Taste Testing

Success in home brewing is always measured in the smell, look & taste & after tasting my first cider I can hardly judge its as an elixir of the gods, even when comparing it to white-lighting or "Tramp Juice". 

If your struggling to describe the taste I used the beer score sheet below to get a better idea of what I was looking for. After adding the essence to my cider the aroma was amazing, full of hints of raspberry & apple. The cider was clear in the bottle but had more sediment built up at the bottom, than I would have liked, an easy remedy during bottling. By keeping the syphon tube higher in the fermenter away from the fines or sediment I could have had a much clearer cider with almost no sediment. Finally the taste, it's not sweet by any means or dry for that point, instead it just lacks the flavour that the smell promises. 

Home-brew Solutions

FLAT CIDER: by adding more sugar at the fermenting or conditioning (Bottling) stages, or more apple juice concentrate to the fermenter at the beginning will create more carbonate & bring more 'fizz' to you home-brew. A word of caution when adding more sugar during bottling, too little & you end up with a cider thats as lively as old pop. Too much & you could return home to a scene from Ghostbusters where the Stay Puff Man explodes !

UNSWEETENED: 

If similar to my cider & it needs to be sweeter but as we described above the sugar makes it carbonated, then what do we add? Recommendation from posts online & people i've met suggest xylitol, sold at Holland & Barrett. Xylitol is a naturally occurring plant sugar that yeast cannot use, therefore will not be metabolised in to alcohol in the final fermenting processes. You can add this prior to or during the bottling stage. Apparently three tablespoons per gallon gets you a light sweet flavour, but you can add some during the fermenting process & then more during the bottling stage when tasting.

Next Time?

Advice from experts on reddit/r/homebrew suggest using champagne yeast instead of the typically adopted wine yeast. The pro's of champagne yeast are that it makes a traditional dry cider taste with increased alcohol content at the same price but takes longer to brew.

Next Brewing Project.Inc

Raspberry & Apple Cider, Using Champagne Yeast. 

This is a new one for me & will be using mainly advice of the internet. some links below for advice. 

http://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing

http://www.reddit.com/r/Homebrewing/2

Ill keep you all updated but awaiting the fruit season to start so I can pick something fresh fruit & freeze until I have enough for a decent batch. 

I would like to thank the homebrewing community online, fortunatly we have many people who can describe the process in a detail-oriented way. 

Thanks for reading & hit that like button to show me some love. 

Bottling Day!

So today is the day

Step 1: Bottling

Check your specific gravity just before you begin bottling, it should be around 1.000 & 1.006. This point means that all the sugars have been used up effectively & hopefully converted to alcohol. If you leave it too long the dead yeast sediment can affect the taste & make it bitter so bottle asap. 

Step 2: Flavouring

Once the hydrometer test showed that the cider was ready I took a sample of 100ml & added the essence i bought (see previous blog for details) in increasing amounts to get the flavor I wanted. It was slightly tedious as it is an incredibly small amount compared to the final volume that will be added to the entire brew.

I added both 20ml essence bottle to my 40Pint / 25liter fermenter before bottling. 

Step 3: Syphon

The kit i bough came with a syphon which included a sediment nozzle & tap that made it incredibly easy. Clean & sterilise before connecting the nozzle & tap together. Cut a couple of cm off the plastic tubing & use as a mouth piece later. To begin the syphon effect, place the nozzle in the brew 3/4 off the way into the fermenter, without placing it at the bottom. Pull through the beer all the way to the tap & turn off the tap. Remove the extra piece of tubing that was used as a mouth piece & place the end off the tap in you empty bottle. 

Step 4: Filling

Add an average of 1tsp of granular sugar per pint bottle, this allows for a secondary fermenting process before you actually drink it, called conditioning. 

Step 5: Capping

Fill the bottle 3/4 full up to the start of the neck of the bottle, place the blank cap on top of the bottle & using the capper, push down constantly & evenly. 

 

 

 

 

 

Step 6: Labelling & Conditioning

Now simple add a label if desired & store for 5 days in the same place as the fermenter. This 5 days will allow the cider to clear & any suspended settlement to build up on the bottom & not in the drink. 

Step 7: Drinking

I'm not  currently at this stage but soon! Ill tell you how it goes. 

Please let me know how yours went it you gave it a try!