First brew for a while

[craigmarshall]

Hi,

I've been out of the brewing loop for a couple of months, I hurt my finger at work and got out of the habit, in fact, all I have left in the way of homebrew is a few bottles of cherry cider (Did a 40% cherry 60% apple mix, and it's delicious).

Anyway - I've just got a new, experimental brew on for Christmas, though I've left it a bit late and it won't be fully matured in time. Still, not to worry. Here is the recipe:

8l Tesco mid-range apple juice (in a green carton)
4l Cherry good (cherry juice) (Love it )
90% of a 454g jar of runny honey.
3 crushed cinnamon sticks
8 cloves
1 cardamom pod
1 tsp youngs tannin
juice of 2 lemons
juice of 1 lime
1 Sachet of youngs cider yeast.

Measured OG was 1.052...
.. but calculated sugar was 197g/litre

One equates to about 7-8%, one equates to about 12%, so I don't know what's going on there...

Anyway, I'll let you know how it goes!

Cheers,
Craig

[craigmarshall]

This festive cider came out very nicely, it's a real mix of flavours, and if refridgerated, it slips down the gullet slightly too easily. I don't remember what the OG or FG was, but it's a fair bit stronger than the standard juice on it's own, which seems to come out at a nice 4.5-5%. I would guess from taste, this one is more like 6-6.5% because of the honey addition. I think it has a little longer to mature yet, in a couple of weeks this one should be cracking.

I plan to put on a 10l batch of straight apple cider next using juice and a bramley (the other one I bought went off), and some tea. Back to basics, and I'm going to give it a good long mature before cracking the first bottle.

Craig