Clay's Cider (SIMPLE!)

Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum

Help Support Australia & New Zealand Homebrewing Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
bum said:
People follow the things written in them without considering them for even a second.
Who are these morons you speak of. I consider all on this forum to be quite intelligent! Perhaps I am just lucky in knowing only the smart ones? Surely I can't be that lucky?
 
Ok, my turn.

Firstly, I havent been on here for long either. This forum has a vast wealth of information on it. I am not going to judge the proportion of good and bad information on here, suffice to say I have found many interesting things out whilst perusing the parts of the forum that grab my attention such as the Non Beer Brewing section. I have read your original post and took it for what it is worth; Simple. I take my own cider brewing a little more seriously than the method you describe, not a hell of a lot...yet!

Dont let a little flame action bring you down, your entitled to make a post and inadvertently here and there your going to upset Bum. I've done it, and I'm sure many before have as well. You may notice that above Bum's thingo on the left is "not entitled to an opinion" this is sarcasm as below that about an inch you will read he has 10,000 odd posts under his belt. So what conclusion can be drawn from this you ask? Well, I'd say Bum is entitled to an opinion, just like the rest of us, and he aint scared to share it with you.

The Bum can come off a little harsh...thats being nice, and you can argue with him all day ( I'm sure he feeds off it ). I tried it once, didnt really work, because it happens that the majority of the time Bum is right. He just is not in possesion of the social skills required to convey his messages in a more easily digestable method than the current way he does it. Either that or Bum just likes to do it that way. Maybe he does have the neccesary social skills, he just chooses to use others.

I'm not ragging on you Bum.....or maybe I am...I'm sure you'll tell me if you feel that way and I look forward to your comments. I'm just saying that, and I quote, "**** this thread" might of been just a little rough, even for you, to enter into this post. You are capable of much more that that Bum! Thats my opinion anyway.

I dont particularly agree with this method of cider making, I'm confident there are far superior and safer ways to make a little apple booze. But each to their own, take from it what you will and do with it what you please. There's more than one way to do most things. Anyway there's my ten cents worth.

To summarize, keep posting your experiences, its a free world, dont take anything to heart. Welcome to the forum and Bums non entitled opinions LOL. As I said before, I look forward to your comments!
 
Deep End said:
There's more than one way to do most things.
Absolutely and you'll (almost) never hear me say otherwise.

Conversely, there are lots of shit ways do things. When we deliberately choose to do them shitly we should have the good grace to be quiet about them - not revel in them publicly and instruct others how to do same.
 
while bum lacked tact, he made some valid points. having said that, it's the internet so here's a picture of a cat's head inside bread.

image.jpg
 
It's sad...I've read your reply over and over for a few minutes and I cant argue the point with you really. I have to agree that in essence, once again, in a perfect world you would be correct.

Sadly, however we dont live in one. When I read Clay's post initially I just read it and moved on to the next without much thought. But I'll give it one thing, there are bold warnings in 2 places, and and the end of the day how much harm is it going to cause? Its low pressure plastic, I dont think anyone's going to lose an eye if the Bum falls out the bottom of the bottle under pressure ( excuse the pun! ). Yea, no gravity readings, measurements, use of common, easily accessable equipment or methods.

It's not the recipe for cider you would take to the ark for an impending doomsday event! But does it cause any harm? I dont think so. If anything at least its got some intelligient after discussion that would most likely thwart any possible harm it could of done if left unattended.

It is a forum after all; a place for discussion, one could consider it a quite succesful post depending on what angle you approach it from. But I do hear what your saying Bum, dont neccesarily agree with your method of approach, but enjoy reading them and commenting to them nevertheless.
 
Fletcher: I dont disagree with what you said. And the Cat looks rather annoyed with the whole bread thing. Good call.

Your response however has me thinking, we have guides for how to do this, and how to do that all over the forum. Maybe I could spend a little time behind the keys and write " The definitive(ish) guide on how to handle Bum dropping in on your thread and telling you how it is" I know the title is a bit long and could do with some work, but its just a thought! LOL
 
Deep End said:
Sadly, however we dont live in one.
And so we don't deserve to hope for better?

Deep End said:
But does it cause any harm? I dont think so.
You're too new to know how very wrong you are. This board used to be populated by people who knew how to do stuff and would share that knowldge (outside of PMs - ******* cowards). One half-arsed guide put paid to that almost single handedly.

Deep End said:
Maybe I could spend a little time behind the keys and write " The definitive(ish) guide on how to handle Bum dropping in on your thread and telling you how it is"
It would be about as accurate as the guide under question. You're as well qualified to instruct other on that topic as he is in making ciders.
 
It's too late or I cant be arsed using the quote feature, one or the other. But here's my retort.

Yes you can hope, never said you couldn't, what would a world be without hope!

Yes I am very new to this community in comparison to many, including yourself. I was referring to immediate physical harm, and I guess you'd say I should have been more specific, maybe I should of (shrug shoulders). Dont fully grasp where you going with that comment, dont have the history to.

And I see you quoted the "maybe". Very important part of that line, was written as humour not as intent, I wouldn't be so bold as to attempt to write a guide on anything unless I had all the facts at hand, and I have little to work with in your department as far as factual information is concerned.

I look forward to your comments
 
Deep end, did you also read the 10s of threads every pisshead makes about how he made cider by chucking a ton of sugar in a bucket with some juice or a kit.

Would you expect a guide on a home brewing forum that says, "put together a kit + kilo of sugar + yeast, dilute to 23L with tap water and keep at or close to 27C"? I'm guessing 90% of people will tell the writer to bugger off and bring something Coopers didn't already tell them on little foldout. What exactly did Sic really tell anyone? The whole thread is a waste of space. Now, he isn't exactly the pioneer who invented brewing in bottles, he isn't telling anyone anything new, he isn't even giving much good advice. He's telling people how he made some cheap booze that he puts cordial into to make it taste just like the nasty stuff we get in the supermarket. Bravo. Shout him a xxxx next time you see him.

I don't get why people don't treat making alcohol with at least a little respect. It can harm you. You make bad hooch and it will hurt you, sooner or later. Sure, many take shortcuts, many also know wtf they are trying to do. Sic's methods are akin to not wanting to know what goes on, just make something that gets you pissed. It might just be quicker and cheaper to get a sodastream, carbonate apple juice and pour a shot of vodka in each bottle. Actually, that would be a lot cleaner and possibly less likely to poison someone in the long run. Then you wonder why some would look at a homebrewer as yet another dodgy cheapo drunk. It's idiots like this. This is like when Carniebrew made a 'guide' on how to brew with extract. Despite a lot of indication he went ahead and started off by trying to talk down every reason a grain brewer brews so. Sic is doing the exact same thing. Why do you think he's going to get any damn respect.
 
Practicalfool Firstly I would like to clearly distinguish my main points, I have gone about explaining in a rather elongated way. 1. I dont disagree with the essence of what Bum or you are saying. 2. I am of the opinion that this was a forum, therefore anyone who is a member is entitled to make a post about whatever he/she feels as long as it relates to the subject matter of that particular area. No matter how fucked up it might be in the eyes of others.

If this wasn't the case I would expect that all articles would be submitted pending editorial approval until you had built up a reputation as such that you were not going to randomly post content that was not up to an expected standard. Which was the process I went through on a creative, knowledgable writing website I once frequented. I got self publishing rights pretty quickly, but thats beside the point, because from my understanding that is not what forums are about.

Not everyone is an expert, I am far from an expert in any field relating to brewing, its a hobby I enjoy and am trying to improve, but should my lack of expertise stop me from sharing my experiences with anyone within the forum that wishes to read them?

The post wasnt titled a guide. It's called "Clays Cider {SIMPLE}" for those that have forgotten, I'll give you it reads like a guide, and I guess it encourages you to have a go at doing it that way. Didnt get me though, I'm quite happy with my sterilised procedures, hydrometers, and the way I do things now, although I'm always trying to improve my methods.

And as I said in my initial post "**** this thread" is a bit harsh, didnt solve anything, didnt help anything did it? Elitist attitudes dont solve much. I was/am merely trying to throw shield in to a bloke that was getting rushed by an angry mob, for lack of a better description. And I'm only doing that because the mood has taken me. So go ahead hang some shit on me, I've got thick skin and a few megabytes of internet left before I run out and have to give vodaphone some more money LOL
 
Anyway, thanks for entertaining my fingers and mind for the last hour or so. I think I'll call it a night and go watch some Tv
 
Airgead said:
Yeah... the one problem with the ad hoc approach to cider making (bung some juice and stuff together and go for it) is that it may well make a great cider but it may well equally make something awful... and you won't know why. Even more importantly, you won't know how to do it again, or not do it again if it was awful.

A few hydrometer readings aren't exactly hard and the equipment isn't exactly expensive. Its a tiny investment in time and equipment for a huge improvement in consistency. In fact anyone who ever bought a home brew kit already has a hydrometer somewhere.

And before anyone says that we made cider successfully before hydrometers, just bear in mind that we have also been using primitive hydrometers in brewing since the 1500s. Interestingly, an egg was used to indicate the gravity of worts and musts for brewing. There were also a bunch of interesting techniques around measuring temperature without thermometers and stuff like that. We got scientific about brewing very early on and for good reason. We may not have had modern instruments but we were certainly making use of a consistent and repeatable process.

With the easy to use measuring equipment we have nowadays there really is no excuse (other than I couldn't be arsed) for not using them.

Cheers
Dave

Try this one next time you mash. An old timey Moonshiners trick.

65 degrees C is a temperature you can stick your finger in 3 times but not want to stick it in a 4th.

It's pretty accurate (within a couple of degrees) any hotter and you won't get the third go, any cooler and you'll be able to do the 4th. B)
 
Thanks for the support, for those who were adult enough to actually lend it.

To the wankers (read: Bum etc) that decided it'd be more constructive to throw out insults without substance (until questioned later) and make themselves feel big or look cool in front of the other kids, kindly draw from vast reserves of obvious experience, and eat a dick :)

FYI - The other thread that you mention which yes, is a lot better than mine, was posted a couple of hours after this one. Had it been done before hand, I still probably would have shown my techniques and methods. Think, if I didn't, your existences would have been that little bit duller, not having a person to aim your flamegun at for a couple of days. Summed up in a word, sad.
 
FWIW, while people can be a bit abrasive on here (opinionated, pissed/hungover/rather be drinking blokes) it's worth considering the enormous collective knowledge held by some of these cranky people - it's the best home brew resource I have available to me, and if someone tells me my idea sucks, I'll take that as feedback & move on. In this case, I think the OP was probably a bit naive in posting such a basic & problematic tutorial - how would I go if I posted a tutorial for the edification of others explaining how to bang together a kit & kilo, but ignored lots of simple and important techniques? I'd probably get told to **** off.

OP, hang around and you'll probably learn that the culture on the forum encourages people to follow whatever process they choose, but to do it well. Your cider method may be satisfactory to you, but you could absolutely make a better/more repeatable product, and if you read up here, you'll learn how without much more effort/cost.
 
Absolutely, Phil Mud. I agree entirely. Sure it could be better, sure it could be scrapped entirely, but it is what it is and I put it up to show how I do things. If I was going to put in every single little disclaimer to ward off the flamers, then the post would be 10 pages long. But blow me down if a bit of humility or a little bit of tact from these cranky bastards wouldn't go a long way.

'**** this thread' is akin to saying 'Yeah, well your Mum is fat'. It's give and take as far as I'm concerned, and whether I've made 5 posts or 5000 posts, I'll not be one to treat others with utter contempt just because there's a keyboard between me and them.
 
Hi Folks

First up, if my comments in this thread were a little harsh, I do apologise. I blame Bum. He's a bad influence. :beerbang: So are 3 pints of pale ale and a stiff whiskey.

My whole reason for posting here is to encourage people to take that extra step and turn their cider into something special. When I look at a bunch of ingredients I have a choice. I can put in minimum effort and make something average. Or I can put in just a tiny bit if extra care and effort and make something great. I don't know about you but I'd much rather drink something great any day.

Cheers
Dave
 
Okey dokey, thought I'd address a couple of things.

Methods to handle bum - click on "block this user". When he is blocked, he will not be seen, but you have the ability to click "show this post". This is helpful as it allows you to filter his comments based on context (including if he's the first comment after yours, don't bother. If it's worth seeing, someone will quote it). The problem with bum is that when he isn't being obnoxious, he can make some very valid, very well thought out comments and his expertise is actually excellent (better than mine, I will admit).

For the record, he's right. This thread really shouldn't be here. There are plenty of "how to do ALDI/Just juice cider" threads floating around here, and whilst having a similar content, do espouse far better practices. I appreciate that @OP had good intentions and wants to give back to a community that has shared a great deal with him. But the best way to do this is ask lots of questions and stimulate good debate, at this stage.

On the other side of the fence, bum's method of dealing with this, shows the same social skill as my 7 month old - only with lots of expletives.
 
I think the timing of this thread did not help either, in the context of Bum going off tap over exactly this very issue (re: and upshot in bad 'advice' in the forum).
 
Back
Top