Beginner Home Brew - First Batch of Cider

So after a long break from posting, I'm back for my second brew batch.

Given that it's apple harvest time, I'll be making a turbo cider. This should hopefully be ready to drink for Christmas.

The recipe really couldn't be simpler, ideal for beginners.

Ingredients:

• Lidl Cloudy Apple Juice - 23 Litres @ €1.25 each
• Cider Yeast with Sweetener - €1.05 from MyBeerAndWine

That's it!

My Bountiful Harvest

Simply pour all of the cider into a fermenter, in my case, a 23 litre Cooper's fermenter, pitch the yeast and wait.

The apple juice doesn't foam up nearly as much as a beer wort, so hopefully the yeast will activate quicker than it did with my previous lager brew.

Apple Juice to Cider - Freshly Pitched Yeast

My Starting Gravity reading came out at 1050, which should give me a final alcohol strength of around 6%, I think this is strong enough for a first batch. If the taste is OK I may try to bump this up in future batches.

Starting Gravity Hydrometer Reading of 1050

I sanitised my fermenter using the No-Rinse solution recommended on Beoir.org - Bleach As A No Rinse Sanitiser thread, as per my last bottling day. If you follow this method, make sure to use Thin Bleach, I used Thick Bleach this time and it takes a lot of rinsing to get rid of the smell of bleach.
Solution:

• 23 Litres of Water
• 30ml of Thin Bleach - Frangrance Free
• 30ml of Vinegar

Add the bleach to the water and stir before adding the vinegar to avoid any nasty chemical reactions!