considering how well the black death scrumpy is coming along, i thought I would share the recipe.
16 liters of apple juice(preservative free)
3 litres of dark grape juice(as above)
100 - 200ml of lemon juice(berri lemon squeeze is fine)
1 bottle of blackberry or blueberry puree(available at coles and woolies)
1kg of granny smith apples
500g of red delicious or johnnies
2kg of dark brown sugar
750g pure honey
champagne yeast(grumpys sell a nice french one... oohh la la)
Standard mix applies here
wash your fruit, cut it into quarters and remove blemishes and seeds.
throw in the sugar, honey and puree with 1 litre of boiling water and stir until blended.
throw the juices in and stir some more
throw in the yeast
throw in the fruit
lock it down and swirl the fermenter so the wort swirls around inside.
Swirl it twice a day for about two minutes, i do mine once in the morning and once when i come home.
This really keeps the yeast working well, i dont want no yeasties lazing away on my time
2 weeks later, remove apples with tongs & rack it into the secondary. Note, definaetly use a very fine filter when you rack, there will be alot of floating sediment from the apple pulp, if you dont get rid of this as much as possible the final taste will be close to eating socks. I recommend using a normal strainer with a stocking over it to get as much as possible.
1 week after racking, rack & filter again into cubes for cold conditioning.
Cold condition for atleast 2 weeks. This really seems to clear the cider and removes any nasty manky rotting apple tastes which can arise from reminant apple pulp rotting in the brew later on.
Usually the OG should be about 1100 - 1110 and if your yeast is working right, it should level out at about 1010 - 1015 for the FG.
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In my next cider brew ill be using only pure honey in the wort and adding cloves and cinnamon for a mulled taste.
16 liters of apple juice(preservative free)
3 litres of dark grape juice(as above)
100 - 200ml of lemon juice(berri lemon squeeze is fine)
1 bottle of blackberry or blueberry puree(available at coles and woolies)
1kg of granny smith apples
500g of red delicious or johnnies
2kg of dark brown sugar
750g pure honey
champagne yeast(grumpys sell a nice french one... oohh la la)
Standard mix applies here
wash your fruit, cut it into quarters and remove blemishes and seeds.
throw in the sugar, honey and puree with 1 litre of boiling water and stir until blended.
throw the juices in and stir some more
throw in the yeast
throw in the fruit
lock it down and swirl the fermenter so the wort swirls around inside.
Swirl it twice a day for about two minutes, i do mine once in the morning and once when i come home.
This really keeps the yeast working well, i dont want no yeasties lazing away on my time
2 weeks later, remove apples with tongs & rack it into the secondary. Note, definaetly use a very fine filter when you rack, there will be alot of floating sediment from the apple pulp, if you dont get rid of this as much as possible the final taste will be close to eating socks. I recommend using a normal strainer with a stocking over it to get as much as possible.
1 week after racking, rack & filter again into cubes for cold conditioning.
Cold condition for atleast 2 weeks. This really seems to clear the cider and removes any nasty manky rotting apple tastes which can arise from reminant apple pulp rotting in the brew later on.
Usually the OG should be about 1100 - 1110 and if your yeast is working right, it should level out at about 1010 - 1015 for the FG.
--------------
In my next cider brew ill be using only pure honey in the wort and adding cloves and cinnamon for a mulled taste.