Turbo Cider Recipes, Methods and Taste Collection.

[Troutman47]

Blimey, not sure I should answer at the moment, I've two TC's at 8.1% and a third at 6.6%.

The first contains 3 jars of honey (I call it Bug eye after my dog with horizontally opposed eyes, kinda like the affect after 4 bottles!!). I used the whole jar of Cologran and I wouldn't call it sweet but there's no back bite.

The second is a Cranberry and Raspberry TC (Pinto's recipe) and there is a bit of a back bite to that one but still very nice!! SWMBO loves this one!!

Both recipes are around 20Ltrs

If I can help any more just ask.

Cheers

[Pinto]

Back on the road to brewsville

Spiced Cider (10l)

7L Happy Shopper Apple Juice (topped to 9l with water)
1 Cup 4-Bag tea

90g Maltodextrin
2Tsp Nutrient
2Tsp Cinnamon
2Tsp Allspice
8 Cloves (Bruised)
1.5Tsp Orange Essence

Pitched with Super Wine yeast @ 26 deg
OG :1.034

Never used the Happy Shopper juice before but i got it cheap in Cash N Carry - looks like I might have made a small error by trying to squeeze two brews out of a case by diluting and getting myself a low OG as reward - Mind you, im predicting 4% ABV so it'll be a decent session cider.

Need more apple juice now so I can get brew No2 in the fermenter - just going for a straight cider with that one.

[CJR]

Has anybody made cider with something like DME instead of sugar? I'm wondering if a malty apple one can be made.

[Pinto]

Has anybody made cider with something like DME instead of sugar? I'm wondering if a malty apple one can be made.

Yep Do a search (here and google) for Graff recipies.

As im sitting on a vast quantity of Galaxy hops im tempted to split my next cider and dry hop half of it....

[CJR]

I've had a look around for recipes which look interesting but also necessitate finding certain malts which I'm not sure I can find just yet. I'm wondering if a quickie could be made with a cider kit, a mug of strong tea and a bag of beerkit enhancer? I'm looking for a session graff so not looking for strength.

[Pinto]

Seems like an expensive solution to a cheap problem why use a kit ? apple juice is cheaper.....

Being unsure of the results, I'd trial it first - use an 5l ashbeck fermenter and scale back on the juice and BKE quantities, just to see how it came out. That way, if you like whats produced, you could easily scale back up to a 23l batch.

[WalesAles]

Back on the road to brewsville

Spiced Cider (10l)

7L Happy Shopper Apple Juice (topped to 9l with water)
1 Cup 4-Bag tea

90g Maltodextrin
2Tsp Nutrient
2Tsp Cinnamon
2Tsp Allspice
8 Cloves (Bruised)
1.5Tsp Orange Essence

Pitched with Super Wine yeast @ 26 deg
OG :1.034

Never used the Happy Shopper juice before but i got it cheap in Cash N Carry - looks like I might have made a small error by trying to squeeze two brews out of a case by diluting and getting myself a low OG as reward - Mind you, im predicting 4% ABV so it'll be a decent session cider.

Need more apple juice now so I can get brew No2 in the fermenter - just going for a straight cider with that one.

Hello Pinto,
I can see from your (tasty looking recipe) that you have not used any sugar at the start of the Brew. Is this an oversight or deliberate for this recipe? You mention the low OG, when I first started doing TC in Feb, I followed someones` recipe off this forum and it said to use 200gr Dem Dugar,100gr White Sugar, this came out at 9% ABV, too strong for me! After many brews I reduced the sugar down to 50gr for 5.4% and 75gr for 5.7%. Much nicer and easier to drink!
I`ve got a 50cl bottle of `The Balvenie` single malt Whisky which I am thinking of putting in my priming bucket when I bottle 15Lts TC today. Will it work / destroy the TC?
I won`t add it until I get a reply. I`ve looked on the forums on here but can`t find anything. What do you think? Yay or Nay?
WA

[CJR]

Seems like an expensive solution to a cheap problem why use a kit ? apple juice is cheaper.....

Being unsure of the results, I'd trial it first - use an 5l ashbeck fermenter and scale back on the juice and BKE quantities, just to see how it came out. That way, if you like whats produced, you could easily scale back up to a 23l batch.

Because at 65p/L apple juice comes out at £14.95 and I have to carry 23L of it home. Cider kit is the same price and comes with yeast.

I'd trial it too except I have no trial vessels available at the moment besides 23L FVs.

[Pinto]

Hello Pinto,
I can see from your (tasty looking recipe) that you have not used any sugar at the start of the Brew. Is this an oversight or deliberate for this recipe? You mention the low OG, when I first started doing TC in Feb, I followed someones` recipe off this forum and it said to use 200gr Dem Dugar,100gr White Sugar, this came out at 9% ABV, too strong for me! After many brews I reduced the sugar down to 50gr for 5.4% and 75gr for 5.7%. Much nicer and easier to drink!
I`ve got a 50cl bottle of `The Balvenie` single malt Whisky which I am thinking of putting in my priming bucket when I bottle 15Lts TC today. Will it work / destroy the TC?
I won`t add it until I get a reply. I`ve looked on the forums on here but can`t find anything. What do you think? Yay or Nay?
WA

I rarely sugar my ciders - straight juice is normally enough to get you 6-7% abv without the additions. My issues come from me being a tightass and trying to stretch the juice so a sugar addition could have been made but I just didnt bother, and it wont hurt to have some cider this side of blindness for a change.

Never added whiskey to a cider before but thats the fun of doing this - variety is indeed the spice of life ! Only thing i might say is try it first before adding, try it out - draw off a half pint of your unprimed cider and add 10mls of whiskey (which will be the same ratio as 50cl into 15l batch) and see if you like the taste - and proceed accordingly.

Might I say tho... thats a waste o' good scotch :'( use it as boilermakers with each pint of TC

[devexwarrior]

My most recent TC is an apple and pineapple affair. Normal fermentation then into a 10L FV for 2 weeks warm then 2 weeks in the fridge. Came back of holiday to check on it and it tastes ok so far, it a little rough, but is very cloudy. I've bottled it as I always intended and it is back in the beer fridge. If it hasn't cleared by now is it likely to stay cloudy?

[Pinto]

That'll be down to the pineapple - its a very "bitty" juice so chances are it'll never completely clear. I'd also so that of all the TC disasters i've heard of, 80% of em involve pineapple juice - apparently its not a good one to work with for various reaasons, the biggest one being it doesnt taste nice; glad yours is still ok tho

I think (apart from the obligatory cranberry and raspberry) my best adjunct juice so far has been lychee - adds a nice twist to the flavour

[oldbloke]

Just started an experimental 2 gallons...

It's often said that supermarket AJ lacks the malic acid of cider apples, so you should add some (and then leave it months for malolactic secondary fermentation)
So I did a bit of Googling and found http://www.cider.org.uk/frameset.htm (and a few similar)
And it seems in fact supermarket AJ is MORE acidic that a good cider juice blend.
What's going on? Well, most of the people saying "add malic" are doing MLF, which reduces acidity...
I don't do MLF. So...

1 gallon with 1tsp calcium carbonate (that's chalk to you), 1 with 2tsp. To see what happens if we reduce the acidity up front.
Results in 6 weeks.
[1/2l blueberry, 4l Morrison's Saver AJ, 1tsp tannin, 1tsp nutrient, half sachet Young's cider yeast, plus the chalk]

Seen something suggesting potassium carbonate may be better than calcium carbonate. Wondering about sodium carbonate, or even magnesium carbonate. Maybe not lithium carbonate...

[EoinMag]

Back on the road to brewsville

Spiced Cider (10l)

7L Happy Shopper Apple Juice (topped to 9l with water)
1 Cup 4-Bag tea

90g Maltodextrin
2Tsp Nutrient
2Tsp Cinnamon
2Tsp Allspice
8 Cloves (Bruised)
1.5Tsp Orange Essence

Pitched with Super Wine yeast @ 26 deg
OG :1.034

Never used the Happy Shopper juice before but i got it cheap in Cash N Carry - looks like I might have made a small error by trying to squeeze two brews out of a case by diluting and getting myself a low OG as reward - Mind you, im predicting 4% ABV so it'll be a decent session cider.

Need more apple juice now so I can get brew No2 in the fermenter - just going for a straight cider with that one.

That's an awful lot of cloves, the advice I hear constantly is no more than two cloves or they can quickly become overpowering.
I'd be interested if this one is drinkable to be honest....

[devexwarrior]

Can't stand lychee but admit that cranberry was good.

[Pinto]

It will be I personally love the taste of clove and using lesser quantities didnt deliver the punch I was looking for. I certainly dont find it as pervasive in the the final flavour as other spices. If you actually want to taste clove, I'd say dont use less than 4.....