Lidl-e-ider

[Eoin]

This one I threw together when I spotted the lidl clear apple juice on XXL offer which makes it €1.79 for 2l, I just managed to get 12 cartons off the manager before he put them back on the truck.

24l Lidl Clear apple juice.
3 squeezy bottles of Lidl Forest honey (1.5KG)
1KG Muntons light Dry malt extract.
A mug of strong tea made for about 30 minutes on 3 tea bags.
2 packs of muntons generic brewers yeast.

Sounds easy? Well it is, all just thrown together, I expect this to turn out dry so I'll try sweetening it with Stevia on a small amount and then test sweetening the whole lot with it if it works out.

All into my fermentation chamber at 15c and it was off within hours.

[Partridge9]

You need to consult with Will_D on this one - he is an expert on this !!!

[Eoin]

You need to consult with Will_D on this one - he is an expert on this !!!

I've done a few of them, I'm not a mad cider fan but we have a baby due around Xmas when this will be ready so this is for the party that I intend to hold around then. I'm putting on a beer soon too, have to get brewing beer again, it's been almost a year since my last brew.

[brenmurph]

Tell  ya wat, my other half Kellie gets the grape juice from aldi and make a wine with standard  white wine yeast and ferments it to a great session wine. It clears without any help in about a week, dosnt dry out too much with the yeast we use and its brilliantly clear. Gets great results in our blind tasting sessions

4 ltrs aldi white grape juice in 1 gall demijohn
We use a  magnum ultimate white wine yeast
no clearing agents needed,
no yeast stoppers needed just refridgerate
no additives

She says keep it simple!

[Eoin]

Tell  ya wat, my other half Kellie gets the grape juice from aldi and make a wine with standard  white wine yeast and ferments it to a great session wine. It clears without any help in about a week, dosnt dry out too much with the yeast we use and its brilliantly clear. Gets great results in our blind tasting sessions

4 ltrs aldi white grape juice in 1 gall demijohn
We use a  magnum ultimate white wine yeast
no clearing agents needed,
no yeast stoppers needed just refridgerate
no additives

She says keep it simple!

What does it ferment out to strength wise, I can't imagine it's getting over the 8-9% if even that high?

[Will_D]

When I checked the gravity of Aldi White grape juice it needs abit of sugar to lift it up to 10 or 11% ( about 350 gms )

Ditto for the Lidl red GJ about 400 gms to lift to about 12%

Am fermenting the Aldi Wg and Elderflower at the moment smells delicious

Aldi Apple and elderflow juice? - forget it - its only about 1020 to start with - not worth fermenting but it is a very nice juice

So for a supermarket juice fermentation:

measure the gravity, this will give a target ABV so then you add sugar to up the ABV to where you want it

Will

[Eoin]

When I checked the gravity of Aldi White grape juice it needs abit of sugar to lift it up to 10 or 11% ( about 350 gms )

Ditto for the Lidl red GJ about 400 gms to lift to about 12%

Am fermenting the Aldi Wg and Elderflower at the moment smells delicious

Aldi Apple and elderflow juice? - forget it - its only about 1020 to start with - not worth fermenting but it is a very nice juice

So for a supermarket juice fermentation:

measure the gravity, this will give a target ABV so then you add sugar to up the ABV to where you want it

Will

I don't tend to measure OG on these brews, I just head for pretty strong, but that wine one does look like it would need an addition which is why I asked.

[Eoin]

This has finished very nicely at 1.010, having my first tester pint this evening from the fermenter. I am very pleasantly surprised it's come out as a nicely sweet cider, not too acid even at this point.

[rukkus]

I put on an Aldi version of this on Sunday.

4 x 1L of Aldi pure apple juice
270g Aldi Honey
2 x Bramley apples (blended)
1 x small cup of tea made with 3 teabags
1 x tsp Youngs wine yeast compound

Came in at 1.062. Popped into a 1Gallon demi john and it is bubbling away at the moment.

[Eoin]

If this remains as it is, I won't be sweetening it.

Very nice and what I would call a medium sweet cider.

[Eoin]

This has finished very nicely at 1.010, having my first tester pint this evening from the fermenter. I am very pleasantly surprised it's come out as a nicely sweet cider, not too acid even at this point.

What abv does that make it?

I have to admit I took no values, lidl apple juice a kilo of DME and 1.5KG of honey, not sure what the whole lot together would be. I drank two pints of it last night and was well aware that I drank last night today, not saying I was hungover, but it definitely had an effect beyond what one would expect from two pints.
This is my down and dirty cider and this time, with this recipe, it is a turbo cider. Previously I'd always have left similar brews for 3 months before drinking, and I wasn't expecting this to be drinkable at this point, but I won't be waiting around on it good as it is.

[DEMPSEY]

Not being a cider maker but,doe's cider not need along time to condition. i.e. month's. :-/

[Eoin]

Not being a cider maker but,doe's cider not need along time to condition. i.e. month's. :-/

With my previous attempts with cider, it certainly did, but this one has come out bang on with only two weeks on it. Previously I've used the cloudy cider and also didn't use malt extract, using the clear juice and the extract appears to have rounded it off nicely and very quickly. I'll try to bottle some of this stuff and get it to a meeting at some point.

[JerryMcC]

This one I threw together when I spotted the lidl clear apple juice on XXL offer which makes it €1.79 for 2l, I just managed to get 12 cartons off the manager before he put them back on the truck.

24l Lidl Clear apple juice.
3 squeezy bottles of Lidl Forest honey (1.5KG)
1KG Muntons light Dry malt extract.
A mug of strong tea made for about 30 minutes on 3 tea bags.
2 packs of muntons generic brewers yeast.

Sounds easy? Well it is, all just thrown together, I expect this to turn out dry so I'll try sweetening it with Stevia on a small amount and then test sweetening the whole lot with it if it works out.

All into my fermentation chamber at 15c and it was off within hours.

Apologies for resurrecting an old post but curious about this recipe. Did this change with age at all or did it remain drinkable to the end without further sweetening?

Also, it seems to me that this would work out at about 96 cent per pint. This about right? Costs saved on the concentrated juice spent on the DME and honey?

[Eoin]

I'm actually still driniking it. I'm only drinking one day a week now if at all and this kicks some serious ass.
I had 4 pints of it recently and it left me in a complete jocker for two days.

It is sweet enough, but it is also dry enough.

It's a good drinker and I'd recommend it.

The honey comes out in it strongly at this point which it wasn't doing at the start.
I am serving it from a 20l vin-o-tainer.

<edit> it needed no further sweetening. The DME stopped it from being overly dry.