TC Today?

[arturobandini]

Hello all,

I've decided to brew some of this Turbo Cider as it sounds pretty damn cheap and I have a packet of ale yeast I found at the bottom of a box on brewing supplies. I've done a bit of research and this is the method I'm going to go for....

5 litre of supermarket cheap cheap apple juice
packet of ale yeast
200g sugar

Sling 4 litres of apple juice in the 5 litre demijohn, put 1/2 litre into a saucepan and dissolve the sugar in it before adding this to the 4 litres already in the demijohn. Shake the hell out of it, wait to cool and add yeast, shake the hell out of it and let it go about it's fine work. Once it starts to clear add the remaining 1/2 litre juice and siphon into 500ml glass bottles, leave a week in the warm and then down in the cold.

Does this sound right to everyone? I'm mixing what brewing knowledge i've got in with some of the things I've read and I could be heading in completely the wrong direction.

Cheers

[edit1now]

You can get away without using the sugar at all.

One litre of AJ in the sanitised demijohn, add the yeast, shake the hell out of it to aerate. When you're sure it's started, add three litres of AJ. See if it goes whoosh. If it does, you'll be glad of that headroom you left in the demijohn. After a couple of days, top it up with more AJ. Leave it for a week.

[MartialAnt]

If your adding 1/2 a litre to the 4 litres already in the DJ, cant we have lots of pics please. I like photos of after eruptions.

[arturobandini]

If your adding 1/2 a litre to the 4 litres already in the DJ, cant we have lots of pics please. I like photos of after eruptions.

I get the impression you're being sarcastic you git....heh! I read this in the "Other brews" section here that if you add 1/2 a litre once it's fermented out you can prime with this extra sugar content the apple juice gives? Wrong?

[arturobandini]

Got 5 litres of Princes 100% apple juice from concentrate for £2.50 for Morrisons and have followed your advice edit1now. It's now wrapped up in a towel in the plastic demijohn with an airlock in the top. We'll see what happens now.....


The Princes apple juice gave an og of 1046 so I skipped the sugar. If TC ferments lower than water, i like dry cider, it should be enough to drown out the ambient noise of friends and relatives over boxing day.

Hey MartialAnt, I was following your Irn Bru thread with interest and was wondering if you had slapped DBE in it would you have got rid of all those sweet unfermentable sugars in the Irn Bru itself leaving something a little drier and more palatable?

[adm]

You can get away without using the sugar at all.

One litre of AJ in the sanitised demijohn, add the yeast, shake the hell out of it to aerate. When you're sure it's started, add three litres of AJ. See if it goes whoosh. If it does, you'll be glad of that headroom you left in the demijohn. After a couple of days, top it up with more AJ. Leave it for a week.

Is there no need to boil the juice for TC then? Or is it already pastuerised straight out of the container?

I ask, because I've got a coupe of glass demis and a couple of packets of champagne yeast sitting around and quite fancy doing a TC after hearing so much about it.....

So it's just juice & yeast (and optional sugar) in the demi, let it start, top it up (leaving a bit of space) then after it settles down a bit, top up with more juice to prime ?

[arturobandini]

Hey Adm,

I was pretty much of the same mind. I had a 5l demijohn sitting around doing nothing and a packet of Youngs ale yeast I was never going to use for anything so I read up a bit and the general consensus seems to be if it's pure apple juice from concentrate then it's primed and ready to go straight from the carton. I got a cheap deal on the 5l Princes and at 1046 og just Apple Juice I was happy to go for that. It seems TC can ferment down much lower than beer and gets drier and drier so you can end up with a higher strength cider with a relatively ordinary OG. This is my first batch though and it's barely half an hour in the Demi but at £2.50 for the punt it was worth a go.

Good luck!

[adm]

Perfect.

Right then, I'm off to the co-op to try and find some cheap fruit juice!

[edit1now]

Long-life AJ from concentrate is more-or-less sterile, so no need to boil it. I think it's like UHT milk, but lasts even longer. They pump it through a hot tube so it goes from ambient to 80 degrees in no time, and all the little nasties burst their cell walls and die
Wikipedia says 135 degrees for UHT milk.

Cloudy fresh AJ from the cold cabinet isn't, so you might think to boil that - but people make proper cider with raw juice from the pulp...

Go for it adm, you know you want to, and it's so easy

[drmick]

I wrote a reply to this thread earlier but must have pressed the wrong button and not submitted it. Today must be TC day, I went to Sainsburys last night and got the supplies in and now have two demijohns of TC on the go (the rugby was going so wrong I decided my time was better spent brewing).

One batch of Sainsburys apple juice TC and one DJ with a apple and cranberry juice mix with some honey and sugar (bit of a Christmassy TC?). Just added the yeast and waiting for the eruptions to kick off. Followed advice on hear and just hoping that I get something drinkable by Christmas

[adm]

Mine's now done! Quick and easy compared to AG brewing isn't it?

I nipped down to the Co-Op and bought some Apple, some Pineapple and some Apple and Rapberry Juice....although I noticed when I got home that the Apple and Raspberry is in fact "juice drink - with added sugar", so i have no idea if it will work.

I put 2l of Apple juice into a pan, added 500g of golden caster sugar for the hell of it then brought that to the boil to kill any nasties that have been sitting in the sugar jar. I split that into the two demijons and then topped one up with another half litre of apple juice, plus 2l ofpineapple, and the other with half a litre of apple juice and 2l of the Apple and Rapsberry juice drink. I've kept a litre of each juice behind to top these up with once the fermentation has died down.

I put the demis into a sink full of cold water to cool them down, then pitched the yeast at 30C (I should have read the packet first as it says to pitch it into 40-43C. Still.....I'm sure it will be alright. Probably better to pitch it into slightly cool liquid rather than too hot.

TC1: OG 1073
1.5L Co-Op Apple Juice
250g Golden Caster Sugar
2L Co-Op Pineapple Juice

TC2: OG 1067
1.5L Co-Op Apple Juice
250g Golden Caster sugar
2L Co-Op Apple & Raspberry Juice Drink

Both pitched with Lalvin Champagne Yeast

HOLY TC BATMAN! I only pitched these about 15 minutes ago and the airlocks are bubbling already....

[arturobandini]

OG 1073! That's what the boys here in "other brews" like to see! Mine seems to be getting there but nowhere near as bursting as your two monsters. Maybe it's the higher gravity or better suited yeast? At least I have the start of a ferment....

Also, the glass demijohns look much better than the plastic Ritchies thing I'm using....suitably vintage adm!

[drmick]

talking of OG, thought I may as well report mine on here as well, the all sainsburys apple juice with nothing added was 1050 which I thought would be quite acceptable to the TC brigade, the apple and cranberry mix I've set up with added honey and sugar is 1075 - which if it gets down to 1000 I think will be about 10% alcohol which should warm the cockles over christmas.

[adm]

Right. Next TC question......how do you bottle this stuff?

I'd like it to be nice and fizzy, so it's going to need to go into bottles. Do you prime with a bit more juice, or sugar or what.....and how much? Also, how long should it take to carbonate through?

I've got some Coopers Carbonation drops, so maybe that's the best way? just wait for it to finish out then siphon into bottles with a couple of those in each, leave in the warm for a week, then into the cold for another week? Or is that too longs for TC?

Lots of questions.....I keg my beer, so have no real clue about bottling.....

[edit1now]

A level teaspoon (scraped with the back of a knife?) of gran per 500ml bottle, and make sure you leave at least an inch of headspace. Put the bottles somewhere indoors for a week (room temp) to prime, then think about testing at your preferred serving temp, using a glass, your mouth...