[Review] Craft Range Raspberry & Lime Cider Kit

[Jacob]

Thanks to generosity of Home Brew West I received one of their new 'Craft Range Raspberry & Lime Cider Kit' for a review.



The kit contains the following ingredients:

•    2.4kg Raspberry & Lime Concentrate


•   1kg Brewing Sugar


•   Cider sweetener
•   Raspberry & lime flavouring
•   Cider yeast and nutrients
•   Instruction leaflet


Instructions are very clear and simple to follow.
Not much equipment needed.
Fermenter fitted with airlock, measuring jug and a large spoon or paddle.
Would also recommend thermometer & hydrometer but in fact those are not mandatory.

To a sanitized fermenter concentrate & sugar were added.


All was topped up to 23l with cold tap water and stirred vigorously to dissolve the sugar and also to aerate it.
Gravity was checked and in this case was 1.044, which should produce a cider around the 5.8% mark.
Yeast were sprinkled on top and lid attached.



Kit fermented like proper cider producing lots of sulfur during the first few days

Cider was transferred to secondary after a week and have to say that was surprised.
Sulfur was gone and cider was nearly crystal clear.

Because of my holidays cider stayed on secondary for 3 weeks.
Long secondary coloured my fermenter slightly so my guess is that some food colouring was added to the kit.

Finally cider was sweetened using included sweetener, kegged and bottled.
Got one cornie and 9x500ml bottles of it. Final gravity was 1.002.

Here's how the final product looks like:


As you can see, it's quite clear


I'm happy with that cider. Because I've used all the sweetener it's quite sweet but not too sweet.
Raspberry is very noticeable both on the nose and taste. Not getting much of a lime
Overall, got a nice refreshing really drinkable cider which is very easy to make!!!

Free samples will be given in RDS on the Irish Craft Beer Festival in September.

[irish_goat]

Sounds good, look forward to having a taste.

[Drzava]

Made this up recently. OG 1.048. FG 1.002 after 15 days. Used two thirds of the sweetener sachet which has resulted in a nicely tart drink. Two months in the bottle now. Flavour is decent - however I find that the artificial flavouring hasn't fully blended with the cider and tastes slightly 'separate' (but not bad). This may actually be better without the flavouring sachet as it's a nice cider anyway! Needs time in the bottle - had a strong sulphur aroma (but not taste) which is only lessening now.