Turbo Cider Recipes, Methods and Taste Collection.

[Pinto]

Yes, its a direct relationship but you need your initial (og) and final (fg) readings using a hydrometer. I use :

http://www.brewing-tips.com/abv-alcohol-calculator/

to work out my ABVs

[Turbo John]

Ok, cheers fella

[Pinto]

Cranberry & Raspberry Turbo Cider - (23l Brew length)

18l Aldi Apple Nectar
5l Aldi Cranberry & Raspberry Juice
2x 500g Jar Raspberry Jam
1 Small Jar Aldi Cranberry sauce
1l (8 Bag) Stewed Tea
4Tsp Pectolase (dealing with the fruit and pectins in the jam)

Boiled the jam and cranberry sauce for 15 mins in 1l of apple juice to break down any preservatives and small residual fruit pieces. Poured into FV with remaining juices, tea and pectolase solution. Jam provided a decent sugar boost so I decided not to add any extra fermentables in this batch after taking OG.

Pitched @ 18 degrees using Youngs Super Wine Yeast & Nutrient.
OG - 1.050 @ 18 Deg

Projecting a finish of ~ 7.2% ABV

First full length run for a turbo cider if its as good as the trial batch then im in for a summer treat. I modified the recipie by substituting my random selection of fruits of the forest jam with straight raspberry, hopefully it'll bring out the fruit charecter more in the finished drink.

[Pinto]

Tried the first bottle of my previous trial - Cranberry & Apple TC - tonight.... bit of a dissapointment tho

Popping the crown cap was greeted with the sounds of nothing - brew is flatter than a witches tit after 1 week @ 24 degrees - im guessing that a long period (2 weeks) between end of fermentation and the 10.1% abv has killed all the viable yeast so carbonation wont be happening

MInd you, it makes a reasonable apple wine - especially at that strength - if weeey too sweet for my tastes (well, i did prime to 2 tsp to 500ml PLUS 1 tsp of splenda)

It will still be drunk

On a more positive note... the Cranberry & Raspberry I started last week is still charging along a week later - fizzing away like pop !! Smells absolutley divine too, really thick raspberry nose to it ( should be with a kilo of jam in )

Cant wait for a sample !

[Cider rider]

ok my TC has finished fermenting im wanting to put it in one of my acquired kegs and leave until the summer (if we get one)but have never used one before, do i add the splenda and sugar to carbonate and then buy a co2 capsule to get the cider out?

[Pinto]

Kegs (unless you're talking a Cornelius keg) aren't really a lot of good for highly carbonated brews - they just aren't made for it (the CO2 charging is more to provide pressure to push the brew out of the tap, and light carbonation) - I'd only keg a scrumpy or still cider myself.

If you want a fizz... bottle it !

On another unrelated topic.... the polish food section of asda tempted me with.....



6 Litres of this are now ready to enter my trial demi... hoping for good things

[Pinto]

Cherry & Apple Turbo Cider

4.5l Tymbark Cherry & Apple Juice
0.5l (4 Bag) Tea

Youngs Super Wine Yeast (Pitched @ 22 Deg C)

Nice and simple OG of 1.040 so if it goes to its normal level, 5.9% ABV - a low alcohol brew to my normal If it tastes like it smells tho... another winner

Might add that Tescos have this on offer at the moment for £1 for 2 litres ! Bargain !

[Cider rider]

Thanks for that pinto, I like the sound of your apple and cherry cider

[Barticus]

Are there instructions anywhere on here about the Turbo Cider process and is it something I can do with my coopers beer making kit. The wife is a koppaberg cider drinker and I was thinking if I can get another kit and get a cider brew away for her the life will be rosy and I'll have another kit .

[Pinto]

Are there instructions anywhere on here about the Turbo Cider process and is it something I can do with my coopers beer making kit. The wife is a koppaberg cider drinker and I was thinking if I can get another kit and get a cider brew away for her the life will be rosy and I'll have another kit .

Pinto's Simple Guide to Liquid Blindness (AKA Turbo Cider)

Im sure there are lots of guides and information available on this very subject, but im feeling verbose today so I'll impart my t'uppennith of wisdom of the subject - please feel free to contradict, add or comment on my ramblings

Turbo cider making is the process of brewing your own cider using pre-pressed juices and concentrates that you can buy from any decent shop or supermarket (as opposed to harvesting and pressing your own apples in the autumn) but there are a few differences between proper cidermaking and TC making (and again, commercial kit cider making) - it helps to know a little about these as it explains some of the steps you'll be making later.

Apples

Firstly, you can make good cider with ANY apple variety, but proper cider apples are varieties selectively bred for their high tannin content - tannins being an important component of flavour and bite in a finished brew. Shop bought juices are made from "dessert" apples - the polar opposite - bred for their light, very sweet charecter and hence have very low tannin contents. Therefore, we have to add those tannins back in to the mix and there are a number of ways to do this - more on this later...

Yeasts

Yeast selection, as in beer brewing, can impart many subtle (and some not so subtle) charecteristics to your brew; you are free to experiment freely to see just what comes out at the end Assuming this is your first brew, I'd make the following reccomendations tho

or....

I've used both of these with great sucess now, although I lean towards the super yeast simply because its got nutrient included in a one shot package with the yeast. Both of these will ferment to absolute dryness eg: consume/convert all the available sugars and take the specific gravity (SG) to 1.000 or lower ( in 99% of cases unless your trying to make some dangerously powerful alky brew )

Note the word....DRYNESS.... I've had brews that on sampling will suck the water out of your eyeballs ! Now whilst I like bone dry drinks, its not to everyones taste ( namely SWMBO ). This lead me to an experiment using Nottingham ale yeast - its lower tolerance of alcohol meant that it finished earlier, with a lower ABV and to boot, a naturally sweeter finish as not all the sugar was converted ( IIRC, it finished about 1.008)

Experimentation . Spice of life

Additives

There are certain additives that you'll need to use (and some optional ones you dont have to) that are used in turbo ciders to alter the charecter and improve the brew. Here's the breakdown of the ones I know about feel free to add.

Tea & Tannin Sources - Remember the earlier info about tannins ? To make a decent cider you'll need to boost the tannin content of the apple juice somewhat. The easiest and most common way to do this is to add strong brewed tea to your mix. Brew up a cup of tea using 3-4 tea bags (or more for bigger brews), let it stew for 20 minutes and bung it in (for my last 23l brew I used 10 bags in a litre jug !)

There are other sources of tannins too. The most common (and used by many others) is to add high tannin apples in your brew (such as brambley cooking apples or even crab apples in season) - usually chopped finely or shredded and added to the fermentation vessel. Its claimed this has an added effect on the "appleness" of the finshed product too. To this end, do a search on this forum for "dreadskin's Turbo cider recipie" for all the info you need.

Yeast Nutrient - Not essential, but strongly reccomended. Apple juices are poor in the nutrients that yeast use to metabolise so progress without it will be slowed - use of nutrient could cut the fermentation time by more than two weeks ! Certain yeasts come pre-mixed (see above) or buy it from you HBS and add it as per directions.

Pectolase - Enzyme that works on breaking down the pectin content of the cider, supposedly making the finished product quicker to clear. I've only added to my jam-boosted TC's as the pectin content of jam is very high indeed so i thought it could use the help.

Maleic Acid - Common ingredient in winemaking, its use in cider increases the tartness (dryness) of the brew and lowers pH of the fermenting brew ( never used it and looking at the warning on the label of a jar, not something i'd want to add either )

Brewing Kit

In response to Barticus' original question, you dont need any special equipment beond what you probably already have for brewing your beer, and you can use a fermentation bucket without hesitation. What I would say is in relation to quantity; using a fermentation bucket means you'll be making big batches of TC or having a lot of head space which could lead to oxidation issues. Over capacity can also just be plain inconvenient for space reasons too.

IMO, turbo cider lends itself well to the Demijohn - its enough cider to be worthwhile making, not so much as to be a waste if you make a duff batch and perfect size for carrying out a number of experimental flavours all at once So where to get a demijohn (if you dont already have one) - glass ones are expensive and (these days) harder to get hold of, so the modern equivlent is the 5 litre PET demijohn.



Now, your LHBS will have these in stock for around a fiver each, but why buy them when there's a cheaper alternative? Most larger supermarket stock their spring water in the same bottles for around a quid So why not buy half a dozen and use the water for making an ale brew ? Waste not, want not

You'll be left with this:



Remove the cap, and you'll need to prepare it to accept a ferm lock. Simple enough, just need a 12mm drill bit and punch a hole through it.



To provide the gas tight seal, you then line the hole using a 12mm rubber grommet, just pops right in. Slip your fermentation lock in. I bought my grommets from an ebay seller, cost me £ 3.95 + P&P for 50 of em



and....BOOM !!



Lets make some cider

Apple Turbo Cider (5l Trial Batch)

You'll need:

4l Apple Juice
Cup Cold Tea
Yeast
Nutrient (reccomended)


Yup. Thats it Simple, eh ?

Just pure juice will normally have an OG of around 1.040 that will give you an ABV of around 5%... thats WITHOUT any sugar additives. Its your brew tho, so feel free to boost (and as its cider already, the "cidery" thing with granulated sugar wont matter really so use it) - I found that the SG went up by 0.01 for each 150g of sugar added (impirical observation, im sure theres a mathematical formula somewhere...)

Source your apple juice from your place of choice (usually the euro-supermarkets are the best place as they make some very nice juices at very low prices, sometimes ~40p/litre). Just pour it in - its already sterilised from the pack so no boiling or campdens required. Make up a cup of very strong tea (i'd reccomend 4 bags, brand is irrelevant and if im honest, the cheapest bags are better for it !), leave them to stew for 20 minutes, then remove the bags and pour it in the fermenter. Add your yeast, sprinkle method works here. Then,..... leave it

Fermentation should begin within 3-4 hours, and will complete out in about a week to 10 days. Once activity seems to have finished, you can take a sample or drop your hydrometer into the bottle (though you'll need sanitised tweezers to get it out again) and provided the gravity is ~1.000, then its syphon and bottle, but expect to loose about 3-500ml to wastage and sediment if you want nice clear cider.

I like fizzy ciders, so add 1.5tsp of priming sugar to each 500ml bottle, but prime to taste. Leave the bottles in a warm place for about 10 days, then chill and drink, or better, transfer to a cool place to condition for another 7-14 days for a much better product. If you've let it ferment to dryness and want a sweeter finish, you can backsweeten with splenda or stevia easily by adding some with the priming charge in the bottle (i'd reccomend one level tsp of splenda as a good baseline to start from, then add/cut back to taste)

Thats all there is to it.

Moving on...

With your first turbo cider under your belt, you can now survey the vista of choices that await your future brews

The choice of juices is vast - cranberry, blueberry, white or red grape, mango, multifruit.....and every combination inbetween; it just goes on and on, and they can all be used (although some im told arent too clever a quick google will tell you if your crazy plan is sensible or not) How about jams for a flavour boost ? or honey ? herbs ? spices ?

Its a career in itself

most of all tho... HAVE FUN !

[Greatcthulhu]

Excellent guide. Does it matter what Apple juice you use? Looking at Sainsbury's site they sell everything from Sainsbury's basics Apple juice at 56p ltr to pressed Apple juice at £1.75 ltr. Is there any taste advantage to using the more expensive juice or is the finished cider all pretty much the same?

[winka]

great guide there mate

And perfect timing, I got 2 5l water bottles from Asda yesterday for 1.05 each. been out this afternoon and got 3l apple necter from aldi and 1 litre rasberry and cranberry. From Asda I got a seedless raspberry jam, along to Wilko's for the Yeast and Pectlose.

Setting a wine away later so will use the bottled water for that then, start boiling the jam in the apple juice and start off my first 'Turbo'

I dont have any gromets handy so for my first batch I'll just not screw the lids all the way on tightly and just leave it loose.

Going to be a 4.5l thats including the 0.5l of tea.

Winner, cheers again Pinto

[Pinto]

Thanks guys

Personally, I cant see advantage in brewing with expensive "all juice" products, as all concentrates are is the same juice, concentrated for storage and transport and then rehydrated at point of bottling. Only exception to this would be if you use a 'cloudy' juice you'll end up with cloudy, scrumpy style cider.

TC's are really about speed and price - and you cant beat the value juices.

@ WInka - All sounds good m8 just make sure to keep an eye on those lids - dont want em popping off during the ferment



You should have some of this in about 10 days

[winka]

10 Days!!! now thats not very Turbo

Seriously though, cant wait. Does 300g of jam sound about right for 4.5l?

over the moon I got into homebrewing, great hobby and the posbilities are endless!!

Cheers

[Pinto]

Yep, fine - in fact a little more than I went on my trial size ( 250g) and remember that in 10 days it'll only just be carbonating up more like 14 to drink....

More turbo than waiting for this years windfalls....