Wine Tasting

Ok so with the lovely weather we have been having over the past week, we decided to have a BBQ on Sunday.

I put some of my 1st batch into the fridge and also bottled two of the the Zinfandel Blush Wine.

As you can see on the picture, it has cleared well and with it being 1 month old, was ready for drinking.

Gillian had one bottle in the evening, and from what she has reported it is lovely, I tasted a little bit but am not a wine drinker anyway.

The other bottle is sitting chilling in the fridge, not sure how long it will last though ;-)

More bottling

The Apple with Raspberry & Lime kit I had on was ready for bottling. I had been collecting 2 litre juice bottles, so decided that I would use them for this brew.

Once all cleaned and sterilized, I added the priming sugar to the FV along with the flavour add-back. This is basically what gives the cider the Raspberry & Lime flavouring though would be better with real fruit!

It should hopefully be drinkable within a couple of weeks, but again the longer you leave it ageing the better it should get. Fingers crossed!

Productive Day!

After a few days away down south at the Bearded Theory Festival in Derbyshire, to which I did take a few bottles of the 1st batch of homebrew which seemed to go down well, I had some work to do today.

So first today I racked off the Apple, Blackcurrant and Cranberry which ended up at 1.000 so making that around 7.2% ABV. Tastes nice and fruity too, but perhaps a bit sweet.. might need to fix that somehow!

Also racked off the Apple & Fruit Cocktail TC, which didn't look too clever with all the pulp/sediment in it but it looks all good now. Tastes very strong though, and if my readings are correct it seems to be about 8.5%.. ooft!

Also the rose wine was looking a lot clearer, so racked that off again and that is that ready for drinking, so will bottle it shortly. Gillian took a little sip, and seemed to like it.. so a success I think!

Finally, the third batch of kit cider was fermented out, so transferred that to my other FV and will bottle that tomorrow.

Productive day :-)

Apple, Blackcurrant and Cranberry TC - Update

So after the slow start (see HERE), and now being brewing for 19 days, I have noticed the bubbling from the air lock has slowed down quite a bit.

Decided to take another hydrometer reading for this cider which read as 1.006 so still to come down a little bit before racking off. Ideally it should be about 1.000 so ends up about 7% ABV.

I sampled a bit of course, and was really sweet but could definitely feel the alcohol on the mouth.. nice though!

As you can see in the picture below, it is a lovely colour and should clear quite a bit more too hopefully.

Stock so far!

So below is a pic of what is brewed so far.

• 23 Litres of Brewmaker Deluxe Cider (14 Litres left)
• 23 Litres of Youngs Brewbuddy Cider (21 Litres left)
• 23 Litres of OTR Raspberry & Lime Cider (Fermenting)
• 5 Litres of Apple TC (Ageing)
• 5 Litres of Apple, Blackcurrant & Cranberry TC (Fermenting)
• 5 Litres of Apple & Fruit Cocktail TC (Fermenting)
• 5 Litres of Zinfandel Blush (Clearing)

Not bad considering only started 10 weeks ago :-)

Wine Update

So the wine has stopped fermenting, finishing up with a SG of 1.000 so this means it will be quite dry to taste, so  I have added some Youngs Wine Sweetener to sweeten it up.

I've racked it off into another demijohn and added the Wine Finings that come with the kit to clear it. The wine needs agitated a few times over the next 24 hours as this helps it clear, and it should be ready to drink in 7-10 days. Again, like cider, this is minimum time to drink it, and of course gets better the longer it is left to age.

On The Rocks - Apple with Raspberry & Lime

So while I had racked off the Apple TC and made the Fruit Cocktail TC, I thought I might as well start the other cider kit that I had bought a couple weeks ago.

With kit ciders, it really is as simple as following the instructions supplied with the kit, and all you really need to add is sugar and water. This kit comes with a flavouring sachet which gets added before bottling.

Water & Yeast added

Sugar & Can contents

No recipe required

So as you seen in an earlier post today, I got some more ingredients and equipment for making another 1 Gallon brew.
I didn't have a recipe in mind when I went to the supermarket, just that I was planning to try another one with another variety of juice.
I went to Sainsburys and got 3 litres of Apple Juice (56p each) and looked for something different to make it up to the 5 litres.
I saw in the chilled section, a 2 litre carton of Fruit Cocktail Juice for £1.39. This was from produced  from concentrate which is important for the fermentation progress and contains no preservatives so didn't need boiled off.
I just followed the same receipe for the previous two TC's I did the other week, adding Malic Acid, Pectolase, Tannin and Yeast.
Also added an extra 160g of sugar to make this around 8% once again :-)
No idea how this one will turn out, but then it's not exactly costing much anyway if it turns out disgusting!

Racking off the Apple TC

As mentioned previously, the Apple TC was pretty much fermented out so I had to rack it off to another DJ.

In the pictures below, you can see the sediment at the bottom of the DJ so the idea behind racking off is to transfer the brew into another DJ leaving most of the sediment behind.
Using a syphon hose, I transferred it to the clean and sterilized DJ and as you can see on the picture on the right, left the sediment behind.

Now it's just a waiting game with this brew, it could be drank within a few weeks but it is far better to leave as long as possible, preferably 3-6 months to get it to its best.

More? Ok why not!

Ok so I needed to get hold of another DJ to rack off the Apple TC that was ready. So I went to my LHBS and managed to get one plus a few other bits and bobs..  along with another Plastic Demijohn to make another 1 Gallon brew.. more on that later.

So all in I got some rubber bungs, a funnel, syphon clip, plastic corks, DJ brush, Sterilzer and more Cider Yeast. Oh and a huge bag of sugar plus some juice for the next brew! 

Readings

So took a hydrometer read today from both the Turbo Ciders.. even though the fruity one is still bubbling away.

This will give me an indication of what % ABV they are at the moment.

Ok so first the Apple, Blackcurrant and Cranberry TC. The starting specific gravity reading was 1.054 and the reading today was 1.012 which when put into The Homebrew Forum Calculator gives 5.2% but this is still fermenting away and should hopefully end up about 7%.

The Apple TC had a starting specific gravity of 1.060 and the reading today was 1.000 which means it's pretty much fermented out. This gives an ABV of around 8%... nice :)

Never done the wine as never got an accurate SG to begin with, but should end up around 11-12% I think.

Still Fermenting

Been away working all weekend, and it's now been 10 days since starting the last 3 brews.

The Apple, Blackcurrant and Cranberry TC is still bubbling away every second or so, as is the Zinfandel rose wine.

But the Apple TC has slowed down quiet a bit, so will take a hydrometer reading in the next couple of days for that one. Then it will need racked off into another DJ and left alone for a while.

Enjoying and Sampling

Decided to try another couple of bottles of the first batch last night. This batch is 8 weeks since first brewing, and a couple of weeks since I tasted the last one from it.

Got to admit it is rather lovely, easy to go down and plenty of fizz in it even after the pint sitting for a bit.

It is definitely getting better over time and despite being tempted to drink the rest of it, I am going to try and keep spreading out the tastings for this to check on how good it actually gets.

After enjoying the above cider, I thought it might have been time to try the 1st bottle from the 2nd batch.

This one is 4 weeks from when it was first started, which is actually a bit older than when I tried the first one from the 1st batch.

As you can see, it is a lot lighter and crisper than the first lot, but definately not ready for mass consumption. There was very little fizz in the bottle, but this will improve and I reckon it will be lovely if left for another month or so.

It's been saved!

Looks like good news!

It looks like adding a little bit of yeast and cranking up the heating a couple of degrees has kick started the fermentation in the Apple, Blackberry and Cranberry Turbo Cider.

As you can see they are all fermenting away nicely now, what's suprised me is the colour that the Apple Turbo Cider has gone.. pretty much bright orange! That will put hairs on yer chest haha