Adventures in Homebrewland (image heavy - you have been warned!)

MrDT

2cats1kid wrote: »

OK, really daft question coming up (look away if easily offended).

Your cider = apple juice + sugar + yeast

My wine = apple juice + sugar + yeast

So how does yours know to be cider and mine know to be wine? LOL!

I can't find a definitive answer, but I'm inclined to think that they're two interchangable terms for the same thing!

Did you know that the uh-merkins refer to apple juice as cider? And cider as hard cider? That gives us a third name for the same damn stuff lol! Then there's the german apfelwein, a fourth... Us brits are no better, most places refer to perry as pear cider, not us

I suppose we could use the alcohol content as a measure of what should be called what?
0% = apple juice
0-10% = apple cider
11-20% = apple wine
20%+ = apple brandy

Personally, I'll not get bogged down in the terminology. I'll refer to my creation as appleboozjooz from now on

Oh, misterbadexample, if you're still with us, don't go jumping straight for the brandy at 20%+, you have to know what you're doing when distilling! If you don't you can end blinding yourself, or even blowing your house up :eek:

in with a quick edit: maybe cider is carbonated when bottling, and wine is kept still? can't be right though, I've had still perry in the past and it was definitely called perry not pear wine. it was about 5% abv... ARGH!!

loulou88

yes and two glasses and im feeling rather merrrryyyyyyy lol its wicked i got 2 make some moreeee he he

Andy_Hamilton

I have just posted my wanted Advertisement on freecycle for a couple of demi Johns. Even though my house is 10 months old it has an aering cupboard, I was gutted that it had one when I moved in but i'm rather happy now.

I bought 4 litres of normal brand apple juice from asda today as it was cheaper than smart price.

After I make my first batch I'm tempted to make alcoholic cloudy lemonade. I have also been tempted to make ribena wine which I heard of a couple of years ago.

If they all turn out ok I will try and brew from scratch making my grandad's cumberland brandy recipie I found when I tested every bottle of home brew he had. That was one day when the drains were cleaned and I had to leave my car at his house.

loulou88

Andy_Hamilton wrote: »

I have just posted my wanted Advertisement on freecycle for a couple of demi Johns.

IF YOU DONT GET ANY
you can use 5 litre water bottles and the baloon method
thats what i used now ive bought a few plastic demijohns off ebay (we cant get glass ones where i live)
one other poster on here also said she got someone to drill the lids on the water bottles and bought the rubber grommit seal at the homebrew shop saves a fortune then just pop the airlock in the top
good luck

Frugaldom

I was in town today and thought I'd pop into the charity shops and ask if they had a demijohn in stock. Judging by what I'd heard in the past, I could hopefully get one for a couple of pounds. Well! The first shop had none, although they could get me one for the end of the week, if I wanted to come back. But, the other shop was a different kettle of fish completely... oh, lovely, lovely demijohns, all sitting in the corner, waiting patiently for a frugal winemaker to come along and set them free. I ended up rescuing 5 of them, but there were more still being held captive 'through the back'. At 99p each, I am delighted with my purchase. It was fun trying to drag them all back to the car along with a bag of shopping! I got quite a few strange looks, I can tell you, clunking along with them all in a variety of bags! I'm sure one woman was actually scared as I rattled my way past in a lop-side hobble! :rotfl:

You see what you have started here, MrDT? Demijohn Terror on our high streets!

ravylesley

oh here I go again sticking my nose in where its probably not wanted.But for future reference there is an easy way of carbonating cider and thats to use a soda stream to do it for you.A soda stream can be useful for loads of things other than making fizzy juice.Its just a thought and feel free to ignore I wont be offended

Lesleyxx

Lunker_2

WOW, I started getting my equipment together to make some turbo cider before I knew of this thread. I managed to get a couple of DJ's from FreeCycle, the guy had loads round the back of this house, a little dirty but nothing that a little elbow grease can't resolve, it sure works up a good cider thirst anyway!

I'm planning on starting my cider this week depending on how busy work is, so I’ll keep posting if that is alright with everyone :beer:

2cats1kid

Next update - stabiliser has gone into the strawberry (kit) wine and the apple juice is bubbling along merrily.

Have lost the instructions - anyone know how long I should leave the stabiliser before adding finings? And then how long to leave finings before syphoning?

ravylesley

potassium sorbate or stabiliser is used as a preservative.Whereas wine finings is used to kill off any yeast.I'd personally give it twenty four hours between adding the stabiliser and adding the finings but this is just personal taste as they can be added at the same time.The finings can take up to 10 days though to thoroughly clear the wine

Lesleyxx

Andy_Hamilton

I was unlucky with freecycle this time so invested in new equipment.
Wilkinson's had demi-johns in for around £4 / 5 (can't remember), they also had air locks for £2.50 so I thought I would buy new.
The only problem I had yesterday was buying yeast.:mad:
My wilko is new so could not find anything so tried boots with no joy (looked very strange at me like I was trying to make a bomb). I then tried a couple of super markets with no joy.

I went home and thought "sod it" I will try some of my fresh bread yeast (stuff kept in fridge). I know I should have waited but I did watch river cottage a couple of weeks ago when Hue made some wine with bread yeast.

Anyway, after putting the demi-john in the airing cupboard I looked online and found a brewing shop locally:rolleyes:

I now have some cider yeast and some high quality finings to clear mine if it does not clear it's self.

Anyway - I'm now brewing and it's bubbling really well.:j