Turbo cider

[ron]

Question for experienced cider-makers.

After reading about how easy it is, I decided to try some turbo-cider.
3 litres Aldi apple juice, 1 spoon Youngs wine yeast, brown demi-john, good shake. Bubbled a bubble every 10 secs, seemed to slow down after 2 days. added a litre Morrisons apple juice,a handful of Tate & Lyle sugar, and another spoon of yeast set off in warm water till it fizzed. Bubble more than 1 per sec, but not really violent. Slowed down after about 5 - 6 days, lees than 1 bubble per 10 secs, just siphoned a sample out into a 500 ml plastic (coca-cola) bottle.
It looks very murky, smells cidery though, so left a couple of inches of air at the top and stood it beside the demi-john as a test, see if it clears.

It's really thick, is this murkiness normal?

[Geezah]

It does start off very murky, but starts to clear after the sugar is used up and the yeast starts to settle on the bottom of the demijohn.
You didn't need to add more yeast as it was still very much alive, just a little dormant due to there being less 'simple' sugars to feed off. When tou top up the DJ, just add your AJ and it will spark up again on its own.
Its called turbo cider because it is a quick fermentation process.
What you should really do now is siphon off your cider in to a fresh sanitised DJ (leaving behind all the lees) and give it a few days to clear.
You will see the yeast drop out of the cider and form a sediment and your cider will get clearer. I tend to ferment for 7 days - transfer to new dj and settle for 3 days then bottle it up.
By day 14 it will have some sparkle from the 2nd ferment in the bottle and will be perfectly clear.

[ron]

Thanks Geezah,
Yes, the small bottle's starting to clear from the top, looks a lovely cider colour, and thrown a sediment, I've tightened the top, thought I'd just leave it till it clears all the way down.
Filled another bottle, 2lt plastic pepsi bottle, it's clearing fast, 2" air space, tight top.
Half a DJ still bubbling about every 30 secs, so I thought I'd just siphon it off when I get a few more plastic bottles.
Should have report on tasting in about a week.

[Spud395]

The half DJ isnt a great idea if the fermentation isnt fairly strong as you've a lot of O2 in there.
You should really try to bottle or rack to another DJ all in 1 go.
Some of my TC's never clear at all, depending on what juice I use in them.
They have a cloudy dangerous looking appearence but taste grand, it's nothing to worry about.

[jason123]

Whatever happens just drink it and don't even consider chucking it away. I does improve alot if you leave it to mature.

[ron]

Just siphoned the last out of dj. Finished up with 1 X 2lt, 1 X 1lt, 3 x 500ml, seems to be clearing OK in the plastic bottles.

[ron]

It's clearing OK now, I tried the top on one, a small fizz, think it's gonna be a decent drink.