Cider kit tastes watery

[potatoes]

Hi all,

I made up a black rock cider kit and bottled it about 1 month ago. I made it up to the instructions, with 1 kg of brewing sugar. The taste is nice but just a bit weak. Generally it tastes like normal cider but just watered down. Has anyone had a similar experience? Did I do something wrong?

For next time, I think a possible solution maybe just to make it with two kits in one FV and no sugar. Is that a good, bad or idiotic idea?

Cheers,

[sparky Paul]

There's no reason why you couldn't make a brew up with two kits, but it does bump up the cost quite a bit... I always made cider kits up to 4 gallons rather than 5, the results were pretty good. Another way to increase the apple content is to use apple juice instead of the sugar, but you have to play about with quantities to get the SG you want.

A good level of carbonation also helps with the flavour, a commercially made carbonated beverage tastes pretty insipid when it's gone flat.

[potatoes]

Thanks for your advise on this one. I am just tasting another cider kit I made but added real apple juice as well as a bit of sugar. The flavour difference is amazing! I now know what makes a good kit cider and what doesnt .

[monkeyb0y]

Hi...
Pretty much as I maintained in the cost of tc post....
You may get more body by experimenting with honey...
Tbh why pay for a kit concentrated aj where u rehydrate with water when u can use aj and experiment
You may have answered your own question..the aj tasted better...
I wouldn't buy kits for cider...I would use cartons as a personal preference as its more flexible to experimenting and taking away any water problems that may affect taste...
Rich

[woolyghost]

Hi there, I have been having the same problems with cider kits. Is there a basic recipy you could give us for a carton only brew? How many cartons are we talking and how much sugar? Also what Yeast are you using?

This is sounding like an interesting way to go.

Thanks

[Geezah]

Most carton apple juice will be around 1040 -1050 so you dont really need to add any sugar for a 5-6% cider.
I personaly find that aj alone is a bit thin, but by adding a cheap 62p jar of morisonns honey adds lots of body to it, so thats how I choose to brew TC

I just throw aj, 1 jar of honey per 2 gal, 1 tsp of wine tannin, 1 tsp of yeast nutrient and 1 tsp of youngs wine yeast... let it go for 5(ish) days, rack to secondary... leave 2-3 days to clear then bottle it.

I'm currently drinking a cloudy, still tc @7.4% and its lush!

[potatoes]

Sounds a good recipe Geezah,

I am making the cider kit for the misses and she doesnt like to drink high alc %. So I was aiming for about 4-5% at most but with nice taste. I think she would be happy with your recipe but with a little less honey maybe. Do you have to sterlise the honey and/or aj first with camden tablets? Can you taste the honey?

Monkeyboy, I suppose i use the kits because they are iddiot proof-ish and just wanted something drinkable at the end of the day. The cider kit I rate the best so far is the Finlanda Apple and Pear. I started off making coopers beer kits when making beer and they proved fairly iddiot proof. thought it might be the same for cider kits.

Next time its aj and honey,

Spuds

[Geezah]

There is a light honey aftertaste, but if you didn't tell the taster if was honey I doubt they would put their finger on it, and no I never use campden tablets on my tc's ever.
Straight out the carton / jar into the FV.
If you want to drop the ABV% a little add 1/2 a litre of water in the mix, or water until you get your desired SG
If you want it a little bit sweeter and flat, stop it early.
If you want it sweeter and fizzy, ferment it out to 1000, sweeten to taste with artificial sweetners, then prime and bottle as normal.
or, add a splash of lemonade/juice when serving.

[potatoes]

Thanks Geezah,
How do you stop it early? Drop a camden tablet in it?

Spuds