making cheap cider

Yo peeps,

 well it seemed a shame not to start with the classic cider but with a twist.

 turbo cider!

I will presume you have followed on from the other posts, so you have your 5 liter water container, an air lock and your yeast.

now you will want to get on with making some thing to drink!

turbo cider is called that because you wont have to get loads of apples, press them into juice and then ferment.

we are getting out apple juice from .... cartons of apple juice!
 in America you can get frozen juice that works too.
cartons of value apple juice are the cheapest way to get apple juice any time of year with out fuss and all the hard work is done for you.

 if your not sure have a look on the side it will say ingredients: apple juice
 and maybe: from concentrate.

tesco value apple juice and asda (walmart) and lidi carton apple juice all work fine.

they are made up of loads of different apple juices that have had the water removed for shipping then water added back and packaged, thats why is from concentrate and saves blending apple juices.

any way for this you will need

5 liters of carton apple juice
2 tea bags  
 sugar (optional)

i have purposely not mentioned anything about a hydrometer since it's not essential to know the starting gravity and end gravity but later i will go into it.


different apple juices will have slightly different sugar amounts in it so this is a  rough guide for those who want to play.

on the side of the carton it will tell you the sugars in it per 100ml.
multiply this by 10 to give you the total sugars per liter.
 lets say its about 111g per liter as that what i'm looking at on mine roughly
 that will give you about 5% cider.
thats pretty standard for shop brought.
 if you added 550g of sugar to 5 liters of apple juice it would ferment out at about 10-11 ish %

notes if you decide to add sugar try not to add at most a kg. yeast produces alcohol as a byproduct as well as carbon dioxide. once the alcohol gets to a certain amount usually 15% just to be safe with universal wine yeast it dies.
 so 2kg of sugar added = really sweet sickly cider.

you get the idea.

so take your water bottle and pour out the water. it not needed this time.
add 4 liters of apple juice and add the yeast. give it a shake!
  you have just started making cider.

put on the air lock (adding a little water in to it )

boil your kettle and put your 2 tea bags in a cup and make half a mug/cup of strong black tea. this is for the tannins and you wont be able to taste tea. Really!
set to one side for 10 mins ish.

if you want to add sugar you can now. take your last liter of apple juice and put in a jug or pan.
add your sugar and stir.
microwave it or heat on a hob till the sugar has dissolved. leave to cool.

yeast is killed by heat so pouring boiling liquids into yeast is bad. you want it luke warm.

once your tea is cool add to the container, and top up with your cooled sugar added apple juice.

replace air lock.

you will notice that the clear brown apple juice will turn cloudy. thats normal.
and your air lock will start to bubble. depending on the temperature it may take longer or shorter but usually overnight is a safe bet.
 keep in the airing cupboard or kitchen or lounge.
some people will say keep it dark but i just have mine in the corner of my dining room.

so far so good.

it will bubble away for a week or 2 or maybe 3.
but in any case once the bubbling stops you have cider!

a lot of vids on youtube will say you can drink it then and there. you can but it will have an acidic twang and its in my opinion crap.
 for it to taste like a half decent cider you need to leave it for at least a month. 3-6 months is the best. that way the acids in it are broken down and you get a fine drink

if you leave it the yeast will sink to the bottom and you will have a clearer cider.
simple enough.

for simplicity once your cider is mostly cleared decant into other containers with lids. pop bottles work well.
try and leave as much of the yeasty crud on the bottom.
or syphon out the liquid.

a lenght of plastic tube and put one in the 5liter cider and below that have your bottles. suck on the tube and the cider will flow.

i like mine still but if you like sparkling cider. add a level tea spoon to the pop bottles and leave for a week or 2.

hope you enjoy. if you cant wait that long i will do a follow on .... turbo apple jack!