste to beerry or a cider with a bit more body

cheers

oh yeh and no added sugar


----------



## joelea (7/12/12)

bit of a update

well its been 18 days since i put this down and over the last 5 days the SG has been at 1.010 and not budging.
I've never bottled any ciders with this high FG 
is it done coz i used a beer kit and thats were they finish?
or has my yeast crapped out?
should i bottle or should i wait longer?
if i bottle should i prime as usaull ?
the hydrometer samples taste good and bubbly but the alcohol seems fairly high :icon_drunk: 
cheers


----------



## joelea (13/12/12)

bit of a update
the SG has been at 1.006 for 3days now so today i will bottle and prime with carb drops


----------



## evildrakey (18/12/12)

http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~pwp/tofi/bmdl_brewers/apple_beer.html

Apple Beers go Waaaay back... Like 1702... I've got one brewing at the moment, with a twist tho - the grain was MASHED with apple juice... It's come out very cloudy, so I'm about to pitch some pectinase to help with that...


----------

