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Hi everyone, registered tonight so please be gentle with me!!!!

Having 4 apple trees in the garden we have decided to have a go at cider making this year. I want to give the Ish Scrumpy recipe a try - my dad made some scrumpy once and it was beautiful. The recipe here says to add the sugar but sugar is not listed as one of the ingredients. Does the scrumpy need sugar? Please advise. Many thanks.

My OH is in bed at the moment and he's the master brewer in our house but...

It depends on how sweet / strong you want the scrumpy to be honest. The sugar is what the yeast acts upon to make alcohol, now there is sugars in apples but without adding sugar then the resulting brew will be a little light on the alcohol or possibly a little too dry.

I make Turbo Cider on occasion and that's just yeast and apple juice but I always end up adding another carton of apple juice to get it so it doesn't suck my back teeth out... some people add saccharin but that's just wrong imho!

Anyway if no one else gets back to you I'll ask OH when he wakes up

I've done it with crushed Bramleys and no sugar, but it takes the enamel off your teeth. Put sugar in to make more alcohol and filter the juice to stop cloudiness.

Love and Peace
Jim

Thanks for the advice. I've decided to go with the sugar, I prefer my tooth enamel intact

Our Gert.