medium cider

[Bovril]

Hi,

Never ever made cider, never ever ventured this far down the forum list even!!! but I am having some thoughts about cider.

Now take it easy with me here....I've read a few topics and from what I can pick up, and my own common sense, any fermentable sugar or sweetness I want in my cider will just be eaten up by my yeast.....so I then have to use artificial sweetners (or at least non fermentable sugars) to have a medium cider? What are the "best" non fermentable sugars?....how much? and when do you add them?

will any apple juice do too?

cheers and thanks

[oldbloke]

Any apple juice seems to work, but I now use Suma concentrate as my base - great flavour, ideal acidity, more apple in the volume. Per gallon I tend to use 500ml Suma, 500ml to 1l ordinary AJ, and 500 ml of something like cranberry to broaden the flavour profile. That gets to about 6.5%

I don't want medium but add 1 tsp sweetener per gallon just to take the edge off. For medium, maybe a little more. The only one I've tried is Morrison's own-brand, which is sucralose with a bit of maltodextrin.

I also add a tsp powdered tannin per gallon. You can use a mug of very strong tea instead if you don't have tannin.

Also, I like it made with an ale yeast instead of a cider yeast. Quite good with a red wine yeast too.

I stick everything in at the beginning.

[Bovril]

Any apple juice seems to work, but I now use Suma concentrate as my base - great flavour, ideal acidity, more apple in the volume. Per gallon I tend to use 500ml Suma, 500ml to 1l ordinary AJ, and 500 ml of something like cranberry to broaden the flavour profile. That gets to about 6.5%

I don't want medium but add 1 tsp sweetener per gallon just to take the edge off. For medium, maybe a little more. The only one I've tried is Morrison's own-brand, which is sucralose with a bit of maltodextrin.

I also add a tsp powdered tannin per gallon. You can use a mug of very strong tea instead if you don't have tannin.

Also, I like it made with an ale yeast instead of a cider yeast. Quite good with a red wine yeast too.

I stick everything in at the beginning.

thanks...nice and simple and to the point.,...very much appreciated

[WalesAles]

Bovril,
Read `Oldblokes` post on this link, 2nd one down. Very informative!

viewtopic.php?f=48&t=65433

Happy Brewing!

WA

[Bovril]

Thank you so much for that link.

Oldbloke... That is a tip top description. I shall give it a go:-)

[Bovril]

Any apple juice seems to work, but I now use Suma concentrate as my base - great flavour, ideal acidity, more apple in the volume. Per gallon I tend to use 500ml Suma, 500ml to 1l ordinary AJ, and 500 ml of something like cranberry to broaden the flavour profile. That gets to about 6.5%

I don't want medium but add 1 tsp sweetener per gallon just to take the edge off. For medium, maybe a little more. The only one I've tried is Morrison's own-brand, which is sucralose with a bit of maltodextrin.

I also add a tsp powdered tannin per gallon. You can use a mug of very strong tea instead if you don't have tannin.

Also, I like it made with an ale yeast instead of a cider yeast. Quite good with a red wine yeast too.

I stick everything in at the beginning.

Would you add about 2l water to that too oldbloke?

[oldbloke]

Any apple juice seems to work, but I now use Suma concentrate as my base - great flavour, ideal acidity, more apple in the volume. Per gallon I tend to use 500ml Suma, 500ml to 1l ordinary AJ, and 500 ml of something like cranberry to broaden the flavour profile. That gets to about 6.5%

I don't want medium but add 1 tsp sweetener per gallon just to take the edge off. For medium, maybe a little more. The only one I've tried is Morrison's own-brand, which is sucralose with a bit of maltodextrin.

I also add a tsp powdered tannin per gallon. You can use a mug of very strong tea instead if you don't have tannin.

Also, I like it made with an ale yeast instead of a cider yeast. Quite good with a red wine yeast too.

I stick everything in at the beginning.

Would you add about 2l water to that too oldbloke?

Whatever water's needed to get it to a gallon. I use demijohns so leave a litre of headspace the first 4 days, then top up.
To get more apple than you do with normal AJ it has to be 500ml Suma + 1l normal AJ. Of course this also gets more sugar, but it's not silly strong. And it does leave room to use tea for the tannin without losing juice volume.

[Bovril]

Thank you. I shall let you know the results in due course.... I have a couple of glass Demi johns lying about. So will be ordering suma concentrate tonight. Amazon best place??

[oldbloke]

Thank you. I shall let you know the results in due course.... I have a couple of glass Demi johns lying about. So will be ordering suma concentrate tonight. Amazon best place??

Worst, probably. Our local hippyfood shop gets weekly deliveries from Suma and give 10% off if you order a slab of 6 bottles (you want the 500ml not the 400, and non-organic). It's still more expensive than normal AJ but I like it - around 26 quid for the 6 bottles. I wouldn't pay more. I had a 5l poly of it once but had to make masses of cider fast as I didn't have fridge space for it.

If you don't have a handy hippyfood shop, just go with any normal AJ you like the taste of - if you like it as juice you'll like it as cider, I reckon. Adding half a litre per gallon of something else to broaden the flavour profile matters more than most other things in the first few goes at this stuff. I like cranberry, but blueberry works, so does pomegranate, not so keen on cherry.

[oldbloke]

I just checked amazon and the Suma is just under 29 quid for 6 bottles, which isn't too awful. So if you don't have a handy hippyfood shop, yeh, amazon.

[Bovril]

I just checked amazon and the Suma is just under 29 quid for 6 bottles, which isn't too awful. So if you don't have a handy hippyfood shop, yeh, amazon.

i bought the 5l bottle from amazon for £24....I live in shetland....so no health food shops here really remote. got all my stuff now.....now to brew

[Bovril]

Got the brew on and I'll be interested to see how it goes.... The Duma apple juice is lovely and thick and smells great. I done one with cranberry and one with cherry, split the yeast between the two Demi johns and used a red wine yeast. Left plenty of head space and we will see what happens after a day or two.... Did you say old boy that you top up with water after 4 days?

[WalesAles]

Bovril,
Glad to see you got a brew on!

quote="Bovril"] Did you say old boy that you top up with water after 4 days?[/quote]

Have you been drinking Homebrew whilst typing?
His name is `Oldbloke`, not old boy, what, what!
Anyway, back to the subject, top up with apple juice. You will be fine!
Apologies to Bovril and old boy if I have given wrong info!

WA

[oldbloke]

Yeh I leave topping up to day 4 or even 5, otherwise it might try to climb out. I put all the juice in at the start so my top up is with water.

24quid for the 5l poly is good, might have to start doing bigger batches!

Although, next experiment is to compare my standard recipe[1] against a good not-from-concentrate juice


[1] 500ml Suma, 1l cheap AJ, 500ml cranberry, tsp tannin, tsp sweetener, tsp nutrient, ale yeast, water to 1 gallon

[Bovril]

Sorry about the name oldbloke. Two brews on the go and both fermenting away fine just now. I left plenty of head space in the demijohns. I'll top up with water and I'm keeping the remaining concentrate in the chicken feed box (stainless steel box outside) as I don't have room in the fridge either!!