N3WWN

Recipes 

First off, let me say hello to everyone here! There appears to be a wealth of information available in this forum, but I'm not sure what to search for to see if my questions have been answered already.

Here's my situation:

I purchased 3 gallons of fresh, unpasteurized, unpreserved cider from a local orchard.

I split these into 3x0.75gal batches and drank the rest

Two of the batches are in 1 gal glass carboys with blow-off tubes going into a 1/2 gal bucket (2/3 full of water). One batch is in the original "milk jug" container (based on suggestions of natural fermentation by the orchard staff).

I have questions about two of the batches:

Batch 1) Glass carboy w/blow-off tube - 3/4gal must + 3/8cup Sugar In The Raw (heated with some of the must in a saucepan to ensure it dissolved completely) + Lalvin EC-1118 Campagne yeast. Original SG 1.045. Pitched on 10/17/06 @ 9pm. SG as of 10/19/06 @ 9am is 1.019

Batch 2) Glass carboy w/blow-off tube - 3/4gal must + Coopers Homebrew yeast. Original SG 1.042. Pitched 10/17/06 @ 9pm. SG as of 10/19/06 @ 9am is 1.019

As you can see, the ABV of Batch 1 is about 3.5% and the ABV of Batch 2 is about 3%.

Is this normal after 2 days of fermentation at 72degF ? I thought the primary fermentation was supposed to take 2 weeks or longer.

The fermentation is MUCH slower than the homebrew beer (Oktoberfest and Steam varieties) that my girlfriend's father and I have done (well, they're still fermenting - 2ndary fermentation this weekend and bottling next weekend!).

The bubble rate is about 1 bubble every 2 sec for Batch 1 and 1 bubble every 3 sec for Batch 2. The tubes are a rather large diameter, though, I was barely able to get them into the #6 stoppers.

Batch 1 has had good "currents" in the wort up until just recently... now the currents have slowed down and small bubbles have been seem coming up from the "yeast bed".

Batch 2 has some "currents", but not as much as Batch 1, but the bubbles from the "yeast bed" are significantly higher.

When I took the SG readings this morning, I tasted Batch 2 (forgot on Batch 1) and it has a nice low natural carbonation and there is a slight bite of alcohol, so things still seem to be going well.

I guess my main concern is letting the primary fermenation go too long and ruining the batches.

At what point should I siphon into fresh carboys for a 2ndary fermentation and when should I bottle? Should I go straight to bottling for my first batches and graduate to 2ndary fermentation after I'm more adept at homebrewing?

Sorry for the length of my post... I'm trying to ask all my questions at once so I don't start a bunch of threads for my first attempts at making hard cider.

Thanks for taking the time to read my post and I look forward to any/all feedback!!!

-Rich

david_42

Recipes 

Your cider should ferment down to 1.000 to 0.995. Bottle it then. Unlike ales, all of the sugars in apple juice are fermentable.

__________________
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N3WWN

Recipes 

Thanks, david_42!

So there was nothing about my results that alarmed you?

The rates seem reasonable and there's nothing pointing to problems at this point, as far as you can tell?

If I let it ferment to 1.000 or .995, will it be extremely dry (most/all of the sugars fermented)? I like the ABV (around 6-7% at .995) but don't want to sacrifice ALL of the sweetness. I'd like a dry to semi-dry cider...

Thanks again!

-Rich

david_42

Recipes 

It's tracking fine. The only ways you can get a sweet cider are, kill the yeast with campden and sorbat, or add lactose or some other non-fermentable sugar or sugar substitute. In theory you could chill the cider & stop the fermentation, but that's risky.

__________________
Remember one unassailable statistic, as explained by the late, great George Carlin: "Just think of how stupid the average person is, and then realize half of them are even stupider!"

"I would like to die on Mars, just not on impact." Elon Musk

mmm beer

Recipes 

i would leave it be for at least 10 days. then rack it off. you want all the sugar to be gone first, its just like wine making. Be patient, and enjoy cider is good.

N3WWN

Recipes 

Okay, I think I'm ready to rack to the 2ndary fermenters from the primaries...

I've read that you're supposed to take two reading a couple days (or a week or so) apart and, if they don't change, you're done with fermentation.

Well, I took readings last night and got the following:

Batch 1:
10/17/06 OG 1.045
10/24/06 SG 0.998 (5.9%ABV) - 35sec between bubbles

Batch 2:
10/17/06 OG 1.042
10/24/06 SG 1.000 (5.25%ABV) - 43sec between bubbles

Batch 3 (not listed before, but this is the same as batch 2 but using wild yeasts):
10/17/06 OG 1.042
10/24/06 SG 1.029 (1.6%ABV) - 19sec between bubbles

Since Batch 1 and 2 are at/below 1.000 and the fermentation has slowed to an incredible crawl (not even little bubbles coming up the sides of the carboys), is it now save to rack off the yeast bed to the 2ndary fermenters?

I'm planning on bottling just before xmas - some with priming sugar for carbonated cider and some without for still cider, just FYI...

Thanks again for the help!

__________________

Planning - Cranberry wine, Tea Crabapple Lambic, Pinot Noir
Primary - 20 oz Rum in the Raw (experiment) - 1.150 OG
Secondary - 1 gal Chokecherry wine
Secondary - 5 gal California Uncommon (dry hopping)
Bottled - Cherry Apfelwein
Aging - 1 gal Still of the Night Mead - 1.132 OG
Drinking - ESB, Root Beer, Tank It Down Ordinary Bitter

Deebee

Recipes 

I make turbo cider in this way.

Basically natural applejuice, a cup of strong tea 8 for the tanins) some pectolase and sugar. Yeast ontop.

Takes about 2 weeks to fermet out, then i rack it off, let it stand for a couple of days then bottle it.