A few points.
Black Rock is owned by Lion Nathan and apparently the cider kit turns out fairly similar to Five Seeds.
It's just pure apple juice concentrate
It comes with 3 sachets of "cider yeast" as you will have noted. So it's worthwhile to save the yeast cake in a sterilised container.
Supermarket apple juice such as Coles or Aldi is around a dollar a litre and are also preservative free.
I'm about to keg a supermarket brew done on Black Rock yeast plus some dex to raise the alcohol, will be interested to see how it turns out.
In any case, your brew will be as dry as the nun's proverbial so if you prefer something that tastes more like a Bulmers or a Mercury, just serve in a pub jug with a splash or a whoosh of apple juice.
If you keg, put a litre or two of apple juice in and chill immediately to stop (or just about halt) secondary fermentation.
For bottles, prime as for beer.
Edit: I'm yet to try oaking, acids etc. Previous posters make a good point that cider apples are quite different to eating apples - in the UK there are two traditions of Cider making, West Country and East Anglia, and the West Country use mostly cider apples for "scrumpy". The East Anglians use dessert apples, which turn out more like a white sparkling wine, so if you want more oomph and body suggest additives as recommended.
Black Rock is owned by Lion Nathan and apparently the cider kit turns out fairly similar to Five Seeds.
It's just pure apple juice concentrate
It comes with 3 sachets of "cider yeast" as you will have noted. So it's worthwhile to save the yeast cake in a sterilised container.
Supermarket apple juice such as Coles or Aldi is around a dollar a litre and are also preservative free.
I'm about to keg a supermarket brew done on Black Rock yeast plus some dex to raise the alcohol, will be interested to see how it turns out.
In any case, your brew will be as dry as the nun's proverbial so if you prefer something that tastes more like a Bulmers or a Mercury, just serve in a pub jug with a splash or a whoosh of apple juice.
If you keg, put a litre or two of apple juice in and chill immediately to stop (or just about halt) secondary fermentation.
For bottles, prime as for beer.
Edit: I'm yet to try oaking, acids etc. Previous posters make a good point that cider apples are quite different to eating apples - in the UK there are two traditions of Cider making, West Country and East Anglia, and the West Country use mostly cider apples for "scrumpy". The East Anglians use dessert apples, which turn out more like a white sparkling wine, so if you want more oomph and body suggest additives as recommended.
