Evenin all,
I had a read of LordEoins "How to Demi-John" thread and I have decided to give making my own lidl/aldi cider a go.
I've read through a lot of threads about similiar ideas but just wanna start one with info relating to my specific attempt.
What I want?
A sweet and high ABV Cider. mmmmmmmmmmm 8) 8) 8)
What I have?
So far, I have a 5ltr Tesco Still water bottle that I will fit my airlock and bung (http://www.homebrewwest.ie/spare-bung-for-33-litre-fermenter-2025-p.asp (http://(http://www.homebrewwest.ie/spare-bung-for-33-litre-fermenter-2025-p.asp)) to.
I picked up a packet of Lalvin EC1118 too. http://homebrewguru.ie/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=38_44&products_id=303 (http://homebrewguru.ie/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=38_44&products_id=303)
Here's my suggested idea: (from recipes of this thread)
Add 4.25ltrs of lidl/aldi apple and pear juice to demijohn.
Chop up some raisins (small box 40grms ) and add them along with 1 or 2 ? teabags to a muslin bag.
Pour a half litre of water over the muslin and leave to steep for 30mins.
Mix 200grm Brown Sugar into steeped mix after the 30mins.
Do I Next - 1) add liquid only from my 30min steep to the Demijohn or
2) add liquid and muslin bag to Demijohn?
Pitch Yeast.
Leave in demijohn for x amount of months or bottle after a few weeks and leave in bottles for x amount of months.
If anybody has any ideas/suggestions to my suggested concoction please leave a comment? Especially with regards to making her sweet and strong.
Thanks.
(http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys/smiley-sick015.gif) (http://www.freesmileys.org/smileys.php)
I shouldn't but I can't resist.
thats a very valid point, cheers CH ;)
Fancy coming down at week-end and sampling the real stuff, in fact I am going to get you to contract brew?
PM sent.
supermarket juice ciders are realy easy and maybe it will not be the real thing but this is te recipe i always use.
5 liter AJ
cup of strong black tea ( for the tannin)
yeast ( i use allround wine or cider yeast)
let it ferment for 7 days and rack and leave for 4 weeks.
and when botteling sweeten with splenda.. that is all up to your own taste.. But splenda does not ferment so this will make your cider sweet.
also try to ferment 4l aj and take an other juice. Had some great ciders when i mixed with pomgrantate juice.. This will take at least 3 months aging before it realy nice to drink.
Its a nice and easy cider and my friends and family like it very much. But they are all dutch and not real cider drinkers. the only cider that is widly available is stronbow brought by heineken.. so its close to water and expensive... I vistit the irish pub a lot to get a good real stronbow cider from tap.. And there is a big difference :)..
Ec1118 is a champagne yeast it will dry a cider right out. Add a little honey to bump ABv, sweeten whilst drinking by adding some fresh apple juice to each glass.
Sent from my HTC One
oh I use a pack of AJ to get some bubbles in the cider.. There is enough sugar in the AJ to give it some bubblies :) It probably will give it a bit more appel taste to the cider too.
thanks for the replys and the info guys
I did a 5l aldi cider as one of my first brews. I didn't add any sugar and it came out at nearly 6% using Champaign yeast ???
cheers Garry
Quote from: Garry on February 14, 2014, 10:18:30 PM
I did a 5l aldi cider as one of my first brews. I didn't add any sugar and it came out at nearly 6% using Champaign yeast ???
I have about the same abv when using cheap juice and even with when i use other cheap juices from other shops. I have to say that the aldi juice is tasting the best. It has the best apple flavor compaired to other brands..
Just took a sample test straight out of the pack :)
just a quickie
Can the apple juice be from concentrate or does it have to be pure pressed juice?
I put on a quick demi on Tesco AJ juice the other day. To play around with till my AJ from the group buy is ready. It had an OG of 1.042 before i added raisins a about 100g of LME. I pitched Nottingham yeast. I play on adding some passion fruit to to this and having it ready by summer.
so was it the cheap ass tesco value juice from concentrate?
Yep thats the one. 1.5L for about €1.30
cheap and nasty! haha love it . . .
Wouldn't say nasty. It will finish dry. Very dry. Expect below 1 FG. you may want to back sweeten with some lactose or artificial sweater if you fancy a sweet cider cause there will be no sugar left. You could always serve with some real apple juice or lemonade to make it more palatable. dont rush it. give it a good few weeks.
sorry, was referring to the juice and not your finished article. I do like a sweet cider so may have to back sweeten for sure.
Quote from: fishjam45 on February 28, 2014, 09:17:52 PM
sorry, was referring to the juice and not your finished article. I do like a sweet cider so may have to back sweeten for sure.
Read Cider 101 re. Pasteurising!
There is no need toi afraid of Mr Louis P!
Quote from: fishjam45 on February 28, 2014, 07:43:00 PM
Can the apple juice be from concentrate or does it have to be pure pressed juice?
from concentrate is fine, just look for ones that say something like "100% apple juice (from concentratre)"
Then look at the ingredients to make sure there's no nasty preservatives. Antioxidants are generally fine.
Google any ingredient you don't know
Cheers LE, will do.
saw a dutch program on how they make AJ from concentrate.. this is in short how they do it.
Most of the juice comes out of eastern europe they throw all kinds of apples in a big press.
they filter this juice and get out the aroma
they concentrate the juice and ship it off to large juice making companies.
then the juice is mixed with water and they put the aroma back into the juice and put it in a carton.
Ship it off to the supermarkets..
Then there are some people that make cider out of it :P.
Have been looking for the episode with english subtitles but someone did not make a translation yet :P. (sorry to busy brewing ;))
Quote from: lampie on February 14, 2014, 03:17:48 PM
and when botteling sweeten with splenda.. that is all up to your own taste.. But splenda does not ferment so this will make your cider sweet.
Roughly how much Splenda do u use?
I like a sweet cider
Think of a 500ml bottle as 2 cups of coffee. If you like 2 spoons of sugar in your coffee, put 4 spoons of splenda in every bottle.
Thats a handy enough guide Garry cheers.
I decided to give it a go, have a look at my pic to see where I'm at.
When I opened the lid to pop in my Hydrometer tonite I had a sniff - 'twas a mixture of ass and sulphur! It looks like its ready for bottling but should I wait because of the smell or just bottle?
It does stink for the first few weeks all right! I'd leave it in the fermenter for another few weeks. Once it's in the bottle it's hard to resist sampling a few and with a small batch you'll have it drank before it's good :P
the guy that won 2nd and third in a recent National Cider comp will let you know in our March meet (p.s. he learnt everything from Yoda who lives in a swamp in Malahide)
it does smell like a sewar in the beginning but I always leave it for 4 weeks in bulk before i bottle.. When mixing in an other flavor then I leave it for at least 3 months in bulk to fully develop flavor and colour.
Quote from: CH on March 04, 2014, 11:53:52 PM
the guy that won 2nd and third in a recent National Cider comp will let you know in our March meet (p.s. he learnt everything from Yoda who lives in a swamp in Malahide)
Would that be your good self CH?
I'll leave it be for another while so
I decided to leave my hydrometer in, mainly because I can't get it back out!
Here's tonites reading, would I be right in saying its 0.998?
Pissing myself ;)
Yep, may go a tad yet leave for 3 days!
whats so funny mister? 8)
You need a refractometer from china!
so I'm guessing you know what my next question is?
might bottle this today in 330mls seeing as i have the chance . . . gonna use splenda to sweeten it up a bit.
For carbing, will i use 1 carb drop or could i use something else?
Quote from: fishjam45 on March 06, 2014, 10:13:35 PM
so I'm guessing you know what my next question is?
Give us a clue
1 carb drop is good
I'll lend you one,
Nice one CH, yes please
I have a spare bucket with a tap you are welcome too as well, heckling thing I hate it!
When you doing your barrel brew at Damos?
Excellent, thanks again.
Poppin down to Damos in the morning to do it, lookin forward to it. Hope to learn a few things.