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! 

The Next Big Step: Bottling 

So we are the stage of bottling, I've been out to http://www.leylandhomebrew.com/index.htm & bought some blue bottle caps, £1 for 50 I think. I've already sourced a bottle capper (see picture above) locally when i bough a few cases of empty glass bottles. Available all over the Internet for around £15. 

Empty bottle can be bought cheaply if you source them from some one in the local area but be aware when you buy them on the Internet & included the P&P, the price can soon mount up. 

I got the bottle capper, 80 empty 1 pint bottles (which needed to be cleaned BTW) boxed for £40, but i was lucky as the person selling them was in the local area & were easily picked up on the way home from work. 

Additionally i grabbed a couple of essence bottles, to give my cider the aroma it deserves. At less then £1.50 they were a steal & came with free advice which is always vital to a beginner like myself. Apparently 1 bottle will provide enough from a 25 Litre / 40 pines of beer or cider & both will be more than enough for a very sweet / strong flavour. 

I'm going to try Apple & Raspberry cider & will be testing the quantities of each with a trial 1/2 pint before bottling. the volume I add for the half pint will be multiplied for the total volume required. 

But I'm getting ahead of myself, because this is tomorrows task. 
More updates to come.....keep in touch & like on my Facebook link or Google+, just so I know if all the updates are getting annoying yet, ha. 

So I set the Cider brewing on the 12th January & had a specific gravity of 30 on the 16th January.

Tonight it was time for sample number two. I sampled the fermenting tub with the plastic measuring cylinder or Trial Jar up to a level of around 700ml or 3/4 full & carefully added the hydrometer. 

The hydrometer reading was between 1.00 & 10.00 so very close but not ready yet.

Next I'll be filling the bottles, capping & conditioning for a week or more.

Introduction: 

I've wanted to brew my own cider for a long time but never got round to sourcing all the materials. So when I was finally motivated & decided to make some cider ..... I cheated. I bought a Cider-making Starter Kit from: http://www.biggerjugs.co.uk for £30.95, with almost all of the equipment ready to start brewing straight away!

The set contains the following:

instructions (Always great for a novice like myself)

25 litre Fermenting Bin with lid & opening for the airlock

Bubble airlock

Clear syphon tube with tap

Brewing Spoon

Hydrometer &  Plastic measuring cylinder

100g VWP Cleanser / Steriliser powder 

Cider concentrate kit

Cider yeast (to start the fermentation process)

1Kg Brewing sugar

What the kit is missing:

Bottles / Keg

Blank Bottle Caps

Bottle Capper / Lids

My personal plan is to use this set up as a stepping stone & practice. This summer i intend to source a mix of fresh apples, self picked if possible then Crush, Strain & use with a combination of other fruit to make a special cider brew of my very own.

For the time being though, I'm using the ingredient from the set. The instructions are really straight forward but in case your using your own kit here they are: 

http://www.biggerjugs.co.uk/pdf/100132.pdf

Apple Concentrate:

The starter kit allows a selection of one of the many concentrates available on the market. I selected 'Samson's' concentrate as it sounded like the kind of cider i like, strong tasting southern cider. 

The concentrate package contains:

Full instructions

Apple concentrate with malt extract 

Sachet of brewing yeast that makes approximately 40 Pints (23 Liters)

Tips: 

- Sterilise everything as you go.

- Source bottles, caps & clean before you start. 

- Try to keep the fermenting bin at a constant temperature as this will speed up the process, i used a heating belt or brewing belt, available for as little as £20. Cheaper on eBay from China but just not as reliable, plus they can taken weeks to arrive.

- Once cleaned, follow the instructions heating the concentrated apple juice, but try not to over do it as it will take away the taste of the apples. You're only trying to kill of any other bacteria still in the container, it has already been sterilised. 

Guide:

From there its as simple as adding the quantity of water & sugar required & keeping at a constant temperature. I keep the fermenter in the boiler room as it keeps it at a reasonable temperature compared to the rest of the house.

Note that 1kg of sugar makes an ABV of approximately 4.8%-5.0% & an addition of 0.5kg (1.5kg in total) makes a cider ABV of approximately 5.0%-6.8%. All tested with a hydrometer that is included in the kit.

'Everything you ever need to know about hydrometers & more'

Here's a picture of my hydrometer readings at the start of brewing:

A recording of 30, which means it has a long way to go before being alcoholic even in the slightest.

As of now its bubbling & brewing away & can take between 7-21days. 

Conclusion:

In my opinion the greatest advantage to the kit is that its self contained, quick, reliable & all reusable. I will keep you all updated on its progress & try to write up next the stages of its development.

A good video for a brewer starting out can be found below: