Super Bung Jooce - 20L

[Bung Jooce]

I started off in home brew with Bung Jooce. Simple cider or whatever other name. Just apple juice and yeast.

These are my notes from the Super Bung Jooce I tried.

I'm a scientist, I need to experiment.


Ingredients:

• Bunnings Fermenter
• x10 2L bottles ALDI apple juice
• 4kg white sugar
• Few spoons of yeast nutrient
• x2 sachets McLovin EC-1118 yeast

Process:

• *New Fermenter* Cleaned with cleaning chemicals
• Sanitised fermenter
• Poured 20L of apple juice into fermenter
• Added 2 teaspoons of yeast nutrient
• Added 4kg of sugar then stirred
• Sprinkled yeast on top
• Realised the Super Bung Jooce might be too much for the yeast
• Rehydrated a second packet of yeast in 60ml of boiled water when it got to 40C
• Left yeast to rehydrate for 20min
• Poured yeast into the fermenter
• Placed cling wrap airlock over the fermenter
• Put fermenter on the heat mat

It sat in the fermenter for about a month doing its thing. It went crazy. It stank up the place!

I was still trying to figure out the hydrometer so my readings at start and finish might not have been accurate, but I believe it came out around 13% ABV. Perhaps the yeast went into that Han Solo style carbonite deep freeze when the temperature became too cold, but I thought it would have eaten up all that sugar and made a bit more than 13%. The McLovin should have been able to push it higher than that, may be not enough nutrients for them.

We bottled 18L and change in glass flagons and a few cups.. Dude this stuff is strong, hooly dooly. Best mixed half/half with sugar free softdrink, I like it with lemon.

I'll leave it in the flagons to mellow for a while.

-Bung Jooce

 

[MHB]

13% isn't too far off what's there to be made.
Be better if you kept proper records and learned how to use your hydrometer. Mind you, you are probably off the scale for most home brew hydrometers.
Assume the Apple Juice is around 10% Sugar (see the nutrient panel on the packaging)
20L of 10% juice gives you 2kg of sugar, add the other 4kg and you have 6kg in the 20L
Without bothering to show all the maths that comes to an OG of ~1.1083.
If you fermented that down to an FG of 1.000 (it could well have gone lower) gives you an alcohol content of 100/7.5=13.33333%. 13% is in the ballpark.

EC1118 will go to 17% pretty easily, probably get closer to 19% if you add the sugar in stages (and probably a bit of nutrient to). Personally I would try some of the Cider yeasts, there are some decent dry ones on the market. You might not get the alcohol content but personally I think they tend to taste a lot better.
A bit of Calcium Chloride helps some Ciders, as does tweaking the pH to around 4.1-4.2pH, ciders are often more acidic than that, try adding a bit of Bi-Carb to a glass of cider , just make small additions, stir and taste between additions. Potassium Bicarbonate is better than Sodium Bicarbonate from the supermarket (tends to taste less salty).
Mark

PS
EC1118 will work over a very wide temperature range, brewing cooler will take a bit longer but will usually taste better.
M

 

[Bung Jooce]

13% isn't too far off what's there to be made.
Be better if you kept proper records and learned how to use your hydrometer. Mind you, you are probably off the scale for most home brew hydrometers.
Assume the Apple Juice is around 10% Sugar (see the nutrient panel on the packaging)
20L of 10% juice gives you 2kg of sugar, add the other 4kg and you have 6kg in the 20L
Without bothering to show all the maths that comes to an OG of ~1.1083.
If you fermented that down to an FG of 1.000 (it could well have gone lower) gives you an alcohol content of 100/7.5=13.33333%. 13% is in the ballpark.

EC1118 will go to 17% pretty easily, probably get closer to 19% if you add the sugar in stages (and probably a bit of nutrient to). Personally I would try some of the Cider yeasts, there are some decent dry ones on the market. You might not get the alcohol content but personally I think they tend to taste a lot better.
A bit of Calcium Chloride helps some Ciders, as does tweaking the pH to around 4.1-4.2pH, ciders are often more acidic than that, try adding a bit of Bi-Carb to a glass of cider , just make small additions, stir and taste between additions. Potassium Bicarbonate is better than Sodium Bicarbonate from the supermarket (tends to taste less salty).
Mark

PS
EC1118 will work over a very wide temperature range, brewing cooler will take a bit longer but will usually taste better.
M

Good to know that ~13% is what to expect. Thanks mate!

I had an OG of 1.106 I reckon ..

And a FG of 1.012 (sorry no pictures of that one). The calculator I used said it was 12.35% so didn't quite reach the 13.

I've tried cider with s-04 and Mangrove Jack cider yeast M02. I have some Safcider yeast in the fridge to try next.

Thank you for the information regarding the additives, pH, and temperature - much appreciated. I'll test some of these things out on the next batch.

-Bung Jooce