Recent content by Gordond

Excellent post the bird you are absolutely right, its safe, doesn't alter taste and guarantees 0% alcohol.

Boiling is a bit of a none starter since it ruins the flavor of the cider..what about freezing it ? - and pouring off the alcohol, might be illegal though if I remember right in some areas it is considered as distilling - (the alcohol you end up pouring off doesn't necessarily need to be thrown...

I've also been trying to get a soft carbonated drink with apple juice using fermentation, trying as suggested above ferment just to carbonation then pasteurize..results great..kids love it and the alcohol content is below 0.5%. It normally takes about max 2 days depending on temperature...

I have had (and many others -looking around on the internet) the same problem with exactly these strips...there is some issue with the light used...seems they are designed for daylight use and some artificial lighting gives a shift in the colours visible different form the dyes shown, try...

Just a quick update..I'm completing my first test batch radically changing the temperature...what a difference...going from around 75-79 F to exactly 59 F (to see the difference going to the bottom end of the "recommended" range) the yeast has behaved totally differently. The primary...

After first couple of trials using this method I've had good results stopping the fermentation and no particular problems.. Surprisingly high final temp. start 190 F, finish after 15 mins 178 F. With 5 small bottles at a time in a very large (80 litre) stainless pot. The bottles were...

What a great post...if you don't let us know the results you are going to get a lot of disappointed people...ditto dinnersticks comment...how could you not make it ?...thanks for letting us in on it too.

But how important do you think it is to have a small headroom ?...I tend to not bother too much with my ciders to top up to small headoom and you got me thinking here that this may be one of my problem.

Ok swing tops look great, are resealable if you don't finish them (reading through here though don't think you guys have much of that problem with that)....but their intial costs put me off a bit and I've got some worries looking at the pasteurization sticky that there are some problems there...

Good job SWMBO doesn't read this stuff... any links are always welcome.. By the way Greg..just did some checking and found to my amazement the production of apples in Italy is ten times that of the UK ! and we don't do cider... Wildman at the moment the only black hole is that of despair at not...

Ok will do, yes in the hills in the north of Lombardy and going east as well...sounds easy I won't say it is till I can do it though..hopefully soon.

Good point gragbathurst but if I get into all the hard stuff of milling and juicing the apples without understanding much about apples and how to ferment and bottle the stuff I'm heading for disaster (not to mention divorce)..plus the availability of the apples at this time of year is going to...

Thanks Wildman, Its true that trying to make good cider from commercial juice is probably like trying to make a proverbial "silk purse from a sow's ear"..but availability throughout the year and cost are strong drivers. Crab apples are around but I haven't found anyone juicing them yet and I am...

We're getting off topic but weejub whats this fascination with swing tops then ?

Thanks all...the idea was to simulate cider apple juice rather than eating apple juice since getting my hands on a decent fresh pressed juice isn't easy over here. And Wildman..Ok radical suggestion (thanks though - that's the beauty of HBT it keeps provoking you to think again). I started...