DRY TC AGAIN

[trucker5774]

Has anyone come up with a good simple recipe which will produce a cider anything like the commercial ones? I' not looking for super sweet , but want to get away from that "dry as nun's talc" sort of dry wine taste. My usual brew follows the normal sort of recipe of AJ with strong tea and sometimes jam. Does the type of yeast make a difference? Ive tried saccharine etc. I tend not to add sugar, but still get a strength around 6.5%................any ideas guys?

[robharper]

Yeah, the yeast will make a difference. What do you use? If you are using a champagne yeast like many other folks around here, it'll ferment to alcohol levels of 14% or so given half a chance (as will many other wine yeasts) so you'll end up with something very dry unless you put a *lot* of sugar in. Beer or bread yeasts won't make it to anything like that level, so you'll be left with a little sweetness. I am very happy with the TC I make with just fruit juice and bread yeast (no tea, jam, sugar or anything like that) -- tastes of cider to me, and at something just short of 6% ABV.

[Mitchamitri]

If you have anyone around who's girly enough to want it sweet just chuck some lemonade in their pint

[Bryggmester]

Or a slug of apple juice!

[DREADSKIN]

hear hear, or a teaspoon of sugar...

[trucker5774]

Just after I posted this item I tried it with a little apple juice added................WOW ...huge difference, I reckon is now better than most commercial ciders Ive tried. Will be adding other flavours of juice to experiment with the different tastes. Thanks guys P.S......the yeast I used was Youngs beer and wine yeast!

[pauljmuk]

I made a dry TC on account of using champagne yeast - was lovely stuff though, and I took the edge off by adding a drop of honey to the bottom of the glass before pouring!

Got another on the go now, using cider yeast, which I think won't ferment down as far.

[tatlock]

i have used cider yeast in all my TCs(15 in total) and they have all been very dry.
Does not bother me though!

[flytact]

I used champagne yeast to ferment 16L of juice and tea. I kegged mine and primed with another 4L of apple juice. Kept it sweet enough.

[trucker5774]

Since I started the thread, as I said earlier, I have added juice to the glass with great results. From what most people are saying this seems to be the way to "girliefy" the TC. I may try priming with more juice than would seem proper. The PET bottles are quite robust and in a place they can burst if they want to
There is some bad news though...... The 14 litres I started drinking at the time of this post have gone

Ah well..................back to Aldi....Whoo hoo............thanks guys!

[Mitchamitri]

I use champagne yeast because it makes a very dry cider.