Help with 'hobo cider' recipe

[pist]

I just put together the following for the mrs this arvo:

Brigalow Cider kit (was given this, so used it anyway)
18L preservative free apple juice (just juice)
2KG frozen mixed berries
Campden tabs - to kill off wild yeasts/bacteria present in the berries (converts to sulphur dioxide when added to water/wort/must - commonly used in wineries to remove these after pressing grapes). All the research I have done has pointed to leaving the whole lot to sit for 24hrs before pitching yeast to let the tabs work and also break down enough as to not kill the yeast when pitched, so will pitch a mangrove jacks cider yeast starter tomorrow afternoon.

 

[Mutaneer]

I always try and avoid any extra SO2 in my brews, my wife is allergic to it.
If you have your juices chilled initially then brought up to room temp while your yeast is kicking off, and your yeast is strong when it goes in, it'll over-power any wild nasties anyway
The wild yeasts don't like high alcohol content either

 

[TheBlackAdder]

Ok update for this has been a long time coming:

15L of Berri Apple Juice sourced at $1 per litre (reject shop)
4.8L of Golden Circle Apple and Pear Juice at just over $1 per litre (in a weird 2.4L bottle - ripping me off a whole 0.1L)
2 tea bags in about ~200ml water
1 tblspn yeast nutrients in ~150ml boiled water
Safale S04

Hopefully see some activity tonight.

The one weird thing is the SG, which I measured as 1.05 @ ~17C
This seems way too high - I dont know if its my hydrometer, but I checked that in water and it was giving 1.00

But it smells nice and looks good so fingers crossed

 

[mattyg8]

could it have been 1.050 which sounds about right

 

[TheBlackAdder]

Yep its 1.050, which from my very limited experience seemed a bit high.
But I guess theres a lot of sugar in all that juice!

Fermentation is happening so I'm happy regardless - although very small krausen on it

Only problem is trying to keep temperature nice and stable

 

[Forever Wort]

I also put down a little hobo cider the other night, based on what I had around the house. It is my first. Depending on how it tastes I will adjust the recipe and do a bigger batch. I am aiming for sweet as it is for a lady that way inclined.

9.6 litres Berri Apple & Pear Juice
160g Rice Malt
1/4 tsp Sodium Saccharin
Coopers beer kit yeast

 

[TheBlackAdder]

Cool. Hope it comes out great.

The best thing about these recipes is that they are stupid-simple. Cant really picture anything going wrong

 

[Forever Wort]

It has an interesting smell as it ferments. Been a couple of days and still kinda smells like juice.

 

[AntonW]

My secret ingredient (actually the whole recipe) is:

--> Woolies' apple and cranberry juice. It comes in 4 litre bottles at less than $4 each. Any cheap apple juice is good though.
--> A bit of sugar dissolved in water.
--> US-04 or US-05 or cider yeast or whatever.

It takes a little while to ferment out and as people have mentioned, it's as dry as can be, quite strong, cloudy and delicious. I'm sure you could crash chill it but hey, the person who taught me how to make it had the singular objective of making his cider as different as possible from the commercial lolly water, and I respect that.

I'll have to give the tea a try. That sounds good.

Cider is super simple and delicious, but given the choice I'll almost always choose beer.

 

[AntonW]

And I don't worry about fermentation temps the way that I do for beer.

 

[Nicko_Cairns]

My favourite is just Berri Apple and Blackcurrant Juice, a kg of dex and the cheapest yeast I can find, used a champagne yeast last time as I don't mind the cider being dry and really alcoholic. My local hardware store sells some cheap wine and champagne yeasts, can't remember the brand but I use that. I often just brew small batches in a couple Demi-johns, takes up one shelf in the beer fridge and I can brew beer at the same time, then I can brew two different flavours, sometimes I fill a FV though, so probably 22L or so of cider goodness.

Next time though I'll back sweeten in a keg with some cordial or juice concentrate, haven't tried that yet but read some positive posts about it.

I wait until Coles or whoever have a big juice sale and I smash them, I get some strange looks at the checkout with ten or more bottles of juice, I used to say "I brew cider from it", now I just say if asked "I really like juice". The checkout people just stare at me and don't know what to say lol. I'm probably "the juice guy". Good point about the $2 shop and home brand juice, will check them both out.

 

[Nicko_Cairns]

Here's a pretty good link to sweetening in the keg, the caramel suggestion looks interesting but really i'll probably use a concentrate and i'll post an update about how it goes, my brew fridge will be empty in seven days time, so i'll throw some cider on then, it's currently full of pacific ale cubes.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/back-sweetening-questions-cider-keggers-166209/

 

[TheBlackAdder]

Caramel sounds interesting - if you try it, let us know how it goes. Ild be interested in how it affects the taste, and how it goes compared to a more neutral sweetener like lactose.

A friend asked an interesting question on what the ABV of this would be.

My guess would be that with an original SG of 1.050 that it will come out at aroung 5.5 to 6.5%

Is that in the right ballpark?

 

[AntonW]

easy home pasteurisation: http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/index3.html

 

[Beerisbest]

Hey guys, first post here

I've just put on a 5 liter scrumpy brew

OG is at 1070 with 1kilo of dextrose, so I'm expecting a high alcohol content end product. I'm not using a champagne yeast but a cider yeast as recommended by my brew store, will the yeast be able to eat all the sugars without becoming dormant?

 

[TheBlackAdder]

Not sure on what a 5 litre scrumpy brew is, but it would really depend on yeast health and how you pitched it
1.070 isnt super high for an OG so I expect that it will be OK, but it might have some trouble getting right down near 1.000

My batch is finished now and I'm waiting to try the first bottle. From tasting on bottling day its a pretty nice drop from a simple method.
Really nice flavour, maybe a touch on the dry side but carbing up will help with that perception

 

[TimT]

Scrumpy is cider from apples, traditionally windfall apples. I wouldn't bother adding dextrose myself. The flavour you'll get from the apple juice alone should be far superior.

 

[TheBlackAdder]

Had my first bottle of this the other night and its got a good apple flavour and some residual sweetness from the pear juice - unfortunately it was dead flat so hoping it carbs up in a week or so, but its a good recipe that I will be doing again