BEVS

Anyone out there doing these home brew kits at all?

Husband has tried a lager one - which failed. A bitter one - which failed & I'm now helping him monitor a cider one in case that fails. This means my boning up on the process & explaining this to him verbally as he may be missing some of the info being dyslexic.

The cider mix has been in my airing cupboard for several weeks. My linen is in the bottom of my wardrobe. It was bubbling but has now stopped for quite a while. He didn't take a specific gravity reading at the start coz the instructions didn't state to do that. The reading is at 1000. The cider is cloudy. He says it is watery but it does smell of cider.

Anyone know if this is OK & if so , what next. I assume we take another reading in a couple of days to see if it is the same & if so do we bottle and add suger to the bottles .

Where do we store said possible exploding bottles. I gather some of the bitter bottles were rather lively when he opened to pour the contents away.

How does the cider become clear.

So many questions for this possible new hobby of his.

simonmarkellis

Get some beer finings and add that to the mixx for two days. After that add priming sugar to your bottles and bottle the cider. Best to wait about 4 weeks to let the carbonation build up before drinking... I also found putting the cider in the fridge a day or so before drinking it help the sediment fall to the bottom in the bottle. With a 750ml bottle the first glass i found to be pretty clear, with the remainder of the bottle being a little cloudy. Mine tasted okay but i thought it lacked a little apple strength in flavour.

Stormer999

Scrumpy isn't usually clear...don't drink with your eyes and treat it like German wheat beer........

Pollyana

Agreed, proper scrumpy surprises new drinkers by being so cloudy I think. I've got some bottles of homebrew cider that a friend has given me and he's worried it might not be fizzy enough and looks cloudy - but then he's not usually a cider drinker; I reckon it looks fine

Stormer999

Abslolutely......get it in yer.....

mickey_d

Don't drink it cloudy or you may find you're spending a lot more time in the bathroom than usual
Do as Simonmarkellis said.
Personally I think you may have left it too long, it should be ready for bottling after a week or so, especially at this time of the year, but give it a go. You usually bottle-up a couple of days after the bubbles stop
What sort of temperature are you keeping it at during the fermentation? should be around 22 degrees (no more than 25 degrees & not less than 20). Use a heater belt around the fermenting bin if it's too cold.
What went wrong with the bitter & lager?

BEVS

Just had another look and it's at 20. We think this is an average in me airing cupboard.

With the bitter which was the first attempt ( not lager)

The colour was all nice and colour. It poured out like it would be a nice beer. But the taste was a very strong bittery taste. Not a pleasant taste. Lost the head very quickly.

If he had been served it in a pub he would have said it was flat and simply not tasting nice.

2nd attempt - Dark beer ( not bitter)

That was extremely lively when the bottles were opened but again it looked OK . It Had a very similar taste to the bitter. Just not nice. I wanted to use this in this post but Mr BEVS says he wouldn't have gone that far. But there again he wouldn't have gone that far to drink much of it either.

BEVS

He says that it smells like it's cider. It is weak watery apple juice type thing.


Erm. What are beer finings?

simonmarkellis

There a gelatine based powder you get from brewing supplies. You just empty the contents into the fermenter and they basically force the sediment to the bottom reducing the amount that goes into the bottle helping to have clearer beer. Only a couple of dollars a sachet...

Alfresco

My home brew - drinkable after 3 days (after bottling) with no bitter taste and carbonated with a great beer head:-

1 x Coopers Mexican Cerveza can.

1 x Brigalow Extra Malt 1kg brewing sugar (or none for low alc)

Ferment for 4-5 days. 5 days is perfect. (don't need readings)

After 5 days, you MUST use beer finings (beer clearing agent). 2 x sachets in 500ml just boiled water. Pour and mix into the beer with a good stir, just before bottling.

Add Coopers carbonation drops (1 per 375ml) to each bottle before bottling. I use 2.125L sodawater bottles and put 5 sugar drops in each.

I have experimented. If you don't put the beer finings in, then you have to wait 2-3 weeks after bottling for secondary carbonation to work and give good fizz, and then have drinkle beer or cider.

Charismatic

Gather apples (2lb per pint-ish).
Pulp/crush juice from apples.
Sit in container with an air lock on it (U-bent but of PVC silicone sealed into the lid and filled with water is perfect) until it stops bubbling.

As mentioned cool place out of direct sunlight to clear it if you prefer it like that.

I warn you though, a good scrumpy is meaner than a bag of badgers the next morning .