Rylan510
New Member
Argh retyping as my message was deleted attaching photos...
Anyway I have been making beer cider and wine for a few decades now and these days have been mostly doing it the lazy way. An empty gallon-sized water jug with whatever you feel like fermenting and some voracious yeast. I've currently had this batch rolling along for many months. Started off with a packet of red star champagne yeast that had been in my fridge for about 5 years, a watermelon a tomato a pound of blueberries a mint plant and a bushel of cilantro in my masticating juicer. The old yeast took less than 24 hours with no priming to start bubbling and foaming. It's a good thing that I know from prior experiences to put such fermentations in a tub unless you have a lot of headroom in your fermenting vessel. I have just poured the last pint of whatever was in the last batch I think it was cranberry juice and apple juice. Photo attached. I just keep reusing the same slurry. This time I have added ocean spray cranberry cocktail and some minute maid orange juice labeled as "for kids" hahaha I guess I will be getting some extra vitamins in this batch. Also checked in a can of frozen concentrated orange passion fruit guava "juice" yum those high fructose corn syrup esthers really impart that authentic prison toilet wine flavor! Hahaha I'm only joking though a bit as this method works quite well. I wouldn't make wine or beer like this but cider is sort of a no-brainer I'm not even using an airlock, just have the cap screwed on enough to cover it and still let air squeeze out. I have several 5 gallon fermenters many airlocks hydrometers funnels brushes taps hoses wort cooling rig litmus rolls iodine blah blah blah but you don't really need any of that to just make a great tasting batch of cider. Happy fermenting!
Anyway I have been making beer cider and wine for a few decades now and these days have been mostly doing it the lazy way. An empty gallon-sized water jug with whatever you feel like fermenting and some voracious yeast. I've currently had this batch rolling along for many months. Started off with a packet of red star champagne yeast that had been in my fridge for about 5 years, a watermelon a tomato a pound of blueberries a mint plant and a bushel of cilantro in my masticating juicer. The old yeast took less than 24 hours with no priming to start bubbling and foaming. It's a good thing that I know from prior experiences to put such fermentations in a tub unless you have a lot of headroom in your fermenting vessel. I have just poured the last pint of whatever was in the last batch I think it was cranberry juice and apple juice. Photo attached. I just keep reusing the same slurry. This time I have added ocean spray cranberry cocktail and some minute maid orange juice labeled as "for kids" hahaha I guess I will be getting some extra vitamins in this batch. Also checked in a can of frozen concentrated orange passion fruit guava "juice" yum those high fructose corn syrup esthers really impart that authentic prison toilet wine flavor! Hahaha I'm only joking though a bit as this method works quite well. I wouldn't make wine or beer like this but cider is sort of a no-brainer I'm not even using an airlock, just have the cap screwed on enough to cover it and still let air squeeze out. I have several 5 gallon fermenters many airlocks hydrometers funnels brushes taps hoses wort cooling rig litmus rolls iodine blah blah blah but you don't really need any of that to just make a great tasting batch of cider. Happy fermenting!
