First cider kit on

[bigandyb]

Ventured into the world of home brew yesterday for the first time since an abortive attempt when i was 15!!

Black Rock kit with Lidl apple juice hybrid. Made a schoo;boy error and had to wait an age to pitch in the yeast because it was too hot. Won't be doing that again. hopefully will go ok. 7 X 1.5L Lidl apple juice gives 987g of sugar which is pretty handy. Now I gotta wait

Least I can put this at the bottom now


Fermenting: Black Rock cider hybrid

[MightyMouth]

Hope all goes well, I have the same kit on the go right now.

[MMBrewing]

I have just set my first hybrid cider on the go as well - went for the cheap apple juice from Lidl (8x1.5 litres) into the you brew cider kit.

OG 1.070

The Brew kit says wait til it gets to 0.998 before barelling / bottling... I will be highly impressed if the yeast gets that far ! My first two kits have taken about 10 days to get down to 1.010 but i moved the FV a bit closer to the radiator this time, perhaps it will do the trick !

[MMBrewing]

I have just set my first hybrid cider on the go as well - went for the cheap apple juice from Lidl (8x1.5 litres) into the you brew cider kit.

OG 1.070

The Brew kit says wait til it gets to 0.998 before barelling / bottling... I will be highly impressed if the yeast gets that far ! My first two kits have taken about 10 days to get down to 1.010 but i moved the FV a bit closer to the radiator this time, perhaps it will do the trick !

[Martin the fish]

I'm really keen to see how your Black rock kits turn out. I love mine. I have found that at lower temps it takes 10-14 days to ferment out. At 24 though it goes like a rocket and my taste prefers the slight sweetness it adds. Compared to my current fermenting room temp of 18C.

[bigandyb]

Got my kit brewing at work. When i got there this morning the oil filled radiator had blown a fuse and the brew was down to about 10 C, sorted it now but will I need to pitch more yeast to start it back up or just give it a swirl when up to temp??

[Adam]

I'd let it get back up to temp and then give it 24 hours from then to see if it is going to revive on its own, but i'm new to all this and someone else may have a better informed opinion.

smiles
adam

[MMBrewing]

My hybrid has just gone onto intensive care I'm afraid. I left it in the magic brewing spot and the temperature was OK every time I checked but there were no signs of yeast activity and the OG was the same as when it started.

I took about half a pint of the liquid from the Brewing Bin and mixed it with some cooled boiled water to give a solution with a lower concentration of sugars to rehydrate some Safale 04 I got from www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk ( they delivered my small order in about 2 days from ordering btw).

I kept the (sanitised) jug at the upper end of the suggested range for the yeast - 25 deg c - and covered with clingfilm until I had a good looking jug of creamy foamy yeast . I pitched this into the brew bin and left it overnight to get busy.

This morning the OG had started to fall but I will have to keep a close watch on this for a while. I'm hoping it will turn out OK because my mums rather fond of cider !

[jonnyv]

Hope all goes well with your kit MMBrewing - it should recover ok.

I started my hybrid kit last night - it's only a cheap Young's brewbuddy cider kit but with 10l of Tesco value apple juice (sugars = 1140g).

I found putting the 10l of apple juice in the freezer for an hour or so cools it down - then when you mix it with the kit it brings the temperature down nicely to pitch the yeast without having to cool/wait around. Just make sure you don't freeze the juice

~36 pints @ OG 1050.

[MMBrewing]

Thanks for that, the SG is showing a nice steady drop and theres definate signs of activity in the brewing bin. Its got a healthy smell to it so I'm going to leave it to do its thing and check on it early next week.

I plan to bottle it into some quart bottles I got from Freecycle. Cheers guys !