Grapefruit Cider with Bread Yeast

[treefrog]

Hi everyone

This could possibly be the worst idea ever, but basically I am stuck in my house for the next few days, and I have about 1kg of grapefruits which are close to going off, and so I really want to do something with them before it's too late. I'm hoping to follow this recipe:
http://elomis.tumblr.com/post/16101840529/grapefruit-cider
(which doesn't seem very scientific, but seems easy?) I can't get to a home brewing shop so I was thinking of just using bread yeast. Would that still work? (I feel like I could possibly make the worst cider in the world)

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Hi everyone

This could possibly be the worst idea ever, but basically I am stuck in my house for the next few days, and I have about 1kg of grapefruits which are close to going off, and so I really want to do something with them before it's too late. I'm hoping to follow this recipe:
http://elomis.tumblr.com/post/16101840529/grapefruit-cider
(which doesn't seem very scientific, but seems easy?) I can't get to a home brewing shop so I was thinking of just using bread yeast. Would that still work? (I feel like I could possibly make the worst cider in the world)

Hmm, would a citrus fruit juice be considered cider? Probably not, but who cares! Grapefruit juice and bread yeast sounds disgusting. I haven't personally tried bread yeast with anything yet as I don't want to waste good juice or cider. Maybe ill do a 1 gallon experiment for the sake of trying it. But using grapefruit juice seems like a recipe for disaster. Why don't you just order the proper yeast online if you don't have homebrew stores in your area? If you are going to bother making wine/cider/whatever, might as well start it off right.

 

[CodyA]

The bread yeast would only live up to about 5%, right? So in that case, would you even have to kill off any yeast or backsweeten for a sweeter cider? I mean, the lowest FG you could get without even adding sugar would be around 1.01, right? (Assuming you used just straight apple juice which has an OG of around 1.05, not this recipe in particular)

 

[Apple_Jacker]

The bread yeast would only live up to about 5%, right? So in that case, would you even have to kill off any yeast or backsweeten for a sweeter cider? I mean, the lowest FG you could get without even adding sugar would be around 1.01, right? (Assuming you used just straight apple juice which has an OG of around 1.05, not this recipe in particular)

The lowest FG you can get is .990 I think. That's as low as my hydrometer goes, anyway. Not sure about your bread yeast question. Just ask the members here with over 1,000 posts about their experiments using bread yeast. They are very much against it. Try a 1 gallon experiment for yourself. I just might so I know never to do it again

 

[sonofgrok]

Very interested in how this turns out... I love grapefruit juice.

 

[treefrog]

Yeah not sure if it's technically 'Cider' but so long as it's alcoholic I'll be happy. I would buy different yeast, but the grapefruit look like they only have something like 2 days left, and I don't really have the time to buy anything else (and I don't think I will be able to eat 1kg of grapefruit in two days). Anyway I'll let you all know how it turns out

 

[Unferth]

Yeah not sure if it's technically 'Cider' but so long as it's alcoholic I'll be happy. I would buy different yeast, but the grapefruit look like they only have something like 2 days left, and I don't really have the time to buy anything else (and I don't think I will be able to eat 1kg of grapefruit in two days). Anyway I'll let you all know how it turns out

I'd freeze them, then wait for a better yeast.

Jack Keller has a grapefruit wine recipe that looks good.

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/reques20.asp

This might be a more fruitful alternative

 

[Wayneh]

Trust me it will be horrible. It will taste like it turned bad. Way to acidic.

 

[Wayneh]

Save the grapefruit for a Melomel.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

OR...make a skeeter pee using grapefruit juice in place of lemon juice. That could be interesting.

 

[TAPPAR]

Juice all of the grapefruit and put it in the fridge, it will keep in there fine for a week at least im sure. I have made cider after leaving the fruit I juiced in the fridge for over a week with no ill results, it will be better then using bread yeast i'm sure.

 

[mpride1911]

I may, or may not have tried this at one time. Only I used bread yeast and about a 50/50 or Orange Juice and Pineapple juice and slices with about a 1/4 cup of sugar. It fermented fast, basically finished in 36 hours. Now where I was at the time I was not able to really do anything else with it in anyway to improve the final product. Now, it was not as bad as I expected it to be, but it was certainly not something that I would have drank if there was ANY alternative. To say that it was drinkable is sketchy as no normal person would willingly drink it.

 

[Pratzie]

Have u considered a mead instead?

Im gonna try this recipe once i get my hands on some honey...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f80/joes-ancient-orange-mead-49106/

Grapefruit might work well with it instead of the oranges. In fact I think i might try it now in a one gallon batch

 

[roymullins]

I have used bread yeast in a pinch and also just to try it for the hell of it to see how it worked... it works just fine- you just have to wait it out... eventually the flavors will meld and mellow and be just fine. I wouldn't use bread yeast if I wanted to make a quick-cider but if you are willing to let it sit for a few months it will be OK...

 

[treefrog]

I ended up just freezing most of the grapefruit 'juice' I made (without yeast in it), not sure why I didn't think of that before, but now I'm just waiting for my yeast to arrive in the mail so I can try it the 'proper' way.. But I did make a few ciders just to test the bread yeast thing out and it didn't taste too bad, although I think that's mostly because it hasn't fermented much in the past three days and it's basically still just incredibly sweet grapefruit juice. Although it's weird, because it smells kind of like beer.

Also that mead recipe sounds amazing, I think I might try and make some mead using the grapefruit juice I still have (I have 8L of it in my freezer, so I have to use it somehow)