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I got back into home brewing late last year with some cider after picking up the apples in my mate's garden. We got around 60kg of them which was good for 40 litres of apple juice. That went in 9 demijohns round at another mate's house and he let the lot brew to cider. We used two types of yeast - cider and champagne. Most was with cider yeast which dropped out quite quickly to a nice dense sediment at the bottom and the resulting cider was still. The other lot we used champagne yeast which took an age to settle out and we were left with quite crisp sparkling cider. I would say it wasn't worth the extra wait, because syphoning it off knocked the fizz out of it and the yeast sediment was very light and made racking a pain. Since we were noobs we lost loads in the racking, bottled it too soon and generally cocked it up, but the end product was quite drinkable.
Around December I put a blackberry wine on. I think it was about 700g fruit which was previously foraged and frozen, a kilo of sugar and topped up to 5 litres with water. It has aged well and is quite drinkable. It could do with a bit more fruit though - note for later this year :D
The next brew was a gallon of limoncello. I knew roughly what I wanted it to taste like so I juiced 15 lemons from the market, added 1kg of sugar for the brew and once completed I'll add more sugar to taste. It has now cleared and is sat in the demi. I need to rack it off the yeast and bottle it really.
Which brings us up to the latest brews. I'm doing a cider with cloudy apple juice from Lidl and what they call pear nectar, which is pear pulp watered down with added sugar. It's quite thick and gloopy so I guess it'll make a kind of perry cider. These are the offending juices:
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Into the demijohns goes 200g of white sugar, a teaspoon of yeast nutrient, a teaspoon of yeast and 4 litres of juice:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_6907.jpg
That will probably start to froth up so I've left a gap at the top. In a few days I'll top it up to the neck and leave it to ferment out. The 200g of sugar will add about 2% alcohol on top of that created by the natural sugars in the juice, so the apple should come out at about 6% and the pear which is a bit sweeter might be 7-7.5%
I would call myself a beginner but I'll try and answer any questions. Years ago I did two lots of beer, two lots of schnapps and I've just got back into it. I've read a book, done a few brews that have been quite drinkable, but I wouldn't consider myself an expert ;D
When can I come and taste?! :D
In about 10 weeks when it has cleared :D
Picnic in Crystal Palace again Ja?! :D I can't guarantee being able to walk home though :p
The perry is going mad. Actually it's out of control :D
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_6911.JPG
It spat the top of the airlock out overnight so I've had to move it to the kitchen in a spare washing up bowl until it calms down a bit :D
LeperousDust
14-05-2011, 15:15
Always goes down well with the other half i'm sure ;D:D Looking good as always Jonny.
I want to play! Always have a surplus of apples once the tree starts off! *researches*
Cider is easy peasy Vix, but you do need a press or a juicer. I can take you through how to make a reliable cider closer to the time :)
SidewinderINC
16-05-2011, 18:40
I've been brewing and customising kit beer and TurboCider (cider made from already made apple juice) since last year, just bottled 20L of my IPA at the weekend and have my christmas brew bottled and ready to drink for christmas :D
Still have some raspberry beer left and about 1L of a hoegaarden style wheat beer.
I'm looking at trialling a small batch of Cyser (mead made using apple juice to dilute the honey rather than water)
You say that one batch will be sweeter than the other, you may need to add sugar or more juice afterwards depending on the yeast type as if it's a low attenuation yeast it will eat all of the sugar and you'll have a cider dry enough to turn your face inside out!
I tend to add enough sugar at the start of fermentation to make mine around 12-14% at the end and then depending on how I feel I can dilute it out 1:1 with regular apple juice after all of the yeast has dropped out of suspension to sweeten it up and bulk it out.
Kind of like making a cider concentrate :p
I recently acquired a 100L tank from work that I'm going to be brewing my next batch of hopped lager in.
It gets quite addictive and I've about 50L of maturing beer in my flat as I type that won't be ready to drink for at least 10 weeks.
If you want any hints or tips then fire me a question
I've got loads of questions :D
SidewinderINC
16-05-2011, 23:51
Fire when ready!
Something you mention in your first post about using cider and champagne yeast.. it's not actually the type of yeast that determines whether it will be fizzy or not.
All yeast will leave CO2 in suspension, and to get a perfectly still wine you're supposed to use what's called a degasser (basically a paddle attached to a power drill) that you put into the fermenting bin and whisk the wine so that all of the CO2 comes out.
To get a sweet fizzy cider, in bottles, is tricky - because the way to carbonate the cider is to add sugar/apple juice and then leave it in the bottle with some of the sediment. The yeast eat the sugar, create co2 that can't go anywhere and voila.
If you add enough sugar to make it sweet, pressure gets too much as the yeast continues to use it and the bottle bursts.
If you add the right amount of sugar for carbonation, it'll get used up and you'll end up with a dry cider.
I used some jonny style initiative and engineered a mini-keg to have a schrader valve on it so that I can add CO2 via a CO2 powered bike pump.
Easy to do and gets perfect results every time, and you also don't have to worry about any sediment.
Perfect for parties!
I used some jonny style initiative and engineered a mini-keg to have a schrader valve on it so that I can add CO2 via a CO2 powered bike pump.
Dude, that is legendary. I will be doing that :cool:
Cider is easy peasy Vix, but you do need a press or a juicer. I can take you through how to make a reliable cider closer to the time :)
I've got a juicer and will have plenty of apples later in the year! and as some of you know I am partial to proper cider so please do post details of how it all works.....
In the mean time I will clean out the fermenting bucket and the barrel!
Will do closer to the time Lozza :)
I knocked this up at lunchtime:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_6929.JPG
Can you tell what it is yet? *wobble wobble*
/Rolf
It's a prop to make syphoning easier. When you get to the bottom of the demijohn you have to tip the bottle a bit to make sure you get the maximum amount of booze out. I've been propping it up on books so far, but I always end up sloshing it around a bit. This way I can sit it on there a day in advance and everything will have settled down :)
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_6930.JPG
SidewinderINC
21-05-2011, 10:22
I'd be tempted to put it there after the first few days of fermentation.
That way you'll have a more compact sediment bed that's less likely to be disturbed.
It's true. Maybe I should have built a long rack? :D
SidewinderINC
22-05-2011, 09:46
It's definitely something to think about, if you have the space.
I have a 100L tank, as stated earlier, which has a raked base and a tapped 1/2" outlet, absolutely perfect.
When it starts getting a constant 10-14 degrees in my spare room, so around october/november time I'm going to brew a 50L batch of lager, with some true lager yeast.
Takes about 3 weeks to ferment at those temperatures but you get such a perfect crisp flavour.
That will all get bottled into 330ml and 500ml bottles (that I'm starting to drink through now) and be stored for summer 2012.
That'll be 134 bottles of beer for around £35 !
Roight. It's 10 days since I put the brews on and they've both stopped fermenting. No movement in the airlocks. I had a little taste yesterday and they both taste completely dry. The cloudy apple is quite sharp so it'll need a bit of sweetening; the perry, well that tastes a little odd so I'll sweeten it until you can't tell :D
Today I've racked both off the yeast and added campden and sorbate to stop any further fermentation. That way I can add sugar to sweeten with no risk of fermentation kicking off again. The apple racked off fine and I think it's going to be a cloudy one once cleared. The pear didn't rack so well. Because it's pulp, it's mainly sat in suspension halfway down the demijohn. I basically left just the bottom bit in the original jar and I'm going to have to leave it for longer to clear and I'll probably end up losing quite a lot of it in the quest to get a pulp-free liquor. I probably should have run it through a muslin to start with but, meh, you live and learn :D
Nice work. It's all about the living, not so much about the learning.
I decided to dump the perry in the end. There was so much pulp in it even with finings it was just making a sludgy mess and what was clearer tasted like washing powder. Stuck on a Wurzel's Orange Wine instead. If you Joogle it, it seems to be a popular one in the homebrew circles, so I'll be interested to see how it comes out :)
SidewinderINC
14-11-2011, 21:36
http://a2.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/382201_10150387800191225_503226224_8718274_1814583 284_n.jpg
Just bottled my latest batch of beer.
A cherry wheatbeer, should have probably put more cherry in as it's more a hint at the current stage. hopefully the maturing time of 8 weeks (minimum) should round out the flavour :D
I forgot I started this thread. Have a big update:
2nd August:
I went blackberry picking last night. Came home with a hoard of about 2.5 kg of fruit for winemaking. 2 kg went into a bucket last night with some boiling water and a campden tablet. Will seive it into a demijohn and add yeast and sugar probably tomorrow night. In the meantime; BLACKBERRIES!!! :D
Edit: Blackberry wine
Method so far:
01/08/11
2 kg blackberries into a bucket
Pour over 1.7l boiling water and a mug of stewed black tea made with 2 teabags
Mash up to a pulp
Add 1 campden tablet, 1 teaspoon of pectolase, 1 teaspoon of yeast nutrient
Cover and wait 24 hours
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7308.JPG
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7314.JPG
02/08/11
Strain through a seive
Strain through a muslin into demijohn
03/08/11
Add 1kg white sugar and 1 teaspoon of Young's wine yeast to demijohn. Fit airlock. After 12 hours it's frothing up and brewing:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7307.JPG
Next step: waiting :D
6th August:
Added 250ml of juiced apples from work to the BB wine. This is very significant because it includes the one and only apple I could find on Isaac Newton's apple tree. Damn groundsmen must have pruned all the apples off at some point because all the trees were bare :(
Will be topping it up to the top with shop apple juice when it has calmed down in a day or two.
Also put on a second blackberry wine. Ingredients for this one are as follows:
1.7kg blackberries treated as per before
1.7l boiled water
Mug of stewed tea made with 2 teabags
1kg sugar
1 teaspoon each of pectolase and yeast nutrient
1 teaspoon of Young's wine yeast
Will be topping this one up with red grape juice instead of apple.
5th October:
This was quite exciting. My brew was alternating between a big frothy head and a clear top. It was repeating this over about a two minute period:
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10th October:
Yesterday afternoon. This little lot plus a washing up bowl and a bucket full:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7482.JPG
There is about 24kg in that basket and another 6-7kg in total in the washing up bowl and bucket. I chopped up the lot in the washing up bowl and bucket into this:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7483.JPG
The older apples that I already had weren't very juicy, so out of that lot I only managed to get about 4 litres of juice using my juicer:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7485.JPG
Choosing to use my juicer was a mistake. It's not a great bit of kit at the best of times but using it to do any quantity is just a blocked-up pulpy nightmare. I passed the juice through a muslin because it was too pulpy to brew and then squeezed the waste through it as well. Got another 0.5 litres or so just by squeezing the pulp spat out by the juicer!
So I need a plan B for the rest of the apples. It begins with this el-cheapo 2-tonne bottle jack purchase...
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/bottle%20jack.jpg
...and I'll make a fruit press out of a sheet of thick ply and a few bits of 2x2. Total time: probably about the same. Total ballache: much lower. Personal west-country-style man points: +1000 :D
15th October:
Quick dose of reality check today. Went to buy some wood for the apple press and it was going to come to nearly £40. Think of all the apples or organic cider I could have bought for that :eek: :eek: :eek:
Decided to take a different approach, with a pair of clamps and a pair of thick chopping boards. So today I've been pressing apples. I've done two lots; one clean and one scrumpy, which you'll see below. The clean lot starts by being chopped up and all the bad bits cut out, then dumped into the sink with a campden tablet:
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Then I call on the king of the kitchen toys at the moment: the Magimix:
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Once scratted up, I dumped about 3 ladels of the minced apple in a sheet of muslin, wrapped it up and put it between two boards like so:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7492.JPG
I squeezed it once, then released it, folded it over and repeated for maximum juice yield:
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In the meantime I got two demijohns ready with steriliser:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7496.JPG
They were left to stand while I blitzed up another bucket load of apple. As you can see, it goes everywhere. The kitchen was covered in minced apple:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7499.JPG
Once they were pressed, it was time to tackle the rotten apples for the scrumpy bottle. These are the ones that have gone brown, covered in mould and generally looking like they're far too gone to use:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7500.JPG
The reality is if you break these apples open they smell like cider. The brown squish is where their natural yeast has started to turn the apples to cider, so I figure it's ideal to shove them in for a real scrumpy taste :D
So a bit more pressing later and this is what I've got, with another litre and a half in the fridge to top up to when the froth has died down:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7501.JPG
16th October:
I am very excited this morning. Blooping is occurring, but check this out.
The juice from the good apples:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7503.JPG
The juice from the rotten apples:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7502.JPG
WOOP! Dirty cider :D :D :D
24th October:
Update:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7521.JPG
On the left is what most of my brews look like when in progress: cloudy with a powdery sediment in the bottom, which is the spent yeast. On the right is the dirty cider made with the rotten apples. It's much less cloudy and the yeast is all chunky. Both taste fairly similar at the moment, which is a bit disappointing. I was hoping it would have that West-Country sheeps-pee scrumpy taste to it :(
28th October:
Righty, a bit of tasting. Quite a few brews on the go at the moment so quite a lot of sampling to do :D
I've taken a photo of each to show what it looks like in the demijohns and the tag tells you the ingredients and the date I put the brews on. For each one I poured half a glass and gave it a whisk with a teaspoon to knock the gas out of it. I then gave it a sniff to check out the smell and took a taste. On the side I'd made up some sugar water with 250ml of water and 25g of sugar dissolved to sweeten the brews if they needed it.
Onto the tasting...
Rosé:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7524.JPG
Quite strong in alcohol as planned! Not too dry, which is surprising, so it hasn't brewed all the sugar out. Maybe a bit too much tannin. Could do with a bit more fruit. Adding sugar water dilutes the flavour down a bit too much, so maybe it needs some strawberry Ribena instead. I'll see what it's like once it has cleared, but I think next time it might need 3 litres of juice instead of 2. It doesn't have the harsh almondy taste of the WOW, so I think it must have been the orange that caused it.
Cherry Kool Aid:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7525.JPG
Still bubbling away and smells quite yeasty! There is residual sweetness in there and it has not finished brewing yet. The Kool Aid is maybe a bit too dilute. I can't taste alcohol at all, but I did aim to get this one at about 6% rather than wine strength. Slightly winey in taste. I'm not sure if I could drink large amounts of this, so I'm glad I only put 2 litres on as a bit of fun to see what it comes out like!
Tropical Punch Kool Aid:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7526.JPG
Still bubbling, but not as much as the cherry Kool Aid. Not as yeasty smelling either, but it might be the extreme artificial colors and flavors masking it! Check this out:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7530.JPG
It's also quite sweet tasting and doesn't need any sugar. Adding sugar water makes it quite sickly sweet.
Cider - juiced apples:
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This was the first of the ciders to go on and I put the apples (about 10kg) through my fruit juicer. Mistake. Why? Because it took ages and made extreme amounts of mess for not much juice! It's still a bit yeasty with a few bits of yeast floating in it. It's quite perfumed smelling, like the cider we made last year. Very dry to taste, slightly cidery, sharp, and very apply. Lots of tannin so I'm glad I didn't add any tea. It needs sweetening and is much improved with a bit of sugar water. This also brings out the cidery taste. It does taste very perfumey and it's not the yeast I can taste, so it must be the apples. This one might need to sit for a while once it has cleared.
Cider - pressed apples:
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7527.JPG
This was from the same batch of apples but pressed instead of juiced. You can see it is a bit more cloudy because it has been brewing for two weeks less. Quite a different smell to it - much more cidery. Sharp, dry, lots of tannin and definitely more cidery tasting than the juiced batch. No perfumey taste to it that I can detect. Sweetening improves it but it doesn't need much.
Cider - pressed apple (scrumpy):
http://www.jonny69.co.uk/uploads/cooking/homebrew/IMG_7528.JPG
This is from the rotten apples that had gone brown and mushy. It smells noticebly more scrumpy-like with a strong cider scent. Interestingly, it's clearer than the gallon from the good apples that went on at the same time, so I think the apples had a head start brewing in their skins before I pressed them! Taste - now we're talking! Proper strong scrumpy taste to it, quite dry, not quite as sharp as the other ciders and not as much tanin. A tiny bit of sugar water really improves it. I think I'm going to want to drink a lot of this one!
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