Well 3 days later and both the wine and the Apple TC are bubbing away like mad. So these have both been topped up to just near the top and as you can see on the video below are fermenting nicely.
Unfortunately there seems to be a problem (I think) with the Apple, Blackberry and Cranberry TC. There has not been much visible activity at all and maybe has one small bubble every 5 minutes or so.
I added a bit more yeast to see if that would help, and despite that there isn't any life to it.
Looks like I have either not killed off the preservatives in the Blackcurrant juice by boiling it too quick or I have killed the yeast by not allowing it to cool down before mixing it in.
Will keep an eye on it over next couple days.. and hopefully it can be salvaged :)
Monday 30 April 2012
Friday 27 April 2012
Time to fill up those Demijohns!
Today was brew day!
As per my previous blog, I had all the equipment and ingredients required so I began as usual by cleaning and sterilizing all the necessary equipment. I just filled one of my 25 ltr fermenting vessels with warm water and some sterilizing powder and soaked everything in there for 10-15 minutes and making sure everything is thoroughly rinsed after.
So first to get done was the Youngs Zinfandel Blush style wine. This was a kit wine, making 6 bottles and cost £9 from my local homebrew shop.
With a kit wine, it's simply a case of following the instructions provided and all you need to add is water and sugar. Not sure on the ABV of this, around 12% perhaps as I don't have a wine hydrometer.
It comes with wine yeast, stabilizer and fining's so no need to buy anything extra for it.
As you can see on the picture on the left, there is still some water to be added which is on Day 3 of fermentation.. updates to follow.
Next up was the Apple Turbo Cider, which I am making using a recipe I found on the forums I use by Marrsy86. It can be found HERE and I did tweak it slightly though.
Pretty much all this is made with is Apple Juice (from concentrate), some Cider Yeast, Pectolase (to help it clear), Tannin (or a strong cup of tea to give it some bite) and some Malic Acid (which is found in apples and helps it mature nicely) I added extra sugar though to give this a final ABV of 7%.
After the yeast has dissipates I will top this up with the rest of the apple juice to 1 inch from the airlock.
Finally I made the Apple, Blackberry and Cranberry Cider. This was pretty much the same method as the Apple Cider, as you can see by the recipe I used HERE.
Again this one will be topped up with 1 litre of Apple Juice once the yeast dissipates.
Although this one states an end ABV of around 5.5%, I added the same amount of sugar as the previous one so should end up around 7% though I used Aldi's version of Ribena so I think it might have more sugar content = more % ABV as the end result.
Guess that happens when you tweak the receipes it gets more interesting ;-)
So with all 3 demijohns filled, I just moved them upstairs to my brew cupboard, though I seriously need to think about getting a shelf put in soon so I can free up a bit space.. well at least till I drink some more.
The wine takes 3-4 weeks to be fully ready to drink, and the Turbo Ciders can be drank after around 1 month but from everything that I have read, they are best left 3-6 months to mature and they taste even better.... we will see if they last that long!!
As per my previous blog, I had all the equipment and ingredients required so I began as usual by cleaning and sterilizing all the necessary equipment. I just filled one of my 25 ltr fermenting vessels with warm water and some sterilizing powder and soaked everything in there for 10-15 minutes and making sure everything is thoroughly rinsed after.
With a kit wine, it's simply a case of following the instructions provided and all you need to add is water and sugar. Not sure on the ABV of this, around 12% perhaps as I don't have a wine hydrometer.
It comes with wine yeast, stabilizer and fining's so no need to buy anything extra for it.
As you can see on the picture on the left, there is still some water to be added which is on Day 3 of fermentation.. updates to follow.
Pretty much all this is made with is Apple Juice (from concentrate), some Cider Yeast, Pectolase (to help it clear), Tannin (or a strong cup of tea to give it some bite) and some Malic Acid (which is found in apples and helps it mature nicely) I added extra sugar though to give this a final ABV of 7%.
After the yeast has dissipates I will top this up with the rest of the apple juice to 1 inch from the airlock.
Finally I made the Apple, Blackberry and Cranberry Cider. This was pretty much the same method as the Apple Cider, as you can see by the recipe I used HERE.Again this one will be topped up with 1 litre of Apple Juice once the yeast dissipates.
Although this one states an end ABV of around 5.5%, I added the same amount of sugar as the previous one so should end up around 7% though I used Aldi's version of Ribena so I think it might have more sugar content = more % ABV as the end result.
Guess that happens when you tweak the receipes it gets more interesting ;-)
So with all 3 demijohns filled, I just moved them upstairs to my brew cupboard, though I seriously need to think about getting a shelf put in soon so I can free up a bit space.. well at least till I drink some more.
The wine takes 3-4 weeks to be fully ready to drink, and the Turbo Ciders can be drank after around 1 month but from everything that I have read, they are best left 3-6 months to mature and they taste even better.... we will see if they last that long!!
Tuesday 24 April 2012
So what next?
So after 2 batches of cider kits brewed and bottled, I fancied making something different and decided to go shopping today.
And a few extras such as Cider Yeast, Tannin Powder and Malic Acid.
I also got a Raspberry & Lime 40 Pint Cider Kit and a 6 bottle Zinfandel Blush Wine Kit.
Oh and some juice.. well lots of it actually :)
Got the equipment from a local home-brew shop in Glasgow, called Inn House Brewery on Dunbarton Road. Nice, well stocked shop and the lady working seemed to know her stuff.. will be a frequent customer I reckon!
So the plan with the demijohns is to make the wine, and also a couple of turbo ciders.. one just with apple juice and the other with apple, blackberry and cranberry juice. I will put up the recipes when I blog about them.
Will make a start to that lot shortly, should keep me busy!
Will make a start to that lot shortly, should keep me busy!
Monday 23 April 2012
2nd Batch Bottled
Well after a nice relaxing trip to Amsterdam, I returned and set about preparing to bottle the 2nd Batch.
Only difference I went with this time, was instead of batch priming with the Coopers Carbonation Drops, I decided to just use ordinary granulated sugar.
Mixing around 160 grams into some boiling water, I put this into the FV and syphoned the brew into it mixing it to ensure the sugar was well dissolved.
Once that was done, it was just a case of using the bottler again and this time I managed to fill 22 x 1 Litre bottles.
Only difference I went with this time, was instead of batch priming with the Coopers Carbonation Drops, I decided to just use ordinary granulated sugar.
Mixing around 160 grams into some boiling water, I put this into the FV and syphoned the brew into it mixing it to ensure the sugar was well dissolved.
Once that was done, it was just a case of using the bottler again and this time I managed to fill 22 x 1 Litre bottles.
2nd Batch 1st Batch
As you can see on the photo above, there is quite a bit of colour difference between the batches.
Tuesday 17 April 2012
Brew Update
So it's been fermenting 12 days now, took a reading yesterday and it was at 1.004.
Decided to transfer the brew to the second fermentation bucket today, took another reading and was at 1.002 which means it's nearly finished.
Off to Amsterdam tomorrow for 3 days so will bottle this batch when I return.
But before that, going to have another bottle from the 1st batch, it's 6 weeks old tomorrow so will see if it has improved since the 6th April.
Decided to transfer the brew to the second fermentation bucket today, took another reading and was at 1.002 which means it's nearly finished.
Off to Amsterdam tomorrow for 3 days so will bottle this batch when I return.
But before that, going to have another bottle from the 1st batch, it's 6 weeks old tomorrow so will see if it has improved since the 6th April.
Thursday 12 April 2012
Quick Update
As mentioned in my last blog, I did start brewing the 2nd batch last Thursday.
So it's been on a week now, and still slowly bubbling away so will leave it till the start of the week then test the SG.
Still hardly touched the 1st batch, had 2 bottles last Friday night and it was very enjoyable. Going to leave the remaining 17 bottles for another few weeks and try a couple more :)
So it's been on a week now, and still slowly bubbling away so will leave it till the start of the week then test the SG.
Still hardly touched the 1st batch, had 2 bottles last Friday night and it was very enjoyable. Going to leave the remaining 17 bottles for another few weeks and try a couple more :)
Wednesday 4 April 2012
4 weeks since starting..
And I've only had one bottle myself...
Though I did take a bottle up to my friend on his 40th, and it went down pretty well I think.. people seemed to think it tasted nice.
And since it has been 4 weeks since I started my first batch, I went out today and got the second lot. This time went for the Brew Buddy Cider Kit which I will make a start on tomorrow!
Though I did take a bottle up to my friend on his 40th, and it went down pretty well I think.. people seemed to think it tasted nice.
And since it has been 4 weeks since I started my first batch, I went out today and got the second lot. This time went for the Brew Buddy Cider Kit which I will make a start on tomorrow!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)