QUOTE Coke a Cola used to contain a small amount of cocaine and look how sucsessful that is
I've often heard that one, although I've never been able to sort out whether it was an urban myth. Coca Cola Syrup was originally a medicine like a cough syrup which one guy used to put soda in to make it more drinkable, so I guess it's probably true!!!
QUOTE That aside... which one is Cane Sugar, Tate and Lyle, Silverspoon or Whitworths ?
Tate and Lyle is cane sugar, the others are beet sugar but can be inverted to make them more suitable for brewing purposes.
QUOTE and as I have all the ingredients to hand except Grape Tanin, is there a suitable alternative to save me a trip to th HB shop?
http://www.makewine.com/makewine/tannin.html is one source traditionally used in home brewing. My suggestion would be that as this is a recipe that relies on must fermentation a couple of bunches of value grapes from Tescos in the must would provide some nice fresh tannins that might be deficient in the raisins.
The problem with both tea and grapes is the amount of tannin will be unpredictable, but if you err on the side of caution, you can always sought things out at a later stage.
QUOTE I always keep a few kgs of citric acid handy, I use it to descale the kettle, washing machine,shower head, and clean all my copper homebrew gadgets.
Whatch out! you'll have the fizzers knocking on your door! :blink:
QUOTE I've also got 30 L of bargain cider on the go...
QUOTE
30L of Tesco Value Apple Juice £9.90
1Kg Sugar £1
2 Sachet Champagne Yeast £2
1 week in a primary, 1 week in a clearing tank and it's ready to drink (or bottle it with 1/2 tsp per pt to get fizzy cider)
:beer Mmm... temptingly easy!
QUOTE Anyone have suggestions for mulling spices for cider?
Pretty much the standard approach to mulling wine is to dilute a robust red wine with 50% more water by volume and to add an orange studded with cloves. Also sliced oranges, the juice and zest of a lemon and cinnamon bark. This should then be warmed without boiling whilst dark brown sugar by the desert spoon as the wine bitters through heating to balance the flavour. A good slug of brandy should be added towards the end of the warming process to add aroma and a bit of punch to the drink,
For cider, I would suggest the dilution was unnecessary, but the cloves and the cinnamon would still go well with an apple based flavour. My instinct would be to go with sliced lemons for cider rather than sliced oranges as the cider drinker prefers a more astringent taste.
So Stick with the Orange studded with cloves, the lemon juice and cinnamon bark and add slices of lemon instead of orange. Do not dilute and use light brown sugar to taste if the heating causes the cider to bitter, but go easy on the sugar as a little bitterness is not a bad thing in a cider. (It almost certainly will, but I can't be sure of the effects of the tannins here). Try a slug of calvados instead of the brandy.
My guess is that the resultant brew should be nice hot or chilled.
:beer Cheers! :beer
Reg