My new toys

I have just stumbled over OZtops and over the past two weeks turned ordinary proservative free Apple juice into a delicious Cider in just on a week.

My first attempt came out a tad sweet as I was impatient and should have left it an extra two days to ferment. I chill to deactivate the yeast but I am going to try heating a batch to 150-160 to kill yeast and then store in Coopers Pete beer bottles these will be flat of course.

The grape tests are also turning out well but it appears that making Cider will be a cinch. It may not be up to the dedicated brewer's standard but to someone who can only compare it with say a Strongbow that is the only yard stick I have. I did try a pint Scrumpy the local Cider in Devon England and that had a kick. The locals limit was two pints a night. I think it was well up to 20% abv I know another pint would have finished me.

So these OZtops can give me a carbonated Cider in a week from a cheap supermarket 2 litre of juice. That actually has that distinctive fruity taste with no bad additives.

Other than a purchase of Scotch (Dimple my tipple) visits to the liquer shop will fade although I will have to make room for the fruit juices in waiting

Beer is no longer the only choice of a refreshing drink. To top it off one of the tops fits mt 6 litre TAD bottle so having Cider or whatever on tap is looking good

woohoo! Congrats from one noob to another. I'm just starting to sample all the fruits of my work.

I just sampled some Apple and Black Current brewed for 7 days. Well a slight sweetness as I used 1/4cup sugar in 2.4 litres of juice.

There is still a bit of activity and I have fitted a high pressure top to give it fizz. Will now wait another few days to carb up then chill to clear.

I am drinking Cider after a week and saving the wines untill they mature a bit.

I am even forgetting that I have beer available. In trueth I think I will leave the fruit wines to the ladies, as nice as they are and certainly have a kick. I will concentrate on Cider as an alternative to my beloved amber liquid.

I pumped a couple of scooners from my Tap A Draft system and I do not think there is a better beverage. I definatly will not contaminate that system with any other type of brew.

Wow 5% abv Apple and Blackcurrent and still with a bit to go. I will definatly go easy on that tipple, predicted alcohol about 8% based on starting sg of 1.065.

As I program for a hobby I knocked up a simple abv calculator. I am gradually getting the sg of various juices then the addition of various sugars. ie honey, dextrose, molases, sugar/corn & cane. So I can refine the program to formulate recipe's. Present aim to create a reasonable Champagne. I have a number of recipe's and will try and get a good cuvie yeast. Still it has only been just over two weeks since I received these tops so there is at least 3 days before an idea can be formed whether a recipe can deliver so far I have finished two ciders and two fruit wines so there is a lot of experimenting to do. The try and taste method. The good news is there does not seem a possibility of failure

I've only started too but am getting very different results.

The instructions told me to get some apple juice, add some sugar and yeast and leave in for 2 days between 20-30 degrees Celsius. 2 days later, I store it in the fridge, wait 24 hours and have cider at approximately 4-5%.
I followed those instructions and that's exactly what I got.
If I was to leave it for a further 2 days, I could expect around 10% however the brew would be much drier. Leaving for 6 days and you could have a very dry mix or a vinegar on your hands.
So I grabbed a grape juice, added the sugar and yeast and waited 4 days before cold crashing. The result was dry and fairly alcoholic.

I couldn't imagine waiting a full week. It'd be very dry and about 12-14% I would think. Maybe it's the heat here or perhaps a different yeast? I'm in Queensland by the way.

you are aware you replied to a post over 2 years old?

hes in Australia and they are two years behind us

Yep I'm aware, trying to get a reply from Terry08 who has probably perfected this type of brewing.
To no avail it would seem.

How do you brew a batch in just a week? I just started my first batch last week and I'm letting it ferment for 2 months. But there's a quicker way????

Yes there is although it's probably not the quality you're after. It's using Oztops which I got for $25 from eBay. Only a few steps to it:
1. Buy preservative free juice from the shop. Grape, apple/blackcurrent, apple, apple/pear all work well.
2. Remove lid, take out some juice (if I buy a 2.4L bottle, I take out 400ml).
3. Add about a cup of sugar.
4. Sprinkle in the yeast provided with your Oztops.
5. Put in the cupboard or somewhere out of the way that has a temperature of between 20 & 30 degrees celcius.
6. After a few days, put the brew into the fridge. It'll be a lightly carbonated cider at about 5%, ready to drink the next day.

If given extra time to ferment, it'll use more of the sugars in the juice which will give a higher alcohol content, but a dryer finish (wine).

If given time to settle in the fridge, the cloudiness will come out to a certain degree. There are different tops to fit different bottles. We have Berri juice, Golden Circle juice and P&N juice. There are also softdrink bottle tops provided which produce a higher carbonation (the softdrink bottles are stronger and can withstand the extra pressure in the fermentation process).