Brewmaker Cider deluxe

[jimmybobbird]

Just bottled this brew and thought I would run something past you all.


To begin, I added 1kg Ritchies brewing sugar to this brew (to 21.5 litres rather than 23) which gave me an OG of 1043. 9 days later the bubbles had stopped with an FG of 1008 (5.2%). Seems a little high for an FG but I seem to get higher FGs than this forum suggests for other ales (not sure why!?).

Taste at the end of primary ferment was of mostly water with a touch of apple which was disappointing so I decided to prime with Tesco Everyday Value Apple juice in an attempt to get an applier taste. The apple juice box tells me that for 250ml of apple juice there is 29g of sugar so in 5ml juice there would be ([29/250]*5) = 0.58g sugar. This seemed a little low so I boiled 250ml of apple juice with 200g table sugar (which gave me approx 400ml of juice/sugar concentration.). As I do not have a bottling bucket I used a teaspoon (approx 5ml) of apple juice/sugar mix per 500ml bottle

I am using PET and 500ml/2L coke bottles - should I be prepared for some splitting bottles or is this what others do with their apple juice primer? I have never had a split bottle yet but then again I have never mixed a liquid prime yet either.

Jim

[contadino]

How did your cider turn out? I've just done the same kit and the result is pretty poor. It's insipid, and not very apple-y at all. I have another tin (the downside of having to order online) and I was thinking of chucking some litres of apple juice instead of water when I make it up. Has anybody tried that?

[contadino]

By way of an update, this really turned into a pleasant cider in the bottle at around the 4 week mark. It's not the best cider I've ever had, but it's drinkable and not too bad. A shop in town has just started selling strongbow in 330ml bottles for EUR 5 a pop, which is far too expensive for me, so this kit is a winner in that it has salved my cider craving.

I've already got another batch on the go, this time with 3 litres of water replaced with 3 litres of apple juice. When it went into the bottles it tasted much better than the first batch, so I have high hopes for it.