The Milton Show South Coast Home Brew Beer and Amateur Wine Show is only eight weeks away and there is still time to enter a brew.
Anyone can enter including beginners who have never entered before. A novice entry award will be given.
Here are some tips from the judges on how to get a good brew going.
Make sure all equipment is clean and sanitized.
1. Purchase some eating apples. You will need about eight kilograms for each four and a half litres of cider.
2. Wash apples and cut into small pieces. These can then be put into a juicer or blender. The juice is then put into a sanitized bucket and the pulp is pressed to extract more juice.
3. The juice, after being strained to remove any solids is put into a fermentation bucket.
4. For every four and a half litres of juice add one campden tablet. This kills off any bacteria that may be present in the apples or on the skins, also. For every four point five litres of juice, add one teaspoon of yeast nutrient, and one teaspoon of Pectinex. This will stop cider going cloudy.
5. Leave for one day to allow Campden Tablet to work. If you put in the yeast starter to soon the Campden Tablet could stop the yeast working.
6. Use a hydrometer and measure the specific gravity of the juice. This will tell you how much sugar is in the juice and how much alcohol your juice will produce. If the alcohol is going to be too low add some sugar.
7. Make a yeast starter using a sterilized tumbler, add one teaspoon of sugar and boiling water, dissolve the sugar and let cool to room temp. Add a pinch of yeast nutrient and yeast, either general purpose wine yeast or cider yeast. Cover tumbler with cling- wrap. Leave until yeast is working which should take three to four hours at room temp.
Add the yeast starter to the juice in the fermenter bucket, stir, put lid on and leave for four days.
After four days siphon the juice into a sterilized fermenting vessel and fill to neck to have less air space.
Fit air-lock.
Leave until fermentation finishes and there is sediment on the bottom. The cider should be clear. This could take a few weeks.
Prime each 750ml bottle with one teaspoon of sugar. This will produce a fizzy cider. Wait a couple of weeks for bottles to carbonate.
Use Plastic brew bottles as glass bottles are dangerous and may explode if too much priming sugar is used or cider is bottled too early and fermentation has not finished.
Store your cider in a cool place for one month and it is then ready for testing.
The beer wine and cider event will be presented by the Milton Show.
Judging will take place on Friday, March 4 and Saturday, March 5, 2016 at the Milton Showground.
Entry information will be advertised in late January.
