Crap Cider

[Chookers]

I tried making Cider a while back and I have ended up with something closer to wine.. I only made 8 litres of the stuff.. anyway my question is:

Is there any way to turn this back into cider, brining down the alcohol content and increasing the sweetness and also enphasizing the apple flavour. I was thinking of adding some Preshafruit Juice Apple Juice... and I really wanted to carbonate in the bottle, I have 12 glass and 24 PET bottles.. I like the glass better but dont want a bottle bomb.

These wannabe Ciders were originally made from bottles of fresh apple juice. The cider/wine is nice and clear now, and in a very cold fridge.

Any ways would like to hear any ideas or advice on this issue..

Thanx

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

I tried making Cider a while back and I have ended up with something closer to wine.. I only made 8 litres of the stuff.. anyway my question is:

Is there any way to turn this back into cider, brining down the alcohol content and increasing the sweetness and also enphasizing the apple flavour. I was thinking of adding some Preshafruit Juice Apple Juice... and I really wanted to carbonate in the bottle, I have 12 glass and 24 PET bottles.. I like the glass better but dont want a bottle bomb.

These wannabe Ciders were originally made from bottles of fresh apple juice. The cider/wine is nice and clear now, and in a very cold fridge.

Any ways would like to hear any ideas or advice on this issue..

Thanx

Carbonate as normal. When you want to drink, mix it 50/50 with cold apple juice. IF you add more apple juice, it'll just get more alcoholic, not less; and remain as dry.

Apples are simple fruit sugars. Yeast loves simple sugars and eats it all up. Hence why it's dry (no residual sugars to make it sweeter, because anything that would be residual is eaten).

If you keg (which it appears you don't), mix 50/50 into the keg with apple juice and force carb.

 

[Chookers]

Thanks LRG, I thought this might be the case.. sadly I havent got the equipment/funds or space to Keg.. I wish I did.. will adding juice to carbonated cider lower the carbonation..?

 

[Lord Raja Goomba I]

Thanks LRG, I thought this might be the case.. sadly I havent got the equipment/funds or space to Keg.. I wish I did.. will adding juice to carbonated cider lower the carbonation..?

Yep. But unless you can get some straight sparkling apple, lower carb may be your only option. Don't forget that cider tends to be fizzier (though doesn't have the head retention of beer) so this might suit your tastes at any rate.

 

[Bribie G]

Yes it will, but you can always use Apple Isle sparkling apple juice if they still make the stuff.

 

[jaypes]

You can ferment the apple juice as normal and halt the yeast drying out the cider completely by pasteurisation, I read about it a while back on HomeBrewTalk.

Although I have never done it, I didn't really like the idea of half boiling pressurised bottles - but apparently it can be done safely.

I don't drink cider but make it for my mates, they do the 60/40 cider (more like vinegar to me!) to fresh apple and blackcurrant juice

Ducks nuts apparently

 

[jaypes]

you can also sweeten the cider with lactose as it is not fermentable by the yeast.

Tried that once

sweet vinegar

and if your lactose intolerant - well that a whole other story

 

[Fossey]

I pasteurise my bottled ciders in my dishwasher all the time with great success. It gradually warms up the bottles rather than dunking into a hot pot. Set and forget, if they blow - and I've only had one go - its all contained and easily cleaned up.

 

[Hyper.Intelligent.Fish]

I pasteurise my bottled ciders in my dishwasher all the time with great success. It gradually warms up the bottles rather than dunking into a hot pot. Set and forget, if they blow - and I've only had one go - its all contained and easily cleaned up.

This is genius. I must try it.

I tried making Cider a while back and I have ended up with something closer to wine.. I only made 8 litres of the stuff.. anyway my question is:

Is there any way to turn this back into cider, brining down the alcohol content and increasing the sweetness and also enphasizing the apple flavour. I was thinking of adding some Preshafruit Juice Apple Juice... and I really wanted to carbonate in the bottle, I have 12 glass and 24 PET bottles.. I like the glass better but dont want a bottle bomb.

These wannabe Ciders were originally made from bottles of fresh apple juice. The cider/wine is nice and clear now, and in a very cold fridge.

Any ways would like to hear any ideas or advice on this issue..

Thanx

You can add pasteurise the cider, then add more juice to sweeten the mix. It will dilute the cider, reducing the alcohol content, and without any further active yeast carbonation should not continue further.

I'm by no means an expert, and I might have this backwards, but nonetheless I go on.

You could pour the whole lot back into a fermenter, add more sugar, and let it run. This will increase the alcohol content, but eventually you'll hit a point where the alcohol content is too much for the yeast to survive in, and fermentation stops. It won't be carbonated, but the still cider will be sweet due to the "undigested" sugars.

 

[Pickaxe]

I'm interested, while on the topic, whether some people use malt (high mash temp) in their cider recipes, or spec grain, to get sweetness and some body behind the "winey" 'strongbow' kind of cider tastes? I guess, a (hopefully not so) stupid question would be whether people use hops? Or am I starting to talk about a whole different kettle here?

 

[manticle]

Not stupid - google graff.

There's a very popular recipe on Homebrewtalk by brandon or brando (from memory) so google 'brand graf homebrewtalk' and see what that brings up.

Whoever said cider is fizzier needs a cider history lesson (and to taste some good stuff - just like beer there are different ciders and different fizz levels - from none to some).

 

[manticle]

^ Brandon O

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/graff-malty-slightly-hopped-cider-117117/

 

[Chookers]

Hmmm.. alot here to think about. Im going to try some of these out..

I have a stevia plant in my garden.. I wonder if I could use that somehow, to increase the sweetness, and carb one bottle.

 

[Pickaxe]

Mate of mine used to use stevia in distilling practices.

 

[Pickaxe]

Thanks Manticle, will google graff (+ beer) and ignore all the street art. Been wondering about Bulmers and whether it has a malt component.

 

[Pickaxe]

Now I'm thinking about an apple and Galaxy (Passionfruit) cider with a lovely toffee spec malt backbone.

 

[Deep End]

I think if you start adding grains or malts or too much else you aren't really making cider anymore are you? Dont get me wrong I like my apple and black currant cider but I think the pure apple cider tastes better in the long run, especially as they get some age on them. What starts out as a dry winey cider (probably due to yeast variety used) will gain some apple flavours and aromas back after a few months conditioning I have found in my brief experience with this beverage.

Another alternative to sweetening the cider is just keep drinking it, eventually you'll like dry cider :chug:

 

[Pickaxe]

Ha! Thanks deep end, just asked a similar question on another thread you were on. So, you're a cider man, through and through!

 

[Deep End]

I am at the moment, I like buggering around with it, still love a beer or whatever but cider is my new favourite thing. Just something about it, never used to drink it till I started making it. I always thought it tasted like cheap wine, but now I know its just mainstream commercial lolly water that tastes like cheap wine LOL.

 

[technobabble66]

Hmmm.. alot here to think about. Im going to try some of these out..

I have a stevia plant in my garden.. I wonder if I could use that somehow, to increase the sweetness, and carb one bottle.

Hey Chookers,
FWIW, Brewraft use a small amount of finely powdered stevia in (one of) their Ginger Beer kits. Ginger beer has the same problem as cider i'm guessing - the brewing techniques we use to get carbonated GB in a bottle results in a v v dry drink. The stevia works moderately well - has that slightly artificial sweetener taste (if you're sensitive to those things), and i'd suggest about half the amount they recommend in the recipe. But it beats lactose - recent studies indicate most adults have a mild to moderate intolerance of lactose.

For GB, i could repeat the stevia at half strength if necessary.
But i'm keen to try the pasteurising thing (mentioned in comment #6 above) covered in Homebrewtalk somewhere. Just need a deep enough pot for your bottles. The guy who writes about it claims he's done it heaps of times with no explosion. OTOH, that dishwasher idea sounds great too!