credit for this must go to Khannie from Boards
made this cider from the Pure cloudy apple juice, not the concentrate juice. the best value is from aldi/lidl at €1.29 a lt.
very simple to make and very happy with the result.
22 lts of apple juice
400ml of boiled water
4 tea bags
3 boxes of Sunmaid raisins, 42.5g a box
cider yeast
I boiled 400ml of water and put into a jug with 4 teabags, I used Lyons goldblend. then chopped up the raisins and added to the teabags and water and leave for 15mins before adding to the apple juice.
A after a few minutes I add the yeast and put the lid on my FV, about 16hrs later plenty of action inside the FV and for the next week the airlock is going crazy.
everything seems to finish around day 12/13 then I bottle on day 16.
OG was 1052
FG was 0995
ABV @ 8%
I primed the 500ml bottles with around 50ml of the same cloudy apple juice then add 4 sweetener tabs to each bottle.i used the cheap lidl tabs.
tasted the first btl after 2 weeks and it was ok, after 5 weeks it's a lot better.
plan on making another batch very soon and going to divide the batch then add cloves, frozen berries etc.
put the 22lts of apple juice into my FV then add the mix of water, teabags, raisins
How does it compare against cider kits?
It's more expensive. Is it better tasting?
Cheers for posting this one Blueshed. Was really impressed with it last night. Plan on doing a small batch myself over the next couple of weeks
Im makin a gallon of it when tube sends over one of his many spare demijons :D
and when in Aldi gettin the apple juice grab 4 cartons of aldi grape juice...tried and tested by Kellie and her friends.simple, clears on its own with a basic wine yeast.
When I can eventually afford to buy a few demijons :( Ill be doin a few 1 gallon fruit wines (Inc Bluesheds cider) with Kellie.....
Lads, I'd recommend the following thread if you want to do some further reading on Turbo Cider.
http://www.jimsbeerkit.co.uk/forum/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=16049
It's fairly extensive, lots of good info hidden in there though. It was my primary source of info before I attempted my own batch of TC last year.
My 2c on getting a good product: long, long, long ageing. It smoothens out the rough edges. I also used the raisins and tea bags and I'd recommend you do the same if it's your first attempt.
I primed the bottles with some plain sugar and used half tsp of Splenda in each bottle. Don't be afraid of the Splenda - it doesn't make the TC seem artificial or over-sweet in any way. Having said that, I think I'll omit the Splenda next time for a drier result. Must get another batch on; I bought 10 litres of cloudy AJ some months ago.
c.
Quote from: Will_D on May 10, 2013, 03:18:44 PM
Quote from: Blueshed on May 09, 2013, 08:52:30 PM
3 boxes of Sunmaid raisins
What does a box weigh!
More importantly, what do the raisins weigh? ;D ;D
Quote from: Will_D on May 10, 2013, 03:18:44 PM
Quote from: Blueshed on May 09, 2013, 08:52:30 PM
3 boxes of Sunmaid raisins
What does a box weigh! there from the mini 6 packs, each box is 42.5g.
the reason for these raisins is no oils or glazing agents added. http://www.sunmaid.com/products-details/raisins.html
I think it was these ones (http://www.shamrockfoods.ie/Products/Californian-Raisins-82-4.aspx) I got last time (might wanna check the ingredients on the pack)
They have no vegetable oil either.
So you added 127.5 gms of raisins in total!
I assumed (Dohh!)nthat they were the normal cooking sized boxes at about 425 gms!
It'll be interesting then to see what my raisin cider turns out like as I used a kilo!
Quote from: Will_D on May 11, 2013, 10:10:22 AM
So you added 127.5 gms of raisins in total!
I assumed (Dohh!) that they were the normal cooking sized boxes at about 425 gms!
It'll be interesting then to see what my raisin cider turns out like as I used a kilo!
Why did you do that? Just give me one raisen why you did that! :-X
Goes all French:
My Raisen d'Etre was following good old country wine practice of if in doubt of the vinosity of your fruit or vegetable wine add a pound of raisens per gallon!
Will probably have upped the OG a bit from 1052 as well.
Also added 20 gms of Malic acid and 10 gms of yeast nutrient
It is a nice dark colour and smells great
Has a lovely raiseny krausen already!
Damn, typos totally ruin a good pun :(
But don't mind me, I'm just being a little braisin I don't mean to rub sultana wound.
I'm sure it'll be tasty out, and it's raisinable to assume that after a few glasses you'll be raisin a glass to your fortunate blunder. ;D
Hi Blueshed. Have you compared using the 'normal' Lidl apple juice (no preservatives or additives) with the cloudy one? I haven't used the cloudy one, but I've had very successful batches using the 'normal' juice....
just made a 2nd batch of the cloudy cider last night, 22lts of aldi and lidl apple juice and this time added 5 tea bags, 4 small boxes of raisins, I jar of honey and 250g of brown sugar.
got an OG of 1064. only thing is had no cider yeast and used the Youngs wine yeast.
you should also pour your juice through a sieve to catch some of the brown gunk in the carton
ALARM: Dangerous Fruit Puns for the next two paragraphs!
I am just Raisen the bar on this cider. My Currant grav is 1002 ( down from the 1052 (less the 1 Kg of Lidls finest Raisers)
My good friend the "Sulatanna of Sider" just popped round and checked it out, the pH is nicely at 3.6 but its color is plumming the depths of lightness!
Tastes great so far, May just have prune the recipe a bit with some earl grey tea!
I will then Gauge the change!
Fruit Puns!!
Orange you glad I'm tired tonight with not much brain for puns...
But it sounds like your cider will taste grape, and I wish you the cherry best of luck with it :)
My latest Lidl apple juice cider is coming along nicely at present , a little dry but it's been in the bottle now for about 4-5 weeks .
I used the two spoons of barrys leaf tea ( gold blend ) fist of raisins and a stalk and a half of Rhubarb all boiled in a litre of apple Juice .
Just before bottling I added about 30g of splenda , but it didn't seem to make a dent in the sharpness .
It's not sour though so it's quite pleasant and refresshing .
Last one I did was much the same but had a cooking apple and more splenda in it . Turned out lovely
Quote from: wallacebiy on May 24, 2013, 02:39:24 PMI used the two spoons of barrys leaf tea ( gold blend ) fist of raisins and a stalk and a half of Rhubarb all boiled in a litre of apple Juice .
I respect your measurements!!
Wish I put some splenda into my recent kit cider, kinda tastes like a light wine at the moment (although it's warm and only in the bottle a few days, so hopefully it will be fine by summer)
the noise coming from my airlock is unbelievable, every 2 or 3 seconds. it's upstairs in the spare bedroom and can hear it from the kitchen.
I don't touch my lidl ciders for a few months, that said, if you add a kilo of DME it is drinkable pretty fast as that smooths out a lot of the rough edges.
Lidl have Pear juice atm, just made a 5lt brew.
3.5lts of cloudy AJ
1lt of pear juice
2 teabags
1 small box of raisins 42.5g
175g of brown sugar
7g Youngs wine yeast
500ml of water.
chopped the raisins and put these and the 2 teabags into a muslin bag, then poured the boiled water over and left for 15mins.
mixed the sugar in with the boiled water and teabags.
put the muslin bag and water into the demijohn then added the juice, sprinkled the yeast then gave it a stir 10mins later.
got an OG of 1056.
Got this made up on Tuesday. It's fermenting like mad. But Jaysus the stink! :-X
Quote from: imark on June 21, 2013, 07:03:05 PM
Got this made up on Tuesday. It's fermenting like mad. But Jaysus the stink! :-X
im still in the bad books over the last batch, after a few days it will ease off a bit.
what did you brew.
so far I have brewed the cloudy AJ, AJ and Peach, AJ and frozen raspberries, AJ and pear juice, plus a cheaper AJ with frozen raspberries.
next up is AJ and frozen rhubarb and AJ with cinnamon n cloves. all the mixed brews have being 5lts.
I did the original recipe you posted. Liked what I tasted. :)
Interesting mixes you've got. They all sound good.
Looking forward to making some of this.
Looks like people are using both cider and wine yeast for this - has anyone noticed a difference between the two?
Would a basic wine yeast like this:
http://www.homebrewwest.ie/youngs-dried-active-wine-and-beer-yeast-100-gram-tub-830-p.asp
do the trick? Would that dried yeast last a year or so in the fridge? Doubt I'd use it up that quickly even.
I had a tub of that yeast that was 2 years out of date and still working fine.
When I noticed the date, I bought a new one and sprinkled the old one on the compost heap.
It should really just be a once a year purchase ;)
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.
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.
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? ::)
Quote from: 00833827 on July 10, 2013, 10:22:28 AM
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 :P
Raisins give the brew some body and are a yeast nutrient.
The tea gives you tannin (http://www.cider.org.uk/tannin.htm).
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?
Quote from: 00833827 on July 16, 2013, 02:30:54 PM
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.
Has anybody tried sweetening with lactose?
Curious... What would lactose add to the equation?
Had a nice cold bottle of mine this evening. Perfect for this weather.
Quote from: imark on July 19, 2013, 05:32:11 PM
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!!!
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?
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.
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.
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.
Quote from: 00833827 on July 25, 2013, 11:37:07 AM
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
I got mine from HBW.
http://www.homebrewwest.ie/lalvin-white-wine-icvd-47-831-p.asp (http://www.homebrewwest.ie/lalvin-white-wine-icvd-47-831-p.asp)
I'll be making this next weekend, so I just want to make sure I have this correct. You put the raisins and teabags into a pan, cover with boiling water and let sit for 15 mins. Then the water, raisins and teabags go into the fermenter? It just seems odd to stick the teabags in.
Just flung this together, flung being the word for it! I scaled back to a 5l demi john. Sitting back now and worried about those raisins... I don't think they will have been sterilized with just that 100ml of tea in a cup for 10mins.... I should have put them on a rolling boil for while shouldn't I?!. Will know soon enough I guess. Wondering whether to remove them altogether and minimize any damage that might not have been done yet...? Put the airlock on about 30mins ago... Seems so obvious now. Dumbass. ::) .... They were raisins that had been sitting in the cooking cupboard, mightn't have been so bad if I'd have bought a new pack. Leave it and see? Any rescue plan?... It might even be fine, just doesn't seem like a good idea now its done.
I put two 4l batches on at the weekend and now have the same worries. Didn't even think about it at the time... Fingers crossed.
Quote from: onesoma on August 01, 2013, 07:35:11 PM
I put two 4l batches on at the weekend and now have the same worries. Didn't even think about it at the time... Fingers crossed.
Lol.... Sorry to have put that into your mind now! Any dodgy smells coming from the airlock? You're what.. on day 5 now?
when i put mine together, i just had the boiling water sitting for 15 mins with the raisins, rhubarb(that i used), the tea bags and sugar. Then strained the lot and into the FV - so i didnt have my raisins in there, they had been removed at that stage, Im thinking i did this wrong now :-(
might try a bottle this weekend to see what kind of thing it is at all.
Quote from: 00833827 on August 01, 2013, 09:53:50 PM
when i put mine together, i just had the boiling water sitting for 15 mins with the raisins, rhubarb(that i used), the tea bags and sugar. Then strained the lot and into the FV - so i didnt have my raisins in there, they had been removed at that stage, Im thinking i did this wrong now :-(
might try a bottle this weekend to see what kind of thing it is at all.
;D well if nothing else it's a bit of craic to get everyone else worried about their brew!
I don't know if I should have left the raisins in or out really! I left them in just from the point of view of them being a yeast nutrient... Don't know if a nutrient is particularly required, but no harm in adding I thought, also I couldn't see the raisins introducing a bad flavour... Unless of course the shaggin things bring on an infection!
We'll know soon enough I suppose.. :D
Let me know how your sampling goes!
Ha! No dodgy smells, looks fine. Dunno what it should look/smell like though!!
Ghetto fermenting: using lidl 5l water bottles (it is lidl cider after all) and tin foil over the top instead of an air lock. Plenty of scope for error!
Made a 30l batch of this recipe, its really good!!
Lidl have 1lt of Apple, Pear and raspberry not from concentrate at €1.59. picked up 5 and going to try them out, also got apple, raspberry and blackcurrant.
made up a few 5lt brews over the last few weeks with either the Aldi/Lidl cloudy AJ
4lts AJ with 1lt of peach juice, ok if a bit sweet.
4lts AJ with 1lt of pear juice, very nice.
4.5lts AJ with frozen raspberries, added the fruit at the start and still turned out nice.
4.5lts of apple nectar juice from concentrate and same mix of raspberries and ok, not as nice as the cloudy AJ.
4.5lts AJ with cinnamon and cloves, steeped the spices in 300ml of boiling water for 15mins then added the water to the aj. turned out ok with just a little hint of the spices, next time will add the spices to the aj.
4.5lts AJ with frozen rhubarb, only 2 weeks in the btl and had 1 last night. very nice imo and reminds me of the rhubarb and custard sweets.
rbubarb was added 1 week after fermentation started and left almost 2 more weeks before I bottled.
When waiting the two - five - however many weeks for this to be drinkable, should it be refrigerated? After a first week or two to get the carbonation up? Or just leave it at room temp for the duration?
Well it's 2.5 weeks since mine was put on. Gravity now 1002, big time cloudy, but tastes ok... bit of a citrussy smack of it (more so than might be considered pleasant), might mellow out after a bit of time in bottles. A very subtle taste of the tea off it too I think, I'd possibly not make such a stewy tea next time!
I made a small batch of cider with the Aldi cloudy stuff. Is the cloudiness from unfiltered apple solids? I am wondering if it ever clears out with age. I am fine drinking it cloudy but some of my non-brewing friends might be scared off by something that doesn't look like it came from the store.
Thanks!
I made this about 3 years ago 1 gallon batch with just the cloudy AJ from lidl. cider yeast . water and a tsp of neturient and i had it bottled for year i checked a bottle every 4 months and after a year the cloudyness settled and the cider didnt taste as sour it had actully became more drinkable after a year maturing.
I also made the wine from lidl grape juice a 1 gallon batch and within 3 to 4 months i tasted and gave a bottle to the neighboures and got there views on it ( wine connoisseur ;) ) they loved it they say it was like a rose wine so every now then they ask me to make more and was just asked yesterday to make some for them again, i will make a big batch this time 4 or 5 gallon batch and they will have it for xmas and the new year. and there even holding on to there wine bottles for me :o