Bulmers Cider

[bowie in space]

HI folks, SWMBO has requested i make a cider for her enjoyment (although she is a beer lover) and i have blown the idea off until i was at a pub in Williamstown the other day and spotted Bulmers on tap. I gotta say it was quite the refreshing summer tonic.

Obviously at kit level i am not going to achieve the same results, but it has sped up her request that i make some. On researching ciders on this forum it appears a little more complicated than beer, however, at my LHBS the other day, the guy knew f*@k all about ciders and only sold me the blackrock cider kit?! No sugars, no cider yeast, yeast nutrients, etc. He told me I could add a couple of litres of apple juice but was risking infection by doing so. Not much help...

So, who out there can point me in the right direction as to what I need to add to my kit. I have read about yeast nutrients, etc. All I really want is a simple apple cider about 5% alcohol. I may be tempted to add a little raspberry flavour.

The blackrock instructions say to add 1kg sugar (white sugar or dextrose?) and top up to 23L and use kit yeast. This top up level seems too high. Apart from my first kit, i have since never used the kit yeast. Can i make an exception this time? Should i move into secondary and add juices? Also how much dextrose do i need to bulk prime?

Cheers in advance,
Bowie.

 

[Supra-Jim]

The black rock cider makes an ok drink, just bung in the dex and water and let it go.

If you really want to make good cider, starting with apple juice is the best way. Grab 20 litres of preservative free apple juice (or a mix of 10l apple juice, 10 litres apple + pear). Then pour that into your fermenter, add some yeast (you could use a champagne yeast ot get a nice dry character). Also add a teaspoon of yeast nutrient to the juice also. Then just ferment as normal, temps around 18deg if you can.

Cheers

SJ

 

[Bizier]

I tasted my first cider last night, was really quite nice and better than some commercials I have tried. Was balanced toward dry and very drinkable. That was just Berri + wyeast cider.

I made a big iodophor bath and washed the juice bottles in that before I aerated them. The contents is pasteurised, so all good to add. No more chance of infection than the can of goo.

Next time I will be adding some fresh juiced apples as well to give it a bit more character.

 

[bowie in space]

Sorry Bizier, i don't follow. I understand the pasturised juice, but can you please explain your recipe in more detail. I like the idea of a dry-ish cider. What do you mean by an iodophor bath and washing the juice bottles?

Cheers
Bowie

 

[Supra-Jim]

Bowie,

I think he means he steralised the outside of the bottles before opening them.

Cheers

SJ

 

[Bizier]

Recipe is very complex, so put on your thinking cap here.....

Juice (OK)
Yeast

Resultant product was cider.

Do a search on iodophor.

 

[bowie in space]

Easy Tiger!

I also use iodophor to steralise my equipment, however, am a little unsure as to why you would steralise the EXTERIOR of your bottles and then aerate them. I am OBVIOUSLY missing something here. The basic recipe I understand.

Also unsure as to why you would solely use juice as opposed to water to top up fermenter (as the kit instructions suggest) or perhaps a certain ratio of juice per water.

I'm sure other newbie's would have similar queries with something they have not tried before...

 

[davewaldo]

Hi Bowie,

I think Bizier is just using Juice and Yeast, not the Blackrock kit.

I've made some nice cider with Beri Apple and Pear Juice and an Ale yeast. I just started a small experiment this morning as follows:

3L Beri Apple and Pear
1L (tin) of Golburn Valley Pear Juice (Cloudy)
90g White Sugar
90g Brown Sugar
100g Lactose (to sweeten it up a little for the wife)
US05 yeast

This should make a Cider/Perry with approx 6-7% acl

Whenever making cider or Mead I always use a good yeast nutrient and add it in small stages over the first 4 days or so.

Also aerating you wort is very important, I aerate once a day for the first few days. This is while the yeast are still in an aerobic stage. Once they've eaten about 1/3 of the sugar they start an anerobic phase, from this point on Oxygen is BAD.

Goodluck!

Dave.

 

[Bizier]

Sorry if that came of a little brusque or condescending, seriously not intended + I am a relative noob - was just an incredibly simple recipe compared to beer, and with a surprisingly good result.

I sanitised my bottles because I didn't want any nasties that may have travelled with them to get into my cider. And because I was aerating them by shaking the absolute living daylights out of them (tiring work), I needed to pour a bit out to get some air into the bottle. This is because I didn't want to take bacteria into the bottles and shake it around. The same goes for my extract/kit cans and also yeast packages/vials.

Don't know about kit, but I'd some put juice in myself. The post was more about contamination from apple juice; preposterous IMO.

The beauty is that you can do little batches and find what (preservative free) juices you like, and it is simple as anything.

 

[cdbrown]

I too was quite confused with Bizier's first description of what he was doing. Sterilising the outside to remove any nasties and shaking the shit out of it to aerate is a much better explanation. It sort of read by using iodophor and aerating made the contents pasteurised. I'm sure that once the Mrs has the baby early next month she'll be asking for a Bulmers/Magners keg of her own, as well as some guinness or kilkenny especially for St Pats day. Will be following the thread so hope you report back with how it all went.

 

[Bizier]

Sorry guys, I think my communications were less than tip-top because they were rudely interrupted by some crap called work... still working on that problem.

Good luck on your ciders.

 

[bowie in space]

careful mixing business with pleasure bizier. the last time i did that i ended up getting hitched

 

[Bizier]

careful mixing business with pleasure bizier. the last time i did that i ended up getting hitched

No, I am covertly preparing for my next career, this is "between work research" to keep me sharp.