First Time Cider

[Mutaneer]

I always find it useful to crack a bottle every two weeks,
that way you can see how the flavours are developing and the changes in carbonation from big bubbles to a finer, champagne "mousse"

 

[hazboticus]

I always find it useful to crack a bottle every two weeks,
that way you can see how the flavours are developing and the changes in carbonation from big bubbles to a finer, champagne "mousse"

I have absolutely no problems with this

I managed to get a resonably accurate OG reading which put us around ~1.07 with a FG of ~1.00 so we are looking to be in the 8-10% range which is fantastic.

Well we did get our bottling done in typical DIY fashion, Figured the original bottles were good enough to start with, they can take over 80kg of pressure (guess how we tested that one out) so hopefully they will hold the carbonation, used 7 carbonation drops per bottle (2700ml/375 = 7.3) as slightly under seemed better for the first run -



In total we yielded 27.75 litres of cider with ~8 litres being 'sweet' (added around 100-200 grams of lactose per 3litre bottle) the rest being dry.

Now we play the waiting game. Thanks again everyone for your help! Cant wait to get into the proper apple brews.

 

[Airgead]

I hope nothing dripped off the reg grundies hanging overhead during the bottling process...

Juice bottles aren't really designed to take pressure. If you are carbonating on the low side you should be OK but be aware that they may go foom and all your hard work could be load.

 

[hazboticus]

We actually did all the bottling indoors for that exact reason I did carbonate low for that same reason - if they survive for 48 hours they should be fine? I would imagine all the sugar used at that stage and the yeast would be back to dormant?

 

[Airgead]

No... carbonation can take 1-2 weeks to be fully done. At this stage of the process there isn't that much yeast around to eat the priming sugar so it can take a while. You will feel the bottles start to go hard, and using juice bottles will probably see them start to swell as well.

Cheers
Dave

 

[hazboticus]

Good point! ill leave them outside for a solid 2 weeks to be sure they arent going to explode on me.

 

[hazboticus]

To those of you following along at home - at a grand total of 11 days of resting nothing has exploded! I count that as a win.

 

[wareemba]

almost ready to open one?

 

[hazboticus]

maybe! word on the street is 6 weeks for best results however Ill probably give it a go this weekend to celebrate and will report back my findings.

 

[hazboticus]

Well A bit delayed but Here are my post reports after trying a bottle every 2 weeks with about half consumed so far;


2 weeks - drinkable but definitely had that homebrew bite and tasted a bit like water with alcohol in it.

4 weeks - significant increase in flavours but still had a bit of a kick (probably due to the ~10% abv)

6 Weeks - Fully matured and actually tastes quite nice, diluting it (strangely with sprite) at a ratio of about 10% sprite really brings out the apples and it tastes really nice, might be from the sugar.

Notes for Next time:

Use real apples and buy a juicer, you will yield a superior product for less money.
Use real bottles - although this was only a proof of concept I cant help but feel cheap drinking from a plastic jug
Get carbonation more exact - the brew came out not nearly as carbonated as I would have liked it however this was a good thing in light of how poorly those bottles take pressure (they balloon out something fierce).

Other than that 10/10 will brew again.

 

[Airgead]

Other than that 10/10 will brew again.

Welcome to the dark side.

 

[hazboticus]

glad to be here. Do we have a secret handshake or something?

 

[Airgead]

No, we just offer everyone we meet some homebrewed cider. If they don't back away, you know they are one of us.

 

[hazboticus]

Sounds about right. :chug:

 

[wareemba]

haz - nice

1. how'd the sweet versions turn out?

2. any pics of the ballooning bottles? do you think this might have affected carbonation?

 

[hazboticus]

haz - nice

1. how'd the sweet versions turn out?

2. any pics of the ballooning bottles? do you think this might have affected carbonation?

Well the sweet one wasnt exactly sweet however it was slightly...less dry? than the other one. Definitely could taste a difference and actually proffered the ones lactose treated.

I don't actually have a photo of the bottles (ill try to take one next time I get a sec) but I think it might have - rather than forcing the carbonation into the beverage the bottles just expanded to accommodate for the gas potentially reducing the carbonation levels further. I could be wrong though.