Turbo cider: Bulmers style, using apple flavouring oil

[Drzava]

Summer is coming and of course that means two things: rain and cider! I've posted previously about using apple flavouring oils to improve turbo cider taste, and this was my latest refinement. The mission here was simple: make a session (<5% ABV) turbo cider with a decent apple taste that visitors will be happy to drink - 'neat' TC in my limited experience is too strong and too 'different' tasting to fulfil these requirements. Here's what I came up with.

For 5L:
3L cheap 'from concentrate' apple juice (from Lidl, 8.9% sugar).
1L water.
0.5 tsp yeast nutrient.
0.5 tsp tannin.
Half sachet Craft Range cider yeast / nutrient.

You know the drill - bung the first four ingredients into a 5L water bottle and shake the shit out of it. Add yeast. I'm sure other cider yeasts would be fine, but you may want to up the nutrient to 1 tsp if your yeast doesn't come with it in the sachet. After 2 - 3 days, top up to 5L with a 3:1 mix of juice:water.

After 2 - 4 weeks (whenever you get time really, and its dropping clear), siphon onto 10 Cologran (Lidl) sweetener tabs, 100g xylitol, 50g sugar (for priming) and 2.5ml green apple flavouring oil in water. Bottle!

OG 1.032. FG 0.999. ~4.6% ABV in the bottle.

The apple oil I used is LorAnn Green Apple, which is available from Amazon at this link:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Flavouring-Oils-Chocolate-Marshmallows-E-Cigarettes/dp/B0093XM1BQ/
This has a very natural Granny Smith type flavour. Also available in a smaller 3.4ml bottle.

After only a month in the bottle (much faster than 'normal' TC in my experience) this has delivered exactly what I was looking for - a Bulmers type easy drinker, for not much money. Still slightly cloudy but I don't mind that. Taste is, well, apple-y! Considering doing a full batch for the summer now. Would consider dropping the tannin (not sure it does much) and reducing the xylitol to 75g (for 5L) next time - it's perhaps slightly too sweet as it is.

[jdh]

Hi Drzava
that sounds exactly what I want to try for a first brew,ok you said the apple juice is in Lidl,where would be the best place to buy the other ingredients?to walk in or buy online,sorry but I'm new to this and not sure where to get the bits needed
thanx
J

[Drzava]

Hi Drzava
that sounds exactly what I want to try for a first brew,ok you said the apple juice is in Lidl,where would be the best place to buy the other ingredients?to walk in or buy online,sorry but I'm new to this and not sure where to get the bits needed
thanx
J

Sorry, forgot to reply! As above, I got the apple oil from Amazon, as well as the xylitol. I wouldn't be too worried about the xylitol - just using (extra) Lidl sweetener tabs should be fine. The yeast nutrient, tannin and yeast are available from any homebrew supplier. Any cider yeast should be fine - if it doesn't include added nutrient in the sachet, you could add an extra teaspoon of nutrient to the recipe.

[jdh]

cheers
i must start shopping the next day I'm near the brew shop,what the bottle qty on the apple flavouring and any particular brand juice from lidl?

[Drzava]

cheers
i must start shopping the next day I'm near the brew shop,what the bottle qty on the apple flavouring and any particular brand juice from lidl?

I got a 30ml bottle of oil from Amazon, but they also do a ~3ml bottle (should be enough for a 5L batch). I used the cheap juice from Lidl (note juice, not 'juice drink') - I think it's 89 cents a litre? Note we drink this at home too, and I reckon they've recently made it sweeter (but sugar content not listed as having changed).

[BrewDorg]

Did you use this juice? Or this juice?

I just made a abatch of this with the cloudy stuff and now I'm thinking it's different to what you used. Still have to buy the green apple flavouring, but I don't know what that will be like with the cloudy stuff.

[Drzava]

Did you use this juice? Or this juice?

I just made a abatch of this with the cloudy stuff and now I'm thinking it's different to what you used. Still have to buy the green apple flavouring, but I don't know what that will be like with the cloudy stuff.

Whoops, I actually used Aldi juice! The second one though would be extremely similar (and perhaps actually exactly the same) to what I used. I think the oil would also add decent flavouring to the cloudy juice.

[BrewDorg]

Did you use this juice? Or this juice?

I just made a abatch of this with the cloudy stuff and now I'm thinking it's different to what you used. Still have to buy the green apple flavouring, but I don't know what that will be like with the cloudy stuff.

Whoops, I actually used Aldi juice! The second one though would be extremely similar (and perhaps actually exactly the same) to what I used. I think the oil would also add decent flavouring to the cloudy juice.

Sound. I have 10L of the cloudy on the go now but I'm going to do another 10L of the clear stuff too.

[BrewDorg]

Bottled this today. Gave my housemates (sweet cider drinkers) a taste and they like it so I'm happy with that. If I were to make it again I'd probably add less sweetener and apple flavouring. I used 4ml flavouring in 10L and 25 tabs crushed. It's just a little too artificial tasting at those levels but still an easy sipper which is all I want really. The cloudy apple juice actually cleared a nice bit after a 10 day cold crash at 4ºC. Will report back when the bottles are carbed up. Thanks again for the recipe.

[Drzava]

I'd say give it a month - cider is notoriously rough when young! I'm actually aiming to put on a large batch of this tonight.

[BrewDorg]

@ CH

Believe me, if I wasn't starting off with a turd, I wouldn't try to polish it

I'd love some fresh cider, like the group buy last year that I missed. You can be sure there'd be nothing added to that. I have another batch of Lidl juice fermenting now that won't be getting anything (purposefully) extra. Will be starting a thread on that later this evening...

[Leann ull]

I deleted my reply post as its not in the spirit of what we are about and even if I'm not a fan I shouldn't be knocking, besides its not good for Shiney who  just puts on weight eating popcorn watching.

[Drzava]

Saw it before you edited it! Tastes are like opinions - people's differ! This method is not meant to produce 'purists' cider' - it's a short cut / cheat to producing a mass market-esque cider a la Bulmers etc without hassle at a bargain price - and to my tastes it achieves exactly that. I've done 'normal' turbo cider and liked it, but it's too strong and not 'apple-y' enough to gain the Wife Approval Factor; 'watering' it back with fresh juice etc on pouring is just too much hassle - this method does exactly what it says on the tin! Bonus is it's pretty much ready for drinking after a month in the bottle, which surprised me.