Morgans Cider

[Goldcoast Crow]

Hey looking thru the local hB store and I noticed the Morgans cider kit, as I do like a cider in summer, was just wondering if anyone has brewed these and how do they turn out? Guessing it's pretty much similar to brewing a beer just follow the directions.

[Titan]

11 minutes ago, Goldcoast Crow said:

Hey looking thru the local hB store and I noticed the Morgans cider kit, as I do like a cider in summer, was just wondering if anyone has brewed these and how do they turn out? Guessing it's pretty much similar to brewing a beer just follow the directions.

I have done 1 cider kit, cant remember who made it. Was dry as an Arabs sandle. Back sweetened with apple juice in a keg at 2c. Not sure how to do this for bottles. Maybe add lactose with the fermentables?

[Instigator]

You have the craft fermenter, yeah?

I have been making this cider for my missus:

5x 2L Woolworths apple juice (cost 5x $2). 1L water (so total volume 11L). 50g Lactose. 1x pack Mangrove Jacks M07 yeast. Some carb drops and bottle caps. Makes 28x 375mL stubbies at roughly 5.8%ABV. Comes out a bit dry and low on apple flavour. Total cost way less than $20. I reuse the yeast, so could easily be kept very close to the cost of the juice.

She adds a shot of the apple juice to the glass then pours cider on top. She loves it.

Edited May 19, 2020 by Instigator

[Norris!]

Mangrove Jacks makes great cider pouches. They are about $40, with dextrose give or take a few dollars, but you get top notch cider.

You can control the flavour by either adding all the flavour pouch or just a portion of it to make it sweeter or drier. If you want good cider pretty much guaranteed, I would get one of those. Oh, they have a ton of different flavours. Coopers need to step their game up in the cider area.

 

[ben 10]

15 hours ago, Norris! said:

Mangrove Jacks makes great cider pouches.

Yes, very good stuff

[Graculus]

16 hours ago, Instigator said:

You have the craft fermenter, yeah?

I have been making this cider for my missus:

5x 2L Woolworths apple juice (cost 5x $2). 1L water (so total volume 11L). 50g Lactose. 1x pack Mangrove Jacks M07 yeast. Some carb drops and bottle caps. Makes 28x 375mL stubbies at roughly 5.8%ABV. Comes out a bit dry and low on apple flavour. Total cost way less than $20. I reuse the yeast, so could easily be kept very close to the cost of the juice.

She adds a shot of the apple juice to the glass then pours cider on top. She loves it.

I've never used and can't recall seeing Morgans Cider kits.
But if you've only got the small craft fermenter maybe try supermarket AJ first.
Don't even think about using the Brigalow one that Big W sell!

I've made some similar to this using Aldi AJ. For one thing I found they came out with a better flavour using ale yeast.
When I used cider yeast the flavour just wasn't there.
About the shot of Apple Juice when pouring. I think this is a good shout. It definitely needs some added flavour.
Someone on here mentioned they added Bickfords Cloudy Apple cordial to the glass before pouring.
Only in the last week I've found somewhere local that sells it and plan to pick some up this week.
If you want some contact Bickfords and they'll let you know a local stockist.
I've tried adding cordial & fresh lemons in the FV. That didn't do much.

The Mangrove Jack one is good, although to me still lacks a bit of flavour. I like my cider as dry as dry can be so I don't add any of the supplied sweetener.
I got the local bloke I get my homebrew stuff from to order some in. He now says it's a good seller, so I get a bit of a discount.
I've got both my FV's empty at the moment. I'll be driving by a different HB store later in the week,
and I plan to pick up a Black Rock Cider that someone recommended. I'll put them both on at the weekend. Then do a taste test.
Although, just googled the Black Rock cider and the reviews aren't great.

 

Edited May 19, 2020 by Graculus

[Graculus]

I purchased a Morgans Cider kit tonight on the way home.
I also have a Mangrove Jacks one I bought as a bit of a "panic buy" in case we went into lockdown the other week.

I'll put them both on this weekend. Then I can have a pretty good comparison taste test.

[Goldcoast Crow]

1 hour ago, Graculus said:

I purchased a Morgans Cider kit tonight on the way home.
I also have a Mangrove Jacks one I bought as a bit of a "panic buy" in case we went into lockdown the other week.

I'll put them both on this weekend. Then I can have a pretty good comparison taste test.

I look forward to reading the results

 

[Goldcoast Crow]

On 5/21/2020 at 10:05 PM, Graculus said:

I purchased a Morgans Cider kit tonight on the way home.
I also have a Mangrove Jacks one I bought as a bit of a "panic buy" in case we went into lockdown the other week.

I'll put them both on this weekend. Then I can have a pretty good comparison taste test.

How did the cider testing turn out..... It's next in my hit list!!

[Graculus]

6 minutes ago, Goldcoast Crow said:

How did the cider testing turn out..... It's next in my hit list!!

Oh Sorry. I forgot to post about it.

Basically I'd spend the extra and do the Mangrove Jack one.
Definitely more flavour to it.

I'll try and find time to write a bit more during the week.

[Goldcoast Crow]

On 5/19/2020 at 5:15 PM, Instigator said:

You have the craft fermenter, yeah?

I have been making this cider for my missus:

5x 2L Woolworths apple juice (cost 5x $2). 1L water (so total volume 11L). 50g Lactose. 1x pack Mangrove Jacks M07 yeast. Some carb drops and bottle caps. Makes 28x 375mL stubbies at roughly 5.8%ABV. Comes out a bit dry and low on apple flavour. Total cost way less than $20. I reuse the yeast, so could easily be kept very close to the cost of the juice.

She adds a shot of the apple juice to the glass then pours cider on top. She loves it.

Ok so this is my next go,  a few questions,

when you say Lactose what is it and is this some thing I can buy from the LHBS?

the MJ M07 yeast, do you need to buy the kit to use this or can I generally get it separately?

do you mix and ferment this the same way that I would do a beer, or is there different gravitates to look for?

[Smashed Crabs]

28 minutes ago, Goldcoast Crow said:

Ok so this is my next go,  a few questions,

when you say Lactose what is it and is this some thing I can buy from the LHBS?

Lactose is a non fermentable milk sugar. Great little addition if you are aiming for a sweeter cider without having to back sweeten to much or at all.

You should be able to get it from most LHBS usually sold in 500g - 1kg bags.

Even if you get a bag to only use 50g you can use it heaps of styles. Probably my most popular beer people have tried was a milk shake IPA made with lactose.

Worth a try for sure.

 

[Instigator]

On 8/3/2020 at 10:14 PM, Goldcoast Crow said:

the MJ M07 yeast, do you need to buy the kit to use this or can I generally get it separately?

do you mix and ferment this the same way that I would do a beer, or is there different gravitates to look for?

I picked up the yeast at my LHBS. It was what they had. You could probably use any cider yeast successfully.

And yep, just mix it up the same. Literally pour the juice, water and lactose in. Throw dry yeast on top. My OG is usually 1.042, FG 1.000.

[Goldcoast Crow]

For my first batch of cider I used the above mentioned apple juice and lactose method, made a solid cider and I did one with black currant, next time round I was thinking of getting a flavouring like passion fruit, would I add this at the start middle or end of the ferment? 

[Goldcoast Crow]

And I'm guessing the more lactose the sweeter it will be? 

[Goldcoast Crow]

I've just got my mo2 Yeast, also grabbed some strawberry flavouring to experiment with.... I am going to do 10ltrs of apple, 10ltrs of pear in 2 separate fvs, then am thinking of bottling 5 ltrs of an apple pear mix, apple strawberry mix, pear strawberry mix and the final 5 ltrs apple pear strawberry mix..... Will this work as I would be mixing before bottle ferment stage, but after fv fermentation??? 

[Graculus]

18 hours ago, Goldcoast Crow said:

I've just got my mo2 Yeast, also grabbed some strawberry flavouring to experiment with.... I am going to do 10ltrs of apple, 10ltrs of pear in 2 separate fvs, then am thinking of bottling 5 ltrs of an apple pear mix, apple strawberry mix, pear strawberry mix and the final 5 ltrs apple pear strawberry mix..... Will this work as I would be mixing before bottle ferment stage, but after fv fermentation??? 

What flavouring are you using? I see MJ are selling flavouring to add to their cider.

I also found, by accident that I got a bit better flavour from supermarket AJ from using ale yeast, rather then cider or wine yeast.

To be honest I've tried three different kits now. MJ, Blackrock and Morgans.
Before that I was making cider with supermarket apple juice.

To me none of them really taste like cider.

Someone on here (Bribie?) said to add  Bickfords cloudy apple cordial when pouring.
After eventually tracking some down I tried it. A bit too sweet for me.
That was until I made the Blackrock. The cider itself is very bland. But adding the cordial to it makes it not too bad. Still not cider as far as I'm concerned.

I was up Southern Mans house the other week. He'd made a cider. We weren't over impressed with that either.
I can't remember what brand he'd made. I've got a couple of bottles of cider sat on my desk to take up to him so he can sample that.
That's if he's game after I left him with a bottle of my Imperial Russian Stout to try.

To be honest I'm thinking of giving up on cider.
This morning I made a Cerveza with lemon drop hops. First time I've used lemon drop. I hope its' going to be good.
Maybe this will replace the cider as my sat around the pool in the hot sun drink.

Edited February 9, 2021 by Graculus

[Malter White]

1 hour ago, Graculus said:

To be honest I'm thinking of giving up on cider.

I have given up on them.  I don't drink cider usually. I was making it for the bride. Three attempts with three different kits and using different adjuncts and she didn't like any of them.
I decided I'm better off not having my bottles tied up in a beverage that is remaining dormant in the cupboard and will buy her a slab of commercial brand cider when required. She doesn't drink often anyway.

[Graculus]

2 minutes ago, MUZZY said:

I have given up on them.  I don't drink cider usually. I was making it for the bride. Three attempts with three different kits and using different adjuncts and she didn't like any of them.
I decided I'm better off not having my bottles tied up in a beverage that is remaining dormant in the cupboard and will buy her a slab of commercial brand cider when required. She doesn't drink often anyway.

Having the bottles tied up doesn't worry me. I've got loads and a place to store them.

I'm originally from the West of England. We know a bit about cider.
And the bland flavours I'm getting from the kits is not cider.

[Malter White]

1 minute ago, Graculus said:

I'm originally from the West of England. We know a bit about cider.
And the bland flavours I'm getting from the kits is not cider.

My wife likes Strongbow. I'm not sure if it's west of England but I'm pretty sure it originates from England. The first attempt I used dextrose and she said it tasted like beer. The second time I thought I'll use table sugar because a lot of beer brewers on here said table sugar makes beer taste cidery. I figured it should make cider taste cidery then. It didn't.

[Graculus]

Just now, MUZZY said:

My wife likes Strongbow. I'm not sure if it's west of England but I'm pretty sure it originates from England. The first attempt I used dextrose and she said it tasted like beer. The second time I thought I'll use table sugar because a lot of beer brewers on here said table sugar makes beer taste cidery. I figured it should make cider taste cidery then. It didn't.

If I could make something like strongbow I'd be happy.

Where I grew up there were loads of farms / orchards.
You could go for a drive in the country. Stop at a farm, pick a pound of apples and fill up a demijohn with cider.
The cider was still, cloudy and had loads of bits floating in it. Bloody Lovely.
Then Margaret Thatcher spoiled it when the government changed the tax on it.

[Malter White]

1 minute ago, Graculus said:

If I could make something like strongbow I'd be happy.

Where I grew up there were loads of farms / orchards.
You could go for a drive in the country. Stop at a farm, pick a pound of apples and fill up a demijohn with cider.
The cider was still, cloudy and had loads of bits floating in it. Bloody Lovely.
Then Margaret Thatcher spoiled it when the government changed the tax on it.

Bloody Tories!

[Goldcoast Crow]

I have used woollies aj in the past, will try the same this time but also try the pear juice.... It was mangrove jacks flavouring I think, or Morgan's, I am goj g to double the lactose to try and sweeten it a bit more this time around.... I didnt mind the flavour but it was no Adelaide Hills cider..... 

As for the mixing after the initial first ferment, will this effect it at all so long as the fermentation is fully complete?

 

[Graculus]

On 2/9/2021 at 2:21 PM, Goldcoast Crow said:

I have used woollies aj in the past, will try the same this time but also try the pear juice.... It was mangrove jacks flavouring I think, or Morgan's, I am goj g to double the lactose to try and sweeten it a bit more this time around.... I didnt mind the flavour but it was no Adelaide Hills cider..... 

As for the mixing after the initial first ferment, will this effect it at all so long as the fermentation is fully complete?

 

Yes add it after fermentation. At bottling stage. Easy if you're doing bulk prime.

I think it's Morgans as MJ do different flavour kits and as far as I know don't sell the flavours separately.

I was using the Aldi AJ. I was told it was made by Berri (I think) or a well know brand anyhow.
Also there were boxes of six on the shelf so easy to wander in and just grab a box.
Bonus was I was picking it up while working too.