weak flavoured cider

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weak flavoured cider

Postby melbourne man » Tuesday Jul 04, 2006 6:14 pm

i just made a blackrock cider with a can of black rock cider, # 15 kit converter ( mainly dex with a bit of malt ), one bottle of top shelf apple schnapps.

it doesn't taste very apply but more like funny beer.

it came out at 1004 and 5.3%

could i fix this next time by adding 2 cans of cider, adding lactose, adding apples or apple juice?
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Postby blandy » Wednesday Jul 05, 2006 9:14 am

I brewed the Black Rock Cider just as a kit and kilo in the spring of last year, and it was delicious. Bad luck that either you don't like it or something went wrong. If you really want that appely taste to come out more, I reckon putting chopped up apples, apple juice or another can into the fermenter would be good ways of doing it. Watch out, you will not only be adding apple flavour but also more fermentable sugars, so you may want to cur down on the glucose or whatever else you're putting in (then again the added alcohol may be an added bonus, personally I like about 5-6%).

A mate of mine was once brewing in a share-house and they made some cider. They decided to substitute some of the water for apple juice and skip on the glucose. At the last moment one of the housemates decided that the apple juice didn't have enough fermentable sugars in it and put the glucose in anyway. Needless to say, this got referred to as the "death cider."

Other thoughts:

What was you're final volume? I think the can suggests 21L but Brewcraft suggested 18L (I used 18L in mine)

Don't use lactose if you want a dry cider.

Is there enough malt in the #15 kit converter to make it taste more like beer and less like cider?

If you're used t sweet cider then I can understand you describing a dry one as "funny beer." If this is the case, try a good commercial dry cider, I reccommend Mercury Dry (available at DM), although this is just a personal preference.

My cider took a while to age, for about four months it was the flattest homebrew I have ever made, then it took off and now I have to open the bottles over the sink.
I left my fermenter in my other pants
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Postby melbourne man » Monday Jul 10, 2006 5:59 pm

For my next cider i was thinking that i would use:
1 can of BR cider
1.5kg sucrose
1kg lactose
10 granny smith apples cored peeled and sliced in a stocking
4-6L of apple juice with no preservatives.
kit yeast

topped up to 23 L
would this have a nice strong sweet apple flavour and be about 6-7%?

could i add some citric acid to my cider to make it taste a bit better?

would i add it before fermentation or just mix it in with some water into the fermenter just before bottling?

also how much should i add, maybe i should go by taste and add a bit at a time.

would mixing it in just before bottling mix up the yeast too much?
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Postby blandy » Monday Jul 10, 2006 8:40 pm

That's a lot of lactose. I went to G&G today to get stuff for my next cider, they reccomended 250g lactose for a sweet cider.

Here's what I'll be using:

1 can Black Rock Cider
250g lactose
3kg quinces (weired I know, but my girlfriend talked me into it)
kit yeast

As for morer thoughts on your cider:

- there's a lot of fermentables in there. My last BR cider was a k&K that came out at 5.1%. you've got an extra 500g of sugar in yours, not to mention the sugar content of all the apples and the juice. Maybe you liked my story about the "Death Cider"

- The can reccommends 23L, but Brewcraft reccomends 18L. But the extra apples and juice may compensate.

- no idea about citric acid, but would assume it would give it a citrusy taste. Anyone got ideas on quantities?
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Postby Barney » Tuesday Aug 29, 2006 2:59 pm

blandy, how did it turn out? I'm just about to put down a Brigalow kit, and am looking for as much info on making a resonable sweet cider as I can find, before I start
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Postby lethaldog » Tuesday Aug 29, 2006 4:16 pm

Id leave out the schnapps and go with mother nature and add some chopped apples, you will probably find that the manufactured ingredients in liquor essences would only give the correct flavour to something that doesnt already have any ( flavour ), with the carbonation and other stuff in cider i doubt whether it would really have much of an effect. :lol:
But then again i could be wrong im pretty sure its happened before, just cant remmember when :lol: :lol: :lol:
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Postby melbourne man » Tuesday Aug 29, 2006 4:39 pm

the schnapps did nothing so i use chopped apples in my next attempt
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Postby Barney » Tuesday Aug 29, 2006 9:00 pm

Well, I bit the bullet and dropped on in this evening, the Brigalow, with 2 1/2 litres of applejuice for company, 300g of malt and 1/2 a kilo of raw sugar... started at 1044... we'll see how that goes for a first attempt.
Uh oh, my heart just stopped...................................................................................................................................oh, there it goes!
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Postby blandy » Wednesday Aug 30, 2006 10:25 am

Barney, I'm not too sure how sweet your cider will be as there's no lactose. You need some unfermentable sugar.

As for my quince cider, I've tried a couple of stubbies and it's delicious, but still needs a month or so to carbonate. I wouldn't say that it was particularly sweet, I mean compared with Strongbow Sweet the sweetness is not as strong, but definately a lot sweeter than my dry I made last year!
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Postby Barney » Wednesday Aug 30, 2006 2:39 pm

blandy wrote:Barney, I'm not too sure how sweet your cider will be as there's no lactose. You need some unfermentable sugar.

As for my quince cider, I've tried a couple of stubbies and it's delicious, but still needs a month or so to carbonate. I wouldn't say that it was particularly sweet, I mean compared with Strongbow Sweet the sweetness is not as strong, but definately a lot sweeter than my dry I made last year!
OOPS!

Might have to bung something in very shortly then! Thanks blandy!

EDIT:

Well, I got lazy and left it as was... very little body, but not too bad... not keeping all of them though...
Uh oh, my heart just stopped...................................................................................................................................oh, there it goes!
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