What have I done?!

No seriously, what indeed HAVE I done?

I got this recipe for homemade cider from a friend:

Use 2L bottle to brew it in.
Sterilise bottle with hot water and camden tablet
Pour in slightly less than 2L of cloudy carton juice (not concentrate)
Add a few tspns of white sugar
Stir together
Add tspn of Yeast (Bakers yeast/bread yeast)
Stir in
Stretch plastic bag over lid of bottle and seal with rubber band
Leave for six days
Remove seal, siphon off everythign but the sediment into other bottle
Drink.

Now, I should have known better but I tried this anyway, and well... basically it came out smelling of hydrogen sulfide and tasted awful and had a foul chemical aftertaste and was still full of active yeast as far as I know and was really cloudy. I ended up binning it.

Anyway, given the resources I have (no demijons or proper tops or anything), how did this go wrong and how could I put it right next time? Would it ever have been possible to drink after 6 days without things going horribly wrong?

Cheers
Dakob

Sounds like a prison hooch recipe. BTW, NOTHING is ready to drink in a week. If you really want to make hard cider & it's legal for you to do so, try this recipe: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/edworts-apfelwein-33986/ It's about as goof-proof as it gets & there have been well over 10,000 gallons of it made by people right here on this site. You'd be much better off investing a few dollars/pounds/euros in a carbouy, bung & airlock than by trying to ferment in 2 liter soda bottles. And stop using bread yeast, use a wine or ale yeast instead. If there is no local homebrew shop near you, there are several who will ship to you via mailorder, some advertise on this site. It's a great hobby! Good luck with your next batch. Regards, GF.

Wrong yeast and not enough time? I say this from a beer brewers point of view. Do some reading on the cider forum. You will find it interesting and informative.

prolly would have been drinkable in 4 more weeks - not very good mind you, but drinkable. I've used bakers yeast white sugar and applejuice before (way back in the day.) it's terrible compared to what I brew now... but you have to start some place I suppose.

Where are you from, because if you are 18 as your profile says and you are american (not necessarily just checking) then this is illegal and the thread will be closed.

But as mentioned brewing takes longer then 6 days. You need to let it go for a lot longer, let the yeast fully settle out and transfer it longer down the road. Check out some recipes and read up on the proper processes so that you really know what you're doing, because as it stands, you're brewing prison hooch as mentioned.

I'm in the UK so legal I think.

OK just had to be sure we do get some american teens where laws are quite as booze friendly.

Am I right in thinking drinking active yeast is bad? I belived so and tried to kill off the yeast the night before I drank (some of) the stuff with a crushed camden tablet. Was that a pointless thing to do? It didn't seem to stop sediment from keeping forming in the bottle (or perhaps that was dead yeasts? I don't know).

I suspected the same, but note his spelling of the word "sterilize"
he's UK all the way... or a clever enough USA kid to know where limeys replace the "z" with an "s" in some words. (most american teens probably can't even spell "sterilize" let alone define it... sad truth I'm afraid...) I think limey kids can legally drink at what? 17-18?

anyway, to the OP - invest a few pounds in the right stuff (materials and tools) and you'll be on your way to making your own Tasty goodness in your own home. it's fun, easy, and there is something sublime about getting buzzed on something you made in your own home...

Dakob said:

Am I right in thinking drinking active yeast is bad? I belived so and tried to kill off the yeast the night before I drank (some of) the stuff with a crushed camden tablet. Was that a pointless thing to do? It didn't seem to stop sediment from keeping forming in the bottle (or perhaps that was dead yeasts? I don't know).

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live yeast won't hurt you... might give you some stinky gas though.
I don't use stabilizers in my finished products - so technically all my drinks contain live yeast (dormant... but still alive)


the crushed cambden tablet is what made the stuff taste so awful.

it needs to set for 24 hours or so and outgas/dissipate the chemicals in the tablets before you even think about drinking it.

campden is used for a few things - but dropping out sediment isn't one of them.

Snuffalupagus said:

live yeast won't hurt you... might give you some stinky gas though.
I don't use stabilizers in my finished products - so technically all my drinks contain live yeast (dormant... but still alive)


the crushed cambden tablet is what made the stuff taste so awful.

it needs to set for 24 hours or so and outgas/dissipate the chemicals in the tablets before you even think about drinking it.

campden is used for a few things - but dropping out sediment isn't one of them.

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but That is funny !!! !!! !!!!

I have been drinking my Oatmeal Stout while it is still carbing and I thought "something" was amiss.

It's a good thing I work outside!

staffVAJoe said:

but That is funny !!! !!! !!!!

I have been drinking my Oatmeal Stout while it is still carbing and I thought "something" was amiss.

It's a good thing I work outside!

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true that... my wife likes my Blueberry belgian white, but man oh man...
you want to talk about "rhino farts"

I have had horrible experiences with using campden tablets for anything other then cleaning.

Just don't do it

OK, so...
1.Don't try and use camden tablets to kill off the yeast
2.Let it ferment for much longer than before
3.Don't use bakers yeast
Are my three things I need to do then? I'll try that next time. Speaking of which, does it matter how much yeast you use to start with, since it grows by itself and all? I only used a small teaspoon of yeast last time (like a regular teaspoon but about half the size) so would I have been better off adding more?

Dakob said:

OK, so...
1.Don't try and use camden tablets to kill off the yeast
2.Let it ferment for much longer than before
3.Don't use bakers yeast
Are my three things I need to do then? I'll try that next time. Speaking of which, does it matter how much yeast you use to start with, since it grows by itself and all? I only used a small teaspoon of yeast last time (like a regular teaspoon but about half the size) so would I have been better off adding more?

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Wine & beer yeast are generally sold in packets large enough to ferment 5 gallons. Some are sold in a dry form, some are sold in a liquid form, either work. You really should read up on wine/beer/cider making at least a little bit so that you have a good understanding on not just what to do, but how to do it & why it needs to be done. There are a multitude of books on the various subjects, some of which you will find at your local library. You might start online here: winemaking: The Basic Steps It really is worth taking a little time to save yourself some disappointment, especially when you'll be waiting for a couple months for the fruits of your labors. Regards, GF.

Um... what does it mean if a bottle has filled the top 10th I left empty with white froth which is now leaking out and onto the floor?
Also, when will it stop doing that?

OK, it's still frothing, and it's made a stinking mess on my floor. Perhaps I accidentally managed to make it decide to carbonate when six hours after I started it, I opened it up again and put in another teaspoonful of yeast on top of the half-teaspoon I had added already...?

Will it ever stop or have I managed to ruin it already?

Dakob, go to a carboot sale and try to pick up some carboys and airlocks and stop messing about with the two litre bottles. 20 quid at a carboot would get you most of the kit, possibly even half of that.

Yeah, I'll pick up some proper equipment when I get the chance... is it possible to move the "cider" from the 2liter bottle to a carboy at this stage without messing everything up (some more)?

The foam still hasn't gone, but at least there isn't a puddle round the base of the bottle anymore. Will the foam be gone in the morning? Is there any way I can get rid of it? I hate it. It stinks, it makes puddles, it looks ugly, it bursts seals, the list goes on. Stupid foam...

This sounds like a job for EdWort's Apfelwein!

i german guy named Sven Skellenger and I made something like that in the restaurant in which we were cooks. It was horrible. Sven learned how to make in an Austrian prison.
since you are presumabley NOT in an Austrian prison, you should at the very least buy some corn sugar and brewer's yeast.

cheers from across the pond!

Dakob said:

Yeah, I'll pick up some proper equipment when I get the chance... is it possible to move the "cider" from the 2liter bottle to a carboy at this stage without messing everything up (some more)?

The foam still hasn't gone, but at least there isn't a puddle round the base of the bottle anymore. Will the foam be gone in the morning? Is there any way I can get rid of it? I hate it. It stinks, it makes puddles, it looks ugly, it bursts seals, the list goes on. Stupid foam...

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that is normal - for a while you'll get what we call "blow off"
as the yeast consumes the sugar it makes Alchohol and carbon dioxide gas.
quite a bit of it - if you have a very vigorous fermentation it's pretty common to get gas and foam coming out of the top of your fermentor.
to put a stop to the mess try rigging up a blow off tube that empties into a bottle with a little sanitized water in it. when the vigorous stage of fermentation subsides you can switch back to a standard airlock.

right now, with your yeast going full bore - and suspended evenly through out the liquid I see no harm in transfering the 2l botttle to a gallon carboy - at this point the extra oxygen from funneling the 2l bottle to the gallon carboy would do some good. however do it quickly before fermentation subsides to a lower level, as at that time you want to avoid adding oxygen to the liquid. you'll also need to top up the gallon carboy with additional juice - 2L of liquid will leave ALOT of headroom in the gallon jug. so add enough to come to the shoulders of the jug. there is no need to add additional yeast if you top up your juice level if your yeast is still active. at this point there will be way more than 10x the yeast cells in the juice from when you started... ain't nature grand?

really - the only way to "screw up" apple cider is to not follow strict sanitization measures and innoculate the liquid with an infection of some sort. other than that... remember - the yeast know what they are doing and have been doing it since before airbreathing critters crawled out of the primordial ooze... so really it's pretty hard to undo hundreds of millions of years of evolution with our silly human mistakes.