Making cider from cartons of apple juice

A good few years ago I made some cider from cartons of apple juice. However,  I cannot remember the process and do’s/ dont’s.

I remember boiling the juice, demijohn’s and using champagne yeast but that’s it.

Any tips please? 

Any tips please?

Google turbo cider

Turbo cider.

Gets you pissed, quick.

Its an expensive way of drinking rough cider ..

I think it will require around 1-2lb sugar per gallon of juice .. a hydrometer to tell you when its fermented sufficiently to bottle without risk of exploding bottles; and the obligatory strong stomach to drink it.

Four parts apple juice, one part vodka, ready to drink in seconds. (-:

Hmm, maybe youth clouded my vision of what I was drinking and made it seem better than it was.

Think I’ll pass then and do a spray malt beer brew instead.

Just put the juice in a clean fermentation vessel and add a bit of yeast and leave it until you get no more bubbles, no need to boil the juice unless you want it to taste even nastier than it’s going to anyway

I can see some attraction in pressing your own apples and trying to make cider but from cartons of apple juice? Just going by Tesco prices their shit apple juice is 80p a litre and their shit cider is £1 a litre so I don’t know why you’d bother.

If you just lick the mould off mouldy citrus fruit, it will get you off your face. Much easier than trying to brew alcohol.

Just buy a zeppelin of Frosty Jacks. Job done.

I’m more interested in making water into wine. I read about some hippy dude doing it years ago, sounds cool

I think it will require around 1-2lb sugar per gallon of juice

That will make apple wine.

And as rough as your guts will be after the Frosty Jack, they will be a lot better than if youd drank homebrew cider.

ransos

Free Member

I think it will require around 1-2lb sugar per gallon of juice

That will make apple wine

I assumed he wanted to make the homebrew the proper way ..

I assumed he wanted to make the homebrew the proper way ..

I think that ship sailed with the cartons of juice!

I’m guessing from the concensus of replies that it’s not possible to create anything decent from shop bought juice.

As I don’t like getting drunk, this doesn’t appear to be the right avenue for a bit of winter home brew creativity!

Stout is a good homebrew project.

Less likely to rot your guts too – well, to the same degree anyway.

I think there’s something about throwing a dead rat in.

I make homebrew cider this way.

Apple juice (4l or so if you have 5l demijohns). It’s pasteurised so no need to boil.  Make sure there are no preservatives in it.

No need for extra sugar, it’ll get to about 5% on its own.

Champagne yeast is a fairly foolproof option, it’ll make a very dry cider.  You can also add yeast nutrients but TBH it should be fine without.

Add a couple of tea bags to the mix. (The tannins in cider apples are what stops cider tasting like alcoholic apple juice).

The demijohn needs to be CLEAN. If you don’t have starsan homebrew sanitizer then just do it with bleach and rinse thoroughly, the only difference is starsan is tasteless.

Cover the top of the demijohn with tinfoil and hold in place with and elastic band, it does just as good a job as an airlock.

If it doesn’t start fermenting fairly quickly in 12-48h there should be lots of bubbles rising, it’ll ferment quickly so may well be done in 72-96h. If not add more yeast and check there weren’t preservatives in the juice.

Make a few batches and chuck some other fruits in with it (boil them in the microwave to mulch them and kill off any bacteria). It’ll ferment out and leave the resulting drink much dryer / more sour / grownup than the fruity stuff you get in the pub.  Or to make life easier, have a look in a polish supermarket for those fruit syrup / cordials.

My favourite was a batch I made on the yeast cake from an elderflower champagne, it gave it a lovely refreshing hint.  You could probably do the same with some cordial too.

Bottle it in 2l pop bottles with a heaped teaspoon of sugar per 500ml to carbonate.

I’ve made it before, as above it’ll get to about 5% with the natural sugars in the juice. Be aware though that as it’s turns most of the sugar to alcohol the result is really reeeeeally sharp – it’s like apple juice made from cooking apples, cheek-puckery-tastic

I tried it for a laugh a good few years ago. The results were alcoholic, but not what I’d call an enjoyable drink.