Apple And Blackcurrent Cider

[casualties_army40]

A few days ago i put on (22L) a Apple and Blackcurrent cider. My aim was to make a real strong still cider that i can drink with freinds to get maggot and dance and only usethe stuff i had because i had no money. Hopefully it turns out well. Anyway, heres my recipe.

6L of Apple juice
6L of Apple and blackcurrent juice
2.5Kg of white table sugar (because it produces 'cidery' flavours)
100g of raisins (minced)
100g of sultanas (minced)
1 Teabag (Nerada - no preservatives, artificial flav, colours, chlorine or chlorine base compounds[the hippy stuff])
Citric acid
Yeast nutrient
Topped up with water

Vintners Harvest BV7 wine yeast (only one i had).

OG 1078

I just chucked everything in the fermenter and away it went. It started off slow, it's been 5 days now and it just started bubling. the SG is 1044 now. Its got a real nice dark purple colour and taste fantastic but still abit on the sweet side (obviously needs longer to ferment out more).

Since its gonna be a still cider, my plan is to keep on taste testing it and when it gets to my desired ABV and flavour, just chuck some campdem tablets in to stop fermentation. Then drink away.

Anyway i just thought i'd share my recipe with you all and i'll keep yous posted on how its going. cheers.

 

[under]

My aim was to make a real strong still cider that i can drink with freinds to get maggot and dance and only usethe stuff i had because i had no money.

Gold.

 

[bowie in space]

Gold.

My sentiments, exactly.

Bowie

 

[redbeard]

Yes, Hello, Welcome. Whats with the hippy teabag ? slight rouge colour or organic anti-oxidants ? do you boil the water ?

cheers

 

[Scruffy]

what you drinking in the meantime, dude?

 

[casualties_army40]

Whats with the hippy teabag

I was in Melbourne last week and a few of the old punks that homebrew said that they use tea for cider because of its naturally high tannin content. you can either boil up some tea and chuck it into the fermeter with the teabag, or just chuck in the teabag. i thought i might aswell give it a shot since theree was some tea lying around.

what you drinking in the meantime, dude?

im drinking the last of my mexican chilli beer (its got a good kick of chilli in it, yum) and some dark ales that ive had for ages and forgot about them. the dark ales dont taste as nice as they did when i was drinking them a while back

anyway the apple and blackcurrent cider is going good. its about 7% and taste fantastic. still abit on the sweet side but its still got longer to ferment.

cheers.

 

[manticle]

2.5Kg of white table sugar (because it produces 'cidery' flavours)

Debatable. Some schools of thought suggest that sucrose stresses the yeast and yeast stress is a main cause of acetylaldehyde (green apple flavour). Loads of homebrewers will tell you that white sugar in and of itself will not produce green apple or 'cideriness'.

If you want a cider to taste cidery then you need to use cider ingredients (such as apples or apple juice). White sugar will just dry/thin it out and add ABV (which sounds like what you want anyway).

Good to see the DIY spirit alive and well.