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8:55 am
3rd Grader
New members
Thu 2-Sep-10
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Ooops!
Left some apple juice, strained from cookers, used in jelly, in an old plastic wine bottle (you know the kind, that comes from the 'orange' supermarket!)...
When I came to take the cap off, the pressure nearly took my fingers with it!
The thing is..... It seems to be morph'ing into scrumpy!!
It smells & tastes of a rough cider!
Nothing's been added.... Any thoughts?
8:20 pm
Councillor
Wed 30-Dec-09
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Hi Pete,
it does sound like you've made an old fashioned cider 
The traditional 'country' way of making a lot of alcoholic drinks was to use natural yeasts which are present in the air but personally I wouldn't recommend it as a regular way of doing it - the results can be a bit hit or miss. If there's no 'off' taste and it appears to be alcoholic then it may be ok to drink but I'd be a bit cautious at first.
Other people have done it and survived...
Making cider is dead easy and good fun - well the end result is anyway 
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9:25 pm
Improver
Tue 1-Sep-09
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Re-awakening this thread if I may.
I'm in the process of making a second batch of cider from my Mum's next door neighbour's seemingly never-ending supply of crab apples. We simply chopped them up and chucked them into the fermenting buckets, cover them with water and left for a while adding sugar a little time later. We ended up with a lot of cider and in total bottled around eight gallons. We still have four gallons sitting in the bucket well overdue for bottling but I have no bottles left and am too tight to buy some from the local brewing shop. My mates either drink wine (bottles may not take the pressure me thinks) or beer from cans (heathens), so is it safe to leave the brew in the bucket and drink it straight from there? Decanting into glasses first of course, bucket still too heavy to lift and drink out of for now.
Well, that didn't go quite as expected
11:28 pm
Councillor
Wed 30-Dec-09
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Buy a load of supermarket cheap-brand fizzy water (under 20p for 2 litres), drink it, then put the cider in the bottles. That's what I do and the bottles can take the pressure. I think you can get crappy supermarket lemonade even cheaper but it depends on whether you want to drink the contents or pour it down the sink 
I guess as long as the cider doesn't start to oxidize and smell/taste vinegary, it should be ok in the bucket for a while at least.
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10:58 pm
Improver
Tue 1-Sep-09
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Should have done that but instead found my old pressure barrel from my early beer making days so I put the bucket contents into it. Ended up with four gallons of cider vinegar.
Any recipe ideas involving cider vinegar?
Well, that didn't go quite as expected
10:02 pm
3rd Grader
New members
Mon 7-Feb-11
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Tim said:
Should have done that but instead found my old pressure barrel from my early beer making days so I put the bucket contents into it. Ended up with four gallons of cider vinegar.
Any recipe ideas involving cider vinegar?
Use it to pickle shallots. Add a little sugar to taste to sweeten them slightly.
Admittedly you'll get a lot of pickled shallots with four gallons of vinegar.
11:04 pm
Improver
Tue 1-Sep-09
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Excellent idea thank you I'll send the trouble-and down to the market on saturday
Cheers and welcome
Well, that didn't go quite as expected
12:04 am
3rd Grader
New members
Mon 7-Feb-11
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You're very welcome.
I don't see any reason why you shouldn't use it for beetroot, red cabbage or even pickled eggs. I wouldn't add any sugar to the vinegar with these three though.
I'd be interested to hear how you get on Tim and thanks for the welcome. 
2:02 pm
Moderators
Tue 22-Sep-09
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Hey Damian, you slipped in under the wire there - didn't see you until today. So I shall oficially welcome you to the forum - good to see you posting things already.
I'll try that again!
2:22 pm
Supreme Being
New members
Sun 30-Jan-11
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Oh hello Damian, from a former Northamptonshire exile! 
learning to love veg…..except celery :-O
8:19 pm
Councillor
Wed 30-Dec-09
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I guess if the vinegar tastes nice and err, vinegary, then it should be ok for pickled eggs. I usually dilute spirit vinegar 50:50 with water and add a decent amount of salt before putting the eggs in, otherwise pickled flavour can get a bit strong. With the cider vinegar you might not need to dilute it.
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6:18 pm
Councillor
New members
Thu 7-Jan-10
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1:14 pm
3rd Grader
New members
Mon 7-Feb-11
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Toffeeapple said:
Hey Damian, you slipped in under the wire there - didn't see you until today. So I shall oficially welcome you to the forum - good to see you posting things already.
Sooliz said:
Oh hello Damian, from a former Northamptonshire exile!
Thanks folks. It's nice to be here.
I've been popping into the site and picking up tips and ideas for some while now so I decided it was about time to sign up and share what little wisdom I have, (shouldn't take long)
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