Newbie here saying hello!

[fall-apart-dave]

Hello everyone from the UK

So, I have brewed a few batches of cider and dandelion wine which turned out pretty well and nobody died.

My latest batch (I make very small batches) may have gone a bit awry...
I used some pressed juice from the supermarket (it was cheap) so had 6 litres of a couple of different juices. I mixed that with two punnets of crushed blackberries, a handful of raspberries, a few cranberries, 600ml of cider vinegar and a mug of very very strong black tea.
I chucked in some wine yeast, and let it do it's magic in the kitchen at about 14-19 degrees depending if it was day or night.
So, after about 2 weeks it had more or less done with fermentation. Now, I wanted to make the cider a little stronger but, I had managed to break my hydrometer so no idea what the OG was. I have in the back of my head a rough rule of thumb that 10g of sugar per litre of fluid will have a *potential* increase of 1% (no idea where that nugget came from but it's in there). I was aiming for about 150g max into my 6 litres. There was an accident, and 1kg ended up in there... :rockin:

So, after about 3 weeks it stopped bubbling away, but it looked like toffee. I left it another week, and still looked like toffee. I had some wine finings kicking around, so I just chucked it in there for a giggle and after 2 days it was looking a bit clearer and all the yeast was at the bottom of the vat. now it looked... More like... Fudge. I bottled it (was going to rack it but... Meh).

For a laugh, I primed each 600ml bottle with a teaspoon of sugar, and left it on the kitchen counter for another 2 weeks. It's cleared quite a lot, no longer opaque. I just put it all in the fridge. No idea how it will turn out, I had a tiny sip while bottling to make sure it wasn't just battery acid, but didn't have enough to taste it properly.

So, the jury is out. Did I make the yeast kill its self with alcohol? I do wonder with using wine yeast just what might have happened?
I wonder too if it will come out fizzy, if the above has happened obviously not!
I wonder how blind I will go when I drink it LOL!

Anyway... I'll let you know how it turned out when I open a bottle sometime in summer...

 

[ncbrewer]

I don't make wine or cider, so I can't help. But welcome to the forum.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Hello from Long Island, NY. I've only made a few ciders, so you probably have more experience with it than I do. One of my batches took a very long time to clear, and didn't taste like something I'd like to make again even after sitting in the bottle a couple months. I started drinking them again a year later, and I'd say it improved and is much more enjoyable. Looking forward to hearing about your result. Welcome to the forum.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Hello! Thanks for the welcome! Well, we shall see what happens. I have pics somewhere of it. But, well, I've not had a failure yet. We shall just see! It's gone transparent, darkest cider I have ever brewed. I'm sure it will taste just fine. Likely rocket fuel, but fine. We Brits like our alcohol strong! I got rather fond of a 13% flat cider called the Black Dragon from a small craft brewer in a small boozer in Lowestoft that used to put me on my arse after 6 pints. - I am hoping this will be something similar (though the sugar dump really was accidental!).

I've noticed too... So many brewers use air locks and monitor temperature and all sorts of stuff... I use a large class cask with a spigot fitted, a domed bottom and a heavy loose fitting glass lid with a rubber seal and rely on CO2 and the seal letting pressure out when it gets too much. When it falls clear, the sediment all drops off below the spigot and falls around the dome so that when I bottle direct from the cask, it doesn't come through the spigot. Though I have also found that putting a filter paper on a sterile rod and covering the spigot inlet it helps (didn't do that this time). I brew at around 14-19 degrees (the cask is next to the thermostat, and heating is set to come on at 14, go off at 19, since the thermometer is in the thermostat, that's what my cider must be around). I want to buy more casks so that I can have several batches on the go at once, but Missus Fall-Apart-Dave says no ( Though that is more to do with fridge space LOL! I might well buy another fridge especially for my brewing if I get more casks...

 

[mikerlynch26]

My latest batch (I make very small batches) may have gone a bit awry...
I used some pressed juice from the supermarket (it was cheap) so had 6 litres of a couple of different juices. I mixed that with two punnets of crushed blackberries, a handful of raspberries, a few cranberries, 600ml of cider vinegar and a mug of very very strong black tea.
...

Cider vinegar? I've never heard of using that. Depending if it's a natural vinegar, wouldn't the acetobacter in the vinegar turn the alcohol you're creating into...vinegar? I'm wondering where you heard to add that, that's completely new to me.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Cider vinegar? I've never heard of using that. Depending if it's a natural vinegar, wouldn't the acetobacter in the vinegar turn the alcohol you're creating into...vinegar? I'm wondering where you heard to add that, that's completely new to me.

Its an experiment. I wanted a sharper more sour cider. I had no malic acid powder, I had some cider vinegar in the cupboard. I've never heard of anyone using it either... Thats why I tried it.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

... you got me thinking there. So I went and opened a bottle. Then remembered I have a serious cold and cannot taste or smell a damn thing.
Now I noticed 3 things. 1, its crystal clear now. 2, theres a naasaasty looking thick sheet of sticky gloopy white sediment at the bottom of the bottles. Never seen that before. 3, its flatter than a witches tit.

Drank some. And it was... disgusting. But I have a cold, so perhaps am unable to appreciate the full bouquet of flavours. So I get the mrs to try. She said it smells like vinegar and tastes vaguely apple-ish but doesnt want to drink the whole glass.

So. You could well be right. Time to tip away and start again I think! First ever failure!

 

[MindenMan]

Malic acid, no problem. Tartaric acid, no problem. Citric acid, no problem. Acetic acid, you are making vinegar. Because you made the cider yourself I would keep the bottles of "vinegar" you just made; they are great for cooking with.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Malic acid, no problem. Tartaric acid, no problem. Citric acid, no problem. Acetic acid, you are making vinegar. Because you made the cider yourself I would keep the bottles of "vinegar" you just made; they are great for cooking with.

Its fonna take a looooooooong time to get through 6 litres of vinegar LOL besides I need the bottles for my next batch to be dtarted at the weekend.

Well. It was a good experiment. Its added to my experience. And now we know for sure.

 

[bernardsmith]

My guess is that what you have at the bottom of each bottle (thick sheet of sticky gloopy white sediment) is a mother... So not a failure, fall-apart-dave, but not perhaps the success you were aiming for. But sometimes one failure can be viewed as a success when looked at differently. This mother (if I am right) will enable you to make your own vinegar

 

[fall-apart-dave]

A mother?

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Just googled it. Yup, thats what I have.

 

[GHBWNY]

Welcome! What's a punnet?

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Welcome! What's a punnet?

A punnet is a small box or basket...

"A small light basket or other container for fruit or vegetables.
"a punnet of strawberries" - dictionary quote.

 

[mikerlynch26]

Cool accident! I've heard of many small orchards who press and ferment their own cider make their own apple cider vinegar as well, might not hurt to keep one or two of those bottles around. I use apple cider vinegar for quick pickling red onions

 

[fall-apart-dave]

I have a friend who has already asked me for the bottles! So... Not a total failure!

 

[MindenMan]

One of the members of my Home Brew club is an organic chemist and we were talking a couple of weeks ago. He said his mentor told him, "There are Nobel Prize winning reactions thrown down the drain every single day." Just because the reaction that was expected didn't happen, that doesn't mean there wasn't a valuable reaction that just went down the drain. fall-apart-dave, just because what you made is desired by someone other than you doesn't mean it was a mistake. Now you have a solid recipe to make apple cider vinegar, which by the way is a very popular item at farmer's markets.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

It remains to be seen how good the vinegar will be though haha!

 

[bernardsmith]

My guess is that the vinegar will be good enough to drink (folk this side of the pond used to drink fruit infused vinegars until quite recently - check out the term "shrub". http://imbibemagazine.com/Homemade-Drinking-Vinegars/
And having a mother means that you can make vinegar from all kinds of alcohol (including beer: think malt vinegar) with great ease.

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Well... I shall leave it a wile longer in the bottle and then we shall see!

 

[Maylar]

A word of caution though - the bacteria that turns alcohol into vinegar (acetobacter) is tough to eliminate once it's in your brew room. Most people who make vinegar on purpose keep a separate set of equipment for it and keep it far away from their cider. Be sure to be very thorough with your cleaning and sanitizing procedures before starting a new batch, and be diligent about eliminating head space (no oxygen, no vinegar).

 

[fall-apart-dave]

Noted. Thank you