Newbie from Hobart.

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ericlehtonen

New Member
Joined
9/6/22
Messages
4
Reaction score
3
Location
Hobart, Tasmania
Hi All, Thanks for having me in your Forum. My name is Eric and I live in beautiful Hobart. I am just starting out brewing apple cider. I have a 25lt carbouy, airlock, hydrometer, a couple of dozen 750ml brew bottles and some Oxyclean. For my first brew I obtained 16lt of freshly squeezed apple juice from one of our local apple orchards and have my first brew going.
I am keen to know more about cleaning and sanitising my equipment. My local brew shop sold me some Oxyclean. He told me to make a solution of this with warm water and leave it in the brewer for 24 hours and then empty and allow it to drain for 24 hours. No rinsing. He made no mention of sanitising.
I am now wanting to prepare my bottles for bottling. What is the best procedure for me to follow? Should I just use the above procedure for my bottles? Should I be rinsing after Oxyclean? Should I be sanitising? Should I have done something different with my brewer? Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks.
 
Hi,
I would follow the same routine for the bottles. I haven't used Oxyclean before but if it's just Sodium Perc [like most] I would give it a good rinse in hot water. Ask your local brew shop for a no-rinse sanitiser.
A good way of finding info in this forum is to use google. For example search "aussiehomebrewer Oxyclean".
 
Hello Eric, welcome to the forum. Aside from apple cider, any other drinks you want to brew?
 
Hello Eric, welcome to the forum. Aside from apple cider, any other drinks you want to brew?
Hi there, Thanks for adding me to the Forum. At the moment I want to have a go at making cider as I have a great source of freshly crushed apples here. I have brewed beer many years ago from kits. I don't really want to go back to that. I would be interested in trying to make some wines as I get more confident. That is getting a lot more complex though, so I suspect I will need to be way more experienced to attempt that.
 
I
Hi All, Thanks for having me in your Forum. My name is Eric and I live in beautiful Hobart. I am just starting out brewing apple cider. I have a 25lt carbouy, airlock, hydrometer, a couple of dozen 750ml brew bottles and some Oxyclean. For my first brew I obtained 16lt of freshly squeezed apple juice from one of our local apple orchards and have my first brew going.
I am keen to know more about cleaning and sanitising my equipment. My local brew shop sold me some Oxyclean. He told me to make a solution of this with warm water and leave it in the brewer for 24 hours and then empty and allow it to drain for 24 hours. No rinsing. He made no mention of sanitising.
I am now wanting to prepare my bottles for bottling. What is the best procedure for me to follow? Should I just use the above procedure for my bottles? Should I be rinsing after Oxyclean? Should I be sanitising? Should I have done something different with my brewer? Any help greatly appreciated. Thanks.
I soak my bottles in pbw rinse with water and then sanitize just before using with stellarsan. Btw pbw is just oxyclean with sufficants, and cleaning is different from santizing.

Welcome to the forum
 
Hi there, Thanks for adding me to the Forum. At the moment I want to have a go at making cider as I have a great source of freshly crushed apples here.
You're welcome.

That's great. Did you pick a specific apple variety to use?
 
Hey Eric,

I hope it doesn't turn out this way for you but when I tried to make a cider from freshly pressed apples, it turned in to Apple Cider Vinegar due to (best guess) the yeasts and bacteria naturally living on the skins. I pitched a fair amount of yeast but these other bugs either outcompeted or took over after the yeast was done.
This was early in my brewing days but sanitation wasn't the problem. Now, I think I'd boil the whole lot to prevent such an occurrence.

Cheers,
Fellow Hobartian
 
Hey Eric,

I hope it doesn't turn out this way for you but when I tried to make a cider from freshly pressed apples, it turned in to Apple Cider Vinegar due to (best guess) the yeasts and bacteria naturally living on the skins. I pitched a fair amount of yeast but these other bugs either outcompeted or took over after the yeast was done.
This was early in my brewing days but sanitation wasn't the problem. Now, I think I'd boil the whole lot to prevent such an occurrence.

Cheers,
Fellow Hobartian
Yes I hope it doesn't turn out like that as well. I am optimistic things will turn out well. I tasted it when I was bottling and it was very pleasant even at that stage. Nice and dry (I used sparkling wine yeast) and a clean flavour. No off notes. So as long as nothing untoward happens from this point on I am hopeful.
 
Hi gents, I regularly make my own cider from apples growing on the highway.

Traditional scrumpy is sour and dry, if this isn't what you are going for you can always shock everything in the juice via some sulfates, pitch an aggressive yeast like EC-1118 or do both. Additionally once its finished primary, add additional sulfates and back sweeten with apple juice concentrate or honey in secondary.
Personally I go for a an ale yeast (sometimes Nottingham for extra sour), ferment between 15 to 16c and then age it a little but leave it preservative free.

I typed this out and then read the last post.... glad it worked out Eric.
 
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