Cider on a larger scale

With nothing on active brew and everything either aging or carbonating I was after something to do. I stopped off at Aldi and picked up the necessary and decided to do a batch using the brew bucket in stead of a demijohn

Equipment

25 ltr brew bucket fitted with air lock (mine is also fitted with a submersible fish tank heater as my brew goes in the garage)
hydrometer 
sterilizing kit 

you will also need bottles. I reuse 500 ml plastic screw top bottles that can be found in any home brew shop (technically you could use fuzzy drinks bottles they are the almost the same thing but don't quote me on that)

Ingredient 
12 x 1 ltr Aldi apple juice (59p each)
3 x 1 ltr Aldi Cranberry and Raspberry Juice (59p each)
5 lemons (juiced approx 100ml) (99p)
Pectolase (£1 from wilco you will probably have half left)
yeast nutrient (£1 from Wilco you will probably have half left)
wine yeast (i like dry cider and wine yeast can handle higher alcohol so will ferment out all of the sugars) (£2.50 from wilcoyou will probably have half left)
1 lrt relay strong tea (I make it with 4 bags and leave it untill its cool before removing the bags) (already had some)

Not including the equipment (I already have that), teabags (I had those) or water (just turned on the tap)  and this batch cost me 

£8.95 in juice
99p in lemons
£4.50 in stuff from wilco (although i already had all of this left over from previous brews)

total £14.44

I recon ill get at least 40 - 45 bottles which makes it  between 32p and 36p a bottle. result 


What to do

sterilize brewing kit
add 4 teaspoons of pectolase and yeast nutrients to the bucket. 
add lemon juice, Tea (no bags please) and all the juice to the brew bucket 

take reading. 

add water until initial reading is at the initial gravity you want (you may want to put the brew where it will ferment before adding the water, 23 ltr is a bit tricky to move with out spilling)

I had to add 7 - 8 ltr to get the initial gravity to 1.036. 

I then set my heater to 24 C and lid. I like to leave it for a few hours to warm up before adding the yeast so the yeast can get to work easier.

add 4 tsp wine yeast

lid and leave. I'll check it is fermenting tomorrow and then every few days until it stops bubbling and then decide what to do (probably leave it a few more weeks to clear)

I'll update when its time to rack it. (pour it into a clean bucket) and secondary ferment (ready for bottling)


Readings

Initial reading 1.036

How I work out the approx. alcohol %

I work on the basis that the final gravity will be 1. to work out approx. volume take final gravity away from initial gravity and multiply by 131

in this batch the formula would be 
 (1.036 - 1) x 131 = 4.7

meaning the cider will be approx 4.7%. 

I have had some brews finish at 1.002 ( this would be approx. 4.4%) and some at 0.998 (this would be approx. 5%).

I tend to use this a a guide to make sure that my brew isnt going to turn into rocket fuel. without adding the extra water the cider would turn out to be over 7%