2026-06-17 || Tags: brewing recipe
I got this recipe from the fantastic Al Potino from Hooley Homebrew. If you haven't seen his/their Instagram, it's worth checking out. Super simple recipes to show how actually easy it is to get... good enough ferments.
The recipe itself is called Mitsy Turbo Cider (unsure of the spelling).
Something to note here is that, the way I have done this, with the champagne yeast, it will ferment out very dry. Don't follow this recipe if you like sweet ciders.
I won't detail the sterilisation steps. Just note that anything the juice or cider touches needs to be cleaned and sterilised.
The fermentation is ridiculously fast, it was honestly done within a week. This is normal for the recipe as I understand, but you don't want it fermenting any faster than that (see my second attempt for this going wrong).
* There are many ways to move your fermented liquid into bottles. Easiest is to pour it in, this very likely will unsettle the yeast and introduce oxygen. Neither are good things. A better option, is to use a syphon with a bottle wand if you have one.
This is a fantastic "first" recipe. It's easy, the equipment & ingredients will cost you maybe 30GBP (half of which will be re-usable for your next ferment!) and you get some definitely good enough cider.
The end result turned out better than I had even hoped. As mentioned, it is very much traditional old man farm-style cider and it is absolutely bone dry, but it was delicious!
I did this recipe twice at once:
The different between the first and second was moderate. The biggest difference was the yeast-y flavour between 1 and 2. As mentioned above, I'm quite sure that this is just the difference between my racking methods. That's not to say 2 didn't have a yeast flavour - it did.
Once I finish drinking my cider, I am going to try partially cold crashing after the first stage ferment so that more yeast comes out of suspension and goes to the bottom, thereby making it easier to avoid when transferring to my bottles.
If the cold crashing were to go perfectly, then there will be no yeast left for the secondary stage fermentation, but I doubt that any rudimentary attempt I make will work overly well.
Probably not for the next attempt, but once I feel more comfortable with the recipe and get it relatively consistent, I'm going to try using "fancier" cider. This will make a difference, I'm not sure how drastic it will be until I figure out how to reduce the yeast-y flavours though.
Once I figure out where the CO2 leak is in my kegging system... this'll be the first thing I try to carbonate.
I could leave the bottles completely undisturbed in the fridge once completely finished. This would allow for the yeast to settle. Then, when pouring, just make sure to pour carefully and leave said yeast sediment at the bottom.
I will try this for the last couple of bottles any way just by virtue of them being in the fridge for a week more than the others I drank.