Jim's Beer Kit

If you're local to Todmorden I have a few things for sale 4 clear, 2 brown demijohns £5 each - with bung&airlock 2 hydrometers, one with sample tube, £5 each Acidity test kit, used once so plenty of chemicals etc left, £5 2 lever capper £5 Vigo 4.5l fruit press £25 I also have some 1 can kits seriou...

The conc juice will likely be pasteurised.
If it is, don't Campden it at the start

Screw tops are ok in good condition, for a few uses. You can buy new ones, too.
I cork, but apart from a sanitising rinse, don't really soak. The manufactrurer website should advise

Wychwood bottles love to snap with the wing cappers. I actually went back to a hammer-on capper whle waiting for my bench capper arrive.

If you go for crown caps, get a decent capper. One of the ones that are £25 and up

NB In my experience, with all berry wines, a few ounces per gallon of blackcurrants in addition to your base fruit improves the result massivley.

coconut????????

I switched to ale yeasts for turbocider a while ago. It's good.

Looks interesting. Haven't heard of it before. Pricing looks good.
To get your desired ABV you'll need to check the sugar content and do some sums.
Rule of thumb - 20g per litre sugar gives 1%
If you try it please report back

No headspace either...

1.040 ferments out to about 5.5%
But apple juice on its own normally gives that and you've got a pound of sugar in there as well
Something isn't adding up
The sugar should give you another 5%
Was it properly dissolved or was a lot of it sitting on the bottom?
Hydrometer temperature correction?

A bit quick but it has been warm lately! I tend to use rassies as a base, about half to two thirds the fruit, and put other berries in for better flavour. My garden supplies me with lots of redcurrants as well as rassies, and blackberries are all over the place locally. I also have red gooseberries....

I siphon from primary to bottles. So i prime the bottles, but with ordinary sugar - actually more reliable than carb drops and cheaper. A bottling wand on the end of the siphon gets you an auto cutoff when moving between bottles, well worth it. I have a tap in the siphon line too in case any emergen...

I usually use DME in place of half or all the sugar.
I also brew 40pint kits to 36 pints - more body, slightly higher ABV

1 demijohn = 1 gallon = 4.5 litres 20gm sugar per litre = 1%ABV (approx) 1 pound sugar per gallon = 5%ABV (approx) 1 pound = 454gm 2 pounds honey + 1 pound syrup => 15% ... but they're only about 80% fermentable, so 12% (approx) 1 litre apple juice = 106gm sugar 1 litre fruit juice = 115gm sugar 221...