OK here it is finally, how to make sidra / cider after some teasing in a recent post about yeast, and one before that. Had to be sure how to do it. So now you can make your own apple booze at home, or any other fruit!
Makes u realize what cheap shit alcohol actually is. Low cost to produce. But at least its 100% natural ingredients.
Drink your fruits!
Dead easy, even if ur retarded. Easier & quicker than tuak too.
This recipe is based on 12 liters of juice.
1. Get the juice – recommended brand – Berri – which comes in 2.4 liter bottles. So get 5 bottles.
2. Stir in 1kg (one pack) of fine white sugar to some warm apple juice until its dissolved.
3. Pour this and the rest of d juice into a container (an air-tight one, that is, the fermenter).
4. Add in a tablespoon of pounded yeast n stir. Seal the container but create an air-lock.
5. Wait a couple of weeks.
6. Have a party. (& invite me)
Yeast can be bought at Chinese medicine stores. I get mine from Centerpoint, PJ. 6o cents a pop, which is equal to 2 tablespoons. It’s “sweet yeast for Chinese wine”. Aka chao peng.
Yeasts are our friends
The only part that requires a brain is the airlock. If u can buy one, good. Otherwise a crude one that works is a tube running from a created air-tight gap in the top of the air-tight container (the fermenter) into a bottle of water. Co2 produced by the yeast can exit the fermenter into the water via d tube, but O2 and outside air cant go back in. Easy.
Coz if too much air goes in, u could end up with vinegar.
The 'airlock' of the future
After two weeks, sample d shit everyday until it tastes good, and u can feel some alcohol. My last one was bottled at 18 days & tasted dam good.
My fermenter - phat. With airlock (top) & tap (right)
For the fermenter, i used a beer fermenter – a plastic barrel that holds about 25 liters. It comes with an airlock & tap. The other option is a polycarbonate water container, available at Tesco for about 40 bucks, and its perfect. Comes with an airtight cap. Capacity 15 liters.
Great as a fermenter
For that, you’ll need 6 bottles.
Raw booze. About 10 bucks for 2.4 liters
Just punch a tight-fitting hole in the rubber cap for the outlet tube / airlock. Seal any gap around the hole with some shit, like Blu Tack or silicone. It comes with a tap, so u can easily sample d shit.
Plan B
A quicker, low-quantity method is using a bottle instead of a barrel. All u need is..
A funnel & balloons
Pour any fruit juice that is preservative-free into a bottle – glass / plastic. Add like 8-10 spoons of sugar via the funnel & mix well. Add a quarter teaspoon of yeast & mix. Seal the bottle mouth with a balloon over it, and you’re practically done. Takes five minutes.
After a few days, the balloon will inflate. Good. It means the fuckin yeasts are doin their job. Use a needle to stab a hole – as tiny as possible. CO2 will escape slowly from d bottle, but no O2 will go in.
About 2 weeks later, u got booze. Filter the booze thru a strainer to strain out the yeast sediments & foam, then drink!
Trillions of yeasts workin their butts off, creating a whole lotta CO2 that races to the top (pix taken after 5 days)
I guess since bottles dont have taps, u cant really test. Its ok to remove the balloon occasionally to taste-test d brew, but do it too often, u might end up with fucking vinegar.
Collection of juices being fermented - mango, orange, mixed fruits
When the brew is ready, bottle them, preferably in plastic bottles to avoid glass bottles explosions, and close the cap air-tight.
Its basically ready-to-drink. Place in fridge so that the fermentation ends. Cold temperature makes yeast chillout n stop working. The brew might even go clear after a few days. But murky is fine!
If u’d like more fizz, pour into a plastic bottle, add a teaspoon or two of sugar and close the bottle cap. The yeast will feed on the sugar and release CO2. Coz the cap is sealed, the CO2 cant escape & will get absorbed into the drink, makin it fizzy. (Yeasts r freaks dat dont need oxygen to survive.) After a day to two, u can test, then place in fridge. I suggest u store & reuse the apple juice bottles, but rinse them before u store, or the little remaining juice makes the bottles go moldy inside after awhile.
Release some air if the bottle looks like its gonna pop.
So there will still be yeast in the sidra when u drink. Its fine. Good for health. B-complex & protein.
Plastic bottles are preferred if u plan to add more sugar at the end, and seal the cap for fizz, coz the pressure build-up in glass bottles can cause them to explode. Throw them at the cops i guess.
Hmm. Maybe for the next protest.
The most important thing to remember – hygiene. Everything has to be sanitized (washed with soap) just before u start. Your hands, the utensils, the bottles, the fucking balloons, the fermenter, the goddam caps. And no chemicals. Yeast can die on contact with soap, so make sure u rinse all d soap off. Everything has to be natural.
And no, u wont go blind, unless u add methanol to your brew.
More yeast = faster process. More sugar = more alcohol. More yeast AND more sugar? Try n lemme know.
There are lots of resources online, like this. Plan to make chocolate wine, but dont know yet where to get preservative-free chocolates.
Anyway, there it is! Fruit juice + sugar + yeast and u got it made.
If ur cheap-ass, sugary water + yeast does the job too!
Enjoy!
.
Looks like Scrumpy Jack! Used to love buying the home made cider from the farmers back in UK.
Yea. Its kinda raw, straight cider. The clear ones are the ones that have been left to sit for awhile
Good work! Next step build a still and make moonshine..
Also could try making ‘mead’ – that’s basically a honey wine, my mum used to make it and it was delicious. Could even use madu hutan for a malaysian twist.
Definitely.
Yea honey would be good. Am trying one now with palm sugar (gula melaka).
Richard, ask your mum for d recipe dude. We’ll do it
Where’s my share? =)
Erm, on d way! Gotta wait awhile. Yeasts are on it
hey. just a quick question… where did u get the beer fermenter?
Given to me man. Somebody got it overseas, Australia i think. The brand is Brigalow
damnnn, i’ll so try this out! 🙂
Great fuckin’ tips man….especially in a place where booze don’t come cheap.
DIY apple cider / alcohol.
That looks great.
I bet it even tastes better
Surprisingly, it does taste dam good, better than Strongbow i think. Haha
Strongbow aint even strong!
wow interesting.. love strongbow but its too freaking expensive… do u think it would work if i was to use 5L plastic bottles with a one way valve attached to it.. ( the kind u get at the aquarium shop ) by the way why did u get yr beer fermenter from ?
Hey I think dats a great idea. A one-way valve might function like an airlock.
The fermenter was given to me. Someone brought it from Australia
its call a one way valve or a check valve.. it let air or in this case co2 out but nothing back in… but i like yr airlock which gave me another idea.. there’s a also a bubble counter dat could also do the trick.. dude chk this and tell me wat ya think ?
TUAK!
Ingredients: Glutinous rice, round yeast, slice yeast.
Preparations:
Glutinous rice is cooked and left to cool in a ‘tapan’ or any flat utensils.
You need a ratio of 1:1 for the ingredients. Say, for every 5 kg of glutinous rice you will need 5 kg of round ‘ragi’ (yeast) (round ‘ball’ type) and 5 pieces of thin slice ragi (flat ‘disc’ type). (round ragi for bitterness, slice ragi for sweetness). The yeast are pounded into powder and then mixed with the cooked glutinous rice (after it left to cool)
This mixture is then left to ferment in any clean container (jar) for a week or so. Cool, boiled water plus sugar(syrup) is added to this
mixture. (10 kg sugar for 20 liters of water) Depending on your taste, your tuak is now ready. If you prefer you can wait another week.
but wats with the different types of yeast… u sure chao peng alone enough..? plus u mix the yeast with the rice and add water or mix 1st and add water later ? had superb green clean tuak in s’wak last year.. then kept some for a few month and the damn thing was really good.. heard they used pandan with the tuak..
Wow. Thanks for the alternative recipe. Thing is i’m not a tuak brewer. Will refer it to my friend Mary Jane instead.
Adding pandan? Haha! Should be good. Ginger is also common.
I think the one-way valve from fish pet stores is a good idea. Will get some. Tx!
Dude, can you please give me some direction to purchase the airlock?
Thnaks a million…
U can get it at any fish / aquarium shop. Its called a one-way valve, used in the O2 tubes
first time visitor here. great post, how come i never thought about airlock before LOL. aquarium hose + pail + water where are you ;). must change my aperture from traditional tempayan to the unused fermentation vessel inherited from grandpa.
p/s woahh that’s a lot of sugar there. at my place (sugar addition== fail) but that only applied for rice wine and moonshiner please separate the first few cups of alcohol dropping. there’s a few death cases here , montoku with metanol 🙂
Methanol?? Thats crazy man. Askin for trouble.
Yea, make use of them fermentation vessels man. Rugi tak pakai
Very interesting n i’m gonna go ahead and make one. One question tho, is there a difference in using brewer’s yeast and normal yeast?
Brewer’s yeast might not be able to stand high-alcohol, and die at 5%. These wine yeasts i use can take more shit. Check here – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yeast#Beer
Hey dude,
Where do you get the glass bottles to keep the brew?
Gab
Actually i dont use glass anymore, coz one exploded! Use plastic ones.
If u wanna use glass, only beer/champagne bottles are strong enough to withstand the pressure from the carbonation.
Hey Jerry,
5kg of yeast to 5kg of rice for tuak?? *faints* That’s way too much wei.. about 10 pieces of chao peng for 5kg of rice should be enough. Mix the yeast with the cooked rice first and let it ferment for a week. Then only add the sugar water and wait for another 2 weeks or month. Seive all sediments, let it settle. you might want to reseive a second time. Deep has the instructions somewhere in his blog go check it out.
Deep, I bought a fermenter for my beer which I’ll start on in a couple of days. Will let you know in 3 weeks or so how it turns out.
I’m experimenting again on the bottle cider and have capped it on the 3rd day so hopefully the fiz will stay. Will release the gas periodically as per your advice. So now I have to leave it capped for another 2 weeks before i can drink it?