Lidl / Aldi Cloudy Cider

[Danny(00833827)]

gonna try this during the week, have some rhubarb my neighbor gave me, better swipe it before she uses it for a tart

Edit: ok she had the rhubarb chopped and in water since last night, so i took the rhubarb water, 500ml of boiling water and topped this up with cloudy apple juice to bring it all to 1 and half litres, brought to boil, added in 175g of brown sugar and disolved it. took it off the boil and added in the 40g odd of raisins, the rhubarb (about 3 stalks), 2  teabags - let it sit for 15 mins and i strained it into a 1 and half litre flip top bottle - in the morning Im gonna add it plus another 3 and half litres of cloudy juice into a 5 litre demijohn and bang in the yeast.

[imark]

Bottled this Saturday. Nothing added but juice and yeast (tea raisins etc) until bottling. FG was 1.002 I tried Steevia andd Hermasitas tabs with it. Hermasitas won. Steevia was actually vile (to my taste anyway). Can't remember the og but I think it was in the 55-65 region. Fingers crossed the weather holds a couple of weeks so I can try the finished article nice and cold on a sunny day.

[Danny(00833827)]

put this together last night, checked this morning and its bubbling like be-jaysus!

Can i ask a stupid question,  why do the raisins and tea bags go in? :

[Garry]

put this together last night, checked this morning and its bubbling like be-jaysus!

Can i ask a stupid question,  why do the raisins and tea bags go in? :

There's a raisin for everything   

Raisins give the brew some body and are a yeast nutrient.

The tea gives you tannin.

[Danny(00833827)]

this has been on the go a week, bubbles slowed a fair bit last couple of days but not yet finished. Hopefully next week - so for priming, I have seen some apple juice (50ml per 500ml bottle) and some sweetener tablets - what do you recommend?

[Bubbles]

this has been on the go a week, bubbles slowed a fair bit last couple of days but not yet finished. Hopefully next week - so for priming, I have seen some apple juice (50ml per 500ml bottle) and some sweetener tablets - what do you recommend?

I use a tsp of table sugar and a half tsp of Splenda to prime my turbo cider. Works well.

[Dunkel]

Has anybody tried sweetening with lactose?

[imark]

Curious... What would lactose add to the equation?

Had a nice cold bottle of mine this evening. Perfect for this weather.

[Will_D]

Curious... What would lactose add to the equation?

Had a nice cold bottle of mine this evening. Perfect for this weather.

Non fermentable sweetness and a lot more natural than the artificial sweetners peeps use.

BTW: It does NOT taste of milk or sour milk!!!

[Danny(00833827)]

this has been in the 5 liter demijon since evening of tuesday 9th of July - i leveled the airlock yesterday evening and i checked this morning and it had been pushed a bit by gas, if u get me, although no bubbles were flowing while i observed it. Wonder if it is still fermenting or should i bottle? i will check the gravity later.

On other question I have, is the yeast. I plan on sticking on another small 5l batch of cider, not rhubarb this time, maybe something else. SO can I re-used that years thats at the bottom of the demijohn? I have read its possible, but not sure if I just lash the apple juice in on top of it or do i need to do anything to reactivate it?

[Danny(00833827)]

bottled this last night, sweetened with two teaspoons of hermesetas and carbonated with 1 teaspoon of sugar per 500ml bottle. Sharp with out the sweetening but to be expected - not much rhubarb coming thru. will try one in a few weeks.

[JerryMcC]

I've made 3 x 23L batches of this over the past few months, the first using the Lalvin D47 yeast as I didn't have a cider yeast to hand, the next 2 used cider yeasts.

In my opinion the Lalvin D47 produced a far nicer drink. It was smoother/sweeter than the very rough cider yeast versions even though all were sweetened by the same amount with the same sweetener. It was drinkable with the Lalvin D47 within 2 weeks of bottling, while with the cider yeasts, the 2nd batch is 10 weeks in the bottle and still rough as hell. The 3rd batch is still vile to the taste after 8 weeks bottled. Not infected just very dry/sour/rough.

[Danny(00833827)]

Thanks Jerry, i might give that yeast a go on my next batch, i used the youngs cider yeast and harvested the yeast form it for the next 2 x 1 gallon batches i have planned, but i might hang on and get some Lalvin D47 instead.

[Will_D]

Thanks Jerry, i might give that yeast a go on my next batch, i used the youngs cider yeast and harvested the yeast form it for the next 2 x 1 gallon batches i have planned, but i might hang on and get some Lalvin D47 instead.

Where can we get the Lalvin yeasts

[JerryMcC]

I got mine from HBW.

http://www.homebrewwest.ie/lalvin-white-wine-icvd-47-831-p.asp