Help on Fresh Orange Juice Cider

Sambo_Rambo

I have started a batch of Cider (or what im trying to make) of my own recipe and dont know how it will turn out so just looking for some info if anybody has done this before.

Ingredients

• 2kg of Sugar
• 1 Litre of pure orange juice
• Topped up to 5 gallons water
• Added 5g pack of yeast
• Going to add another kilo of sugar at the end of fermentation for taste

That's all i did and dont really know whats going to happen?

Any thoughts?

 

Will let everybody know what its like when its finished.

 

Thanks

Sam

HBO_Staff

Well that certainly is unusual Sam we must say, so the results will be interesting and we'd love to hear how it turns out! If you have a hydrometer to hand it might be interesting to take a reading at the start and then a reading before you bottle to give an idea of alcohol content. Depending on how you feel you could always adjust the taste to your preference by using a sweetener instead of sugar is just a thought at the final stage. We have had a little look into orange brews and they tend to describe them as orange wine - based roughly on 12 oranges, 1.5 to 2kgs of sugar, 4.5 litres of water, and then use yeast nutrient and pectic enzyme at the yeast stage. We notice that they are more of a closer ratio of orange to water - if you used 1 litre of orange juice to 5 gallons (around 22.5 litres) of water, it could potentially end up being very diluted, we've not done it so it's just worth considering and bearing in mind! Good luck

Sambo_Rambo

I havent got a hydrometer at the moment, it was being washed and broke , the plan was to wait until the airlock had stopped bubbling and wait around 24 hrs just in case, but would it be a good idea to add another litre of O.J to prevent the dilution or would this affect the fermentation.

HBO_Staff

You're plan with fermenting should be OK, just make sure all bubbles have stopped rising out of the brew and leave for another day like you said, and it will be about done. If it hasn't been started long ago you will probably be alright to add more orange juice, but as it is trial and error you could just see how it turns out. The yeast is normally sufficient to treat 23 litres so you don't want to over-dilute that too much either. If it has just started we think we would put a bit more orange juice in, to make sure it had a good orange taste to the end result