Hi All,
This seems a fairly new product on the market. Link: http://www.heinzfoodservice.com.au/Our-Products/Bulk-Beverages/GC-2L-PET/Golden-Circle/Golden-Circle-Pear-Apple-Raspberry-Juice
.. and it seemed perfect to me for a cider, so I thought I would do a little experiment to see how it went.
Now I admit I like my ciders quite on the sweet easy-to-drink side. So this trial catered to that. Your milage may vary if your tastes are more towards the drier side.
I grabbed a 2L bottle of the aforementioned juice, a bung, and an airlock, and poured off 400ml to create some headspace.
I dissolved 20g of Lactose (for sweetness) and 20g of LDME (for yeast health and the touch of malt sweetness) in 200ml of hot water, and added it to the bottle.
(this translates to about 250g lactose and 250g LDME for a 23L batch)
I figured yeast variety would not matter a lot since it was mostly fructose in the bottle, but I had a cider yeast on hand so I pitched about 2 grams of that.
Applied the bung and the airlock... and waited....
about 2 weeks later fermentation had definitely ceased, so I bottled with the same amount of sugar I usually do for beer (around half a teaspoon per stubbie). It's true, I don't bulk prime, so sue me
.
And the result: After only 2 weeks in the bottle the end result, to my taste buds, is lovely. The raspberry seems to be completely lost, in colour and in flavour, but I still ended up with a fantastic cider that you could drink all night long. I will definitely be stepping this up to a full 23L batch. Another plus is that Golden Circle juices are often on special at Woolworths; makes it pretty good value for money.
Oh, and I'm sorry, but because this was such a small volume experiment, I didn't get OG or FG.
This seems a fairly new product on the market. Link: http://www.heinzfoodservice.com.au/Our-Products/Bulk-Beverages/GC-2L-PET/Golden-Circle/Golden-Circle-Pear-Apple-Raspberry-Juice
.. and it seemed perfect to me for a cider, so I thought I would do a little experiment to see how it went.
Now I admit I like my ciders quite on the sweet easy-to-drink side. So this trial catered to that. Your milage may vary if your tastes are more towards the drier side.
I grabbed a 2L bottle of the aforementioned juice, a bung, and an airlock, and poured off 400ml to create some headspace.
I dissolved 20g of Lactose (for sweetness) and 20g of LDME (for yeast health and the touch of malt sweetness) in 200ml of hot water, and added it to the bottle.
(this translates to about 250g lactose and 250g LDME for a 23L batch)
I figured yeast variety would not matter a lot since it was mostly fructose in the bottle, but I had a cider yeast on hand so I pitched about 2 grams of that.
Applied the bung and the airlock... and waited....
about 2 weeks later fermentation had definitely ceased, so I bottled with the same amount of sugar I usually do for beer (around half a teaspoon per stubbie). It's true, I don't bulk prime, so sue me
.And the result: After only 2 weeks in the bottle the end result, to my taste buds, is lovely. The raspberry seems to be completely lost, in colour and in flavour, but I still ended up with a fantastic cider that you could drink all night long. I will definitely be stepping this up to a full 23L batch. Another plus is that Golden Circle juices are often on special at Woolworths; makes it pretty good value for money.
Oh, and I'm sorry, but because this was such a small volume experiment, I didn't get OG or FG.
