Apple Cider _ HARD

[DarrenTheDrunk]

Well just for information to my fellow friendly brewers, I am going to try and ferment supermarket apple juice with yeast to see WTF it produces. What I am saying is simply turning a 2 liter bottle of soft cider to hard cider. IU have the glass containers and airlocks so why not !! Wish me luck and if you do not see any most posts from me...that **** killed me!!!

 

[kadmium]

There used to be a cheap kit that was essentially a balloon and some yeast to ferment it.

It works out OK but nothing spectacular. A few minor tweaks you can get some good stuff from cheap juice. Its my go to with tannins and malic acid.

She'll be right mate.

 

[Milhouse]

Thanks Mate, I guessed it had to be a slow leak because it was obviously fermenting. My alco-meter gives an AbV of 9% - would this be accurate or could be showing some error because of it's not being a pure alco/water solution.

Your alcometer is useless in brewing, it is only accurate with a pure alcohol/water mix. As others suggest the change in specific gravity is the way to calculate ABV. A very important tool as well for determining when fermentation is complete, especially when bottling.

 

[GalBrew]

Well just for information to my fellow friendly brewers, I am going to try and ferment supermarket apple juice with yeast to see WTF it produces. What I am saying is simply turning a 2 liter bottle of soft cider to hard cider. IU have the glass containers and airlocks so why not !! Wish me luck and if you do not see any most posts from me...that **** killed me!!!

People have been fermenting supermarket apple juice for ages, It will be fine. I have used saf cider yeast with Aldi apple juice many times. It will ferment totally dry (around 0.996 FG) and not taste of very much. If you backsweeten with the same apple juice that you fermented (after stabilising) you will end up with a sweetish, simple cider that while is not particularly complex, is very easy to drink.

 

[kadmium]

Also the SG of apple juice is generically around 1.045 which makes for a good ABV just using juice, but a little dextrose can boost it if you wish.

 

[Graculus]

People have been fermenting supermarket apple juice for ages, It will be fine. I have used saf cider yeast with Aldi apple juice many times. It will ferment totally dry (around 0.996 FG) and not taste of very much. If you backsweeten with the same apple juice that you fermented (after stabilising) you will end up with a sweetish, simple cider that while is not particularly complex, is very easy to drink.

I agree with everything you say there, especially the bit in bold.
I've tried a few things to try and get some flavour into it, but haven't really succeeded.
Although funnily enough I found using an ale yeast gave me a bit more flavour.


For a few dollars more I now buy the Mangrove Jack cider kit. I'm lucky that the bloke I buy my stuff from sells it significantly cheaper than most other places.
In fact I asked him if he could get me one. He got a few in and sold out quite quickly. He thanked me as it's a good seller for him.

GalBrew I see you're in East Melbourne. How are you going during lockdown? Hopefully restrictions will be eased soon.
If you can find somewhere that sells Bickfords Cloudy Apple cordial it's not a bad drop. Add a dash to your glass before pouring the cider. I had to contact Bickfords to find where to buy it. Only one stockist in my area.

 

[mayrog]

For a few dollars more I now buy the Mangrove Jack cider kit.

I think I saw in the Mangrove Jack instructions advice to leave new bottles in a warm place for 2 weeks before opening. Is this to allow the residual yeast time to properly carbonate the sugar added at the bottling?

 

[philrob]

Yes.

 

[mayrog]

Yes.

Thanks

 

[kadmium]

I personally used to wait for 3 weeks when I bottled. Also, bear in mind that Cider benefits from a longer aging and cooler temps (think England, big barrels of cider down in the cellars over autumn / winter) so 3 weeks would really be on the fast end for a cider in my own experience. I usually treat it like a lager when I keg them and let sit in the cold for about 3 weeks before starting. By the end (usually another few weeks) is when it's hitting it's stride. I should be more patient but then again I'm in Sicktoria so not much to do but drink...

 

[DarrenTheDrunk]

People have been fermenting supermarket apple juice for ages, It will be fine. I have used saf cider yeast with Aldi apple juice many times. It will ferment totally dry (around 0.996 FG) and not taste of very much. If you backsweeten with the same apple juice that you fermented (after stabilising) you will end up with a sweetish, simple cider that while is not particularly complex, is very easy to drink.

Thanks GalBrew. What do you mean by letting it "stabilise". Sorry but I am still a first year apprentice.

 

[GalBrew]

Thanks GalBrew. What do you mean by letting it "stabilise". Sorry but I am still a first year apprentice.

Stabilising is adding Potassium metabisulfite (K-MET) and potassium sorbate to your cider to prevent any refermentation from the new sugar source added. I recommend reading up on this as it can be tricky. K-MET additions are pH dependent and sorbate additions are ABV depenent.

 

[GalBrew]

I agree with everything you say there, especially the bit in bold.
I've tried a few things to try and get some flavour into it, but haven't really succeeded.
Although funnily enough I found using an ale yeast gave me a bit more flavour.


For a few dollars more I now buy the Mangrove Jack cider kit. I'm lucky that the bloke I buy my stuff from sells it significantly cheaper than most other places.
In fact I asked him if he could get me one. He got a few in and sold out quite quickly. He thanked me as it's a good seller for him.

GalBrew I see you're in East Melbourne. How are you going during lockdown? Hopefully restrictions will be eased soon.
If you can find somewhere that sells Bickfords Cloudy Apple cordial it's not a bad drop. Add a dash to your glass before pouring the cider. I had to contact Bickfords to find where to buy it. Only one stockist in my area.

Lockdown is very boring, at least I have beer to brew. Hopefully we all get set free soon, at least the kids go back to school!

I've seen the cordial but have never tried it out, I just ended up using the same juice to bring the ABV down to about 4.5% and it works out to a nice flavour.

 

[DarrenTheDrunk]

Stabilising is adding Potassium metabisulfite (K-MET) and potassium sorbate to your cider to prevent any refermentation from the new sugar source added. I recommend reading up on this as it can be tricky. K-MET additions are pH dependent and sorbate additions are ABV depenent.

Thanks for that. Should I be doing this with the apple cider I put into kegs cos I did not for the first brew I did and it was fine (I think)

 

[kadmium]

I literally went into detail about it in this very thread, its the 3rd reply.

https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/apple-cider-_-hard.102392/post-1561100
Stabilising is the only way to be pretty sure fermentation is over and won't continue if you add sugar. Even in a keg it will continue to ferment at low temps, causing perpetual yeasty fermentation notes that may or may not be desirable.

I also went into detail for you on how to liven up a cheap aldi juice brew, using malic acid and tea.