NBC 2013 CAT 8 Gold – English Cider

[Will_D]

This is not so much a recipe more of a how to:

50 litres of juice from the bulk buy (80% Black Dabinette 20% Bramley).

Measured acidity (pH was about 3.7) and added 2 campden tablets per gallon.

SG was about 1052 and I decided not to add any sugar.

Fermented at 18C for about 4 weeks using a Youngs cider yeast.

Start of December, it was racked into a secondary and put outside (like a Spartan baby) under an airlock.

Mid February it was checked, looked good so was siphoned into kegs for further storage but also manipulation.

It was clear, very dry, lively on the palate (a little CO2 present still).

I decided to pasteurise it so I could then sweeten it and add some fruits etc.

I pasteurised about 15 litres in a large SS pot (with my cooling coil immersed) on the stove. Brought it up to 60C and held for 15 minutes. Then cooled it quickly with the coil. Kegged it in a corny, carbed it up over a few days on CO2.

I then boiled down 2 litres of Lidl cloudy apple juice (poured carefully to leave the cloudy bits behind) to about 300 ml of concentrated juice.

Experimented on mixing ratios and decided to add 50 ml of this syrup to the empty bottle then fill using my counter pressure bottle filler.

No worries over bottle bombs that Mr Pasteur knew what he was on about!