First TC on the go, wish me luck.

[skraggy_uk]

Just got made redundant which gave me the kickstart to grab a couple of demijohns and 5 litres of Tesco finest value apple juice. (forgot, also added half a cup of strong tea and tablespoon of lemon juice concentrate).

Not added extra sugar to this, and not checked gravity. Going to go by fermentation time/final taste/effect and adjust next time.

Should be fun, first brew in 15 years. Was a beer kit last time, thought I would just start with a turbo this time and see what occurs.

If it works OK, I plan on trying some other juice flavourings and making a spiced cider for Xmas and putting it into labelled beer/cider bottles instead of PET bottles and giving as presents to the Cider drinkers I know.

Quite fancy having a go at a super brew rocket fuel TC soon as well once this one is done. Once batch one is fermented out, bottled and conditioning, I shall get batch 2 and 3 on the go, one with honey and one with normal sugar.

As in the title, wish me luck.

[Bayerd]

Good luck!

I have done several TCs now, without adding sugar they ended up at about 5.5%. I've also done some in demijohns and added a kilo of sugar. These came out at 9.5%. The stronger ones were a bit harsh to start with, but are now drinking fine after about a month in the bottle.

[skraggy_uk]

I reckon 5.5% is fine for a decent drinking cider.
Ageing something stronger might be nice though, something to look forward to.

[Spud395]

Good Luck, great fun the old TC and all the possibilites.
Got one on the go at the minute with a tin of pears including syrup and the AJ

[skraggy_uk]

I'm thinking that if/when this works, I might have to have a bash an IrnBru "wine" thing next see if I can make my own Alcopop superbrew.

[skraggy_uk]

Well, got up this morning, looks like soup and is glopping away once every 3 seconds or so.

We are go. Going to leave until tomorrow night, then add the rest of the juice.

[Geezah]

Good Luck mate!

I'm in the same position as you.... first TC i've brewed and started it off yesterday.
The apple TC was foaming like a good un last night and has now settled down.
The Apple/Grape TC took a little longer to start off, but now has a good cm of clean white foam on the surface.

Hopefully my brewing kit will arrive on monday, so I can put some more on, but this time not ghetto stylee

[skraggy_uk]

I only had a couple of mm of bubbly foam of top of mine last night when I went to the pub but it was still fairly clear with flecks of yeast moving up and down.

Covered with a teatowel overnight, it now looks like milky tea with no foam on top, totally opaque. But bubbling nicely. Now going once a second roughly.

[skraggy_uk]

Little update.
Fermentation appears to have stopped.

Looks like it is starting to settle from the top down. Sniffing the airlock, Its smells like scrumpy so all good.
How long should I be looking at for a good clearance? Is there anything I need to add? I stuck in a squeeze of Jif lemon in at the start.

[skraggy_uk]

OK, been still for a couple of days now.
Going to start batch 2, now batch one is bottled, primed in PETs.
Saved about a pint for tonight to sample still. Would be rude not to.

Batch two, I'm going to experiment with Lidl 100% juice, and demarera sugar to see how long that ferments out. May even give my Hygrometer a test use seeing as I've paid out for one.

[Geezah]

Good luck mate, hope the taster goes down well

I just popped in to Lidl and bought 8l of apple and 2l of red grape for my next brews going on tommorrow.
This time i'm going in heavy with the plain white sugar and a champagne yeast in 1 demi to make some super strength

[kay-jay]

good luck with the tc.

i have 2 on the go and have one in bottles. the one in bottles is good i drank some last night!! aj, yeast, a cup of strong tea and a jar of hartleys raspberry jam (seedless) its the first time i have done it with jam and it is much better. can't taste any raspberry tho, but it has given the cider a depth of flavour (more cidery) a little sweeter and a little less dry than the normal tc. altogether a good recipe.

KJ

[skraggy_uk]

Thanks Guys.
The pint I left to settle pretty much cleared to be able to see through it.
Of course pouring from the bottle disturbed it a little. So now it is like cloudy scrumpy.

Slightly dryer, but similar colour and taste to the Weston's traditional my local sells.
I'm going to rack the Lidl batch into a DJ for a while when it finishes, before bottling, and I've added pectolase. I want to see if I can get it nice and clear as well as fizzy.

The 2 bottles of primed stuff has carbonated up well, not much settlement sediment yet, but some froth which I assume is the fermenting suspended yeasts rising as it gases up.

I want to put one of these first ones away to see how it improves with aging.

[Spud395]

I want to put one of these first ones away to see how it improves with aging.

I was going to bottle 2 TC's yesterday, but decided to rack one off the fruit (tin of pears) and leave in secondry.
Just to see

[skraggy_uk]

Well, the taster went down well. Slightly dryer and less fruity in flavour than the Westons I've been drinking. But still very very good.

The Lidl juice brew is going well now. I only added 150g of brown sugar to the gallon, and the brewing smell is slightly sweeter. Could be the better quality juice than the Tesco value, but it definitely smells better.

The CastIron Brew is now bubbling almost as fast as the TC now. Slower starting but I can see this being a slower but more potent brew.

The two bottles have carbonated well, the yeast rose to the top in the same pattern as the dimples in the bottle base, and is now breaking up and sinking back.

Going to grab another couple of DJs this week so I can rack the next brews off for clearing.
And I'm saving 500ml bottles to bottle smaller single measures.
I'm trying to find one of those 12v mini fridges so I can chill after carbonating, stood up so the yeasts don't get too disturbed.

I reckon 3 more days and batch 3 will go on, and batch 2 will be bottled, 1 2litre still, and a few 500ml sparklers