Mangrove Jacks Citra Hopped Apple Cider

[second_skin]

Hi,

I am only new here..

I have brewed ginger beer and mead for years, but interested in doing cider..

I'd love to do ciders from scratch, but where I am currently located (Norfolk Island), we rarely get local apples, if so, they are small and not that great, and if we get imported apples, they are triple sprayed (so not too keen to use them)..

My only option is kits, I've heard they are ok, so keen to give them a go..

Just wondering which one though, heard the Mangrove Jack Pear is good, but keen to try the normal apples ones..

Can anyone review Mangroves Citra Hopped Apple kit, compared to their normal apple kit?

Thanks in advance

 

[Chalkyt]

Are you on Norfolk Island off Oz or another Norfolk Island?

If the Oz one, you might like to try "Summer Snow" juice (summersnow.com.au) from Belleview Orchard in Victoria. If my trees are having an "off" year (they tend to crop biennially) I sometimes use their preservative free juice to top up my pressing. Belleview have four varieties plus a couple of blends. I use their straight Granny Smith and straight Pink Lady and I also note they have an apple/pear blend. At $40 or so for six by two litre bottles it is a good deal for the quality and probably similar to the cost of apples for the same amount of juice.

Anyhow, back to hops. I have occasionally made a dry hopped cider. The trick is to put the dry hops in a large teabag or something similar and weigh it down because the hops float and do disintegrate quite quickly. If you put them straight into the cider they eventually make a mess and are hard to filter out.

I steep the hops in the cider towards the end of secondary fermentation and only for a few days, as the cider takes on the hop flavour quite quickly, so less hops ( 3g or two teaspoons per litre) for a longer time gives you a bit more control, and don't forget to taste, taste, taste, every day or so.

Good luck!

 

[Kees]

I'd love to do ciders from scratch, but where I am currently located (Norfolk Island), we rarely get local apples, if so, they are small and not that great, and if we get imported apples, they are triple sprayed (so not too keen to use them)..

Those apples might be great for cider.

 

[second_skin]

Are you on Norfolk Island off Oz or another Norfolk Island?

If the Oz one, you might like to try "Summer Snow" juice (summersnow.com.au) from Belleview Orchard in Victoria. If my trees are having an "off" year (they tend to crop biennially) I sometimes use their preservative free juice to top up my pressing. Belleview have four varieties plus a couple of blends. I use their straight Granny Smith and straight Pink Lady and I also note they have an apple/pear blend. At $40 or so for six by two litre bottles it is a good deal for the quality and probably similar to the cost of apples for the same amount of juice.

Hi Chalkyt,

Thanks for your reply.

Yeah, in Norfolk, just off OZ.

I was mainly just after info on peoples experiences specifically with the 'Mangrove Jack Cider Kits', as that's all I can really try here, for when in season, the apples here are rare and small, and I'd need a heap..there's only one or two juices here, both with preservatives, let alone about $10-$15 for 2 litres..

Cheers

 

[Chalkyt]

Yep, I understood that was what you were after. I have used Mangrove Jack's M02 yeast and found it quite good, but haven't used kits. I guess they come with some form of AJC which has to be easier than pressing your own suspect apples. I think Mangrove Jack's is a Kiwi organisation.

The reason for mentioning Summer Snow juice is that I have also tried supermarket juice and wasn't impressed. The best I found was a brand called "Tassie" which was O.K. but not great for cider I stumbled across Summer Snow and was intrigued by their story... google them. I may use some of the Summer Snow juice this year as there isn't much fruit after we had late winter frosts and wind when the flowers were forming, then heaps of rain.

Basically I started making cider when we moved here because I have eight assorted apple trees, and figured that I couldn't eat enough in a day to use them all. So I scrat and press my apples then fiddle with malic acid, different yeasts, hops, cherries, etc to make my own bevvie.

Anyhow, I imagine whatever you try to get on Norfolk will carry a fairly high freight burden. It is bad enough down here in Jindabyne. Good luck!

 

[second_skin]

Yeah, I'd be interested in the juice, but most mail comes via ship, and since covid, ships are far less frequent now..

Alternatively most of us get express post mail, which is ok, depending if the store is happy to send that way, but then we have the hassle of bio-security/customs (I'm sure juice would be fine, but they are very pedantic..

So I was just going to try the most simplest, most boring, cider producing method available..if and when I am on the mainland, I will do it very differently..

Cheers

 

[Chalkyt]

Yep, I see the problem. The freight could be as much as the product, or even more. So the kit seems to be worth a punt... give it a go and let us all know how it works out. There are a few sellers of the kits in Brisbane so you should be able to get it to Norfolk for the Oz Post "Australia wide" flat rate which applies for packages under 5Kg.