While I wait for the rest of my brewing equipment to turn up (tomorrow apparently) I’ve filled the gap with a quick, cheap brew to get things going – Turbo Cider!
It’s the quickest, easiest brew that anyone could do with minimal equipment. Here’s the list of what you need:
- A demijohn
- Airlock and bung
- 4.5 litres of apple juice (ideally not from concentrate)
- Steriliser
- I sachet of wine or champagne yeast
- 150gm granulated sugar
- Some bottles
As you can see, not too much. The brewing process too is much, much easier than doing a beer from scratch.
- Thoroughly clean and sterilise the demijohn, bung and airlock. Make sure they’re well rinsed too.
- Heat 0.5 litre of the apple juice in a pan. Dissolve the sugar and simmer for 5 minutes.
- Let the apple juice cool a little, then pour into the demijohn.
- Top up with the remaining 4 litres of juice. Swirl and shake the demijohn to thoroughly mix the sugary, warm juice with the rest. This also aerates the juice to help the yeast. Make sure the level isn’t right to the neck of the demjohn, the yeast needs room to work and form a layer.
- Pitch (add) the yeast by just pouring it on top of the juice.
- Fit the bung and airlock.
- After 15 minutes or so, once the yeast has had a chance to rehydrate, swirl/stir the yeast into the juice.
- Leave somewhere not too cold for somewhere between 1 and 2 weeks, until the fermentation is complete. You’ll know when it’s happened because the airlock will stop bubbling.
- Clean, sterilise and rinse your bottles. Add half a teaspoon of sugar to each bottle and fill with the cider.
That’s it. Seriously. Leave in the bottles for a few weeks (or until you can’t resist any more), and with a bit of luck you’ve made cider!
I put mine in the demijohn last night, here’s a picture after the yeast had been in for about half an hour.
Freshly made cider, yeast recently pitched.
…and here’s the same the cider this morning. Note the protective foam layer the yeast has created. This, along with the low-lying CO2 it’s producing (it’s heavier than air) acts as a natural barrier to infection.
Day one. Yeast working nicely, airlock bubbling.
I’ll update again in a few days once it’s had a chance to work some more.