I really like dry sparkling apple cider; I make it with storebought apple juice from Aldi, Costco, or Walmart, and just a tiny bit of sugar. But there's a shortage right now of apple juice. It totally disappeared for a few months, now it's back but sometimes hard to find and over $5 per gallon (used to vary between $2.30 and $3.20) That's about the same price as grape juice now. I make decent Concord grape or Concord/Niagara blend wine, but I want something closer to the cider that I like. So I'm trying an experiment.
I bought a 3 quart bottle of grape juice at Walmart and poured it into a sanitized 1 gallon jug. Added the dregs from a yeasty bottle of cider that was made with wine yeast (I got a clean pour and had lots of sediment left.) Instead of adding sugar to boost the ABV, I added about a pint of water. And 3/4 tsp of yeast nutrient. Shook it up and added an air lock. When the fermentation slowed down, I topped up the jug with water the rest of the way. That was about a week ago. It's probably ready to bottle but I think I'll give it another week or two There's not a lot of lees but I will rack it tomorrow anyway, mainly because it's in a lightweight plastic jug and it's much easier to bottle from a heavy glass jug. (this plastic jug has tipped over before when I tried to bottle from it and was down to the last little bit) I'll put it in clear Newcastle beer bottles and prime with sugar like I would cider.
Has anyone else here tried something like this?
I bought a 3 quart bottle of grape juice at Walmart and poured it into a sanitized 1 gallon jug. Added the dregs from a yeasty bottle of cider that was made with wine yeast (I got a clean pour and had lots of sediment left.) Instead of adding sugar to boost the ABV, I added about a pint of water. And 3/4 tsp of yeast nutrient. Shook it up and added an air lock. When the fermentation slowed down, I topped up the jug with water the rest of the way. That was about a week ago. It's probably ready to bottle but I think I'll give it another week or two There's not a lot of lees but I will rack it tomorrow anyway, mainly because it's in a lightweight plastic jug and it's much easier to bottle from a heavy glass jug. (this plastic jug has tipped over before when I tried to bottle from it and was down to the last little bit) I'll put it in clear Newcastle beer bottles and prime with sugar like I would cider.
Has anyone else here tried something like this?