New member 1st batch cider

Hello

Well I embarked on my first cider journey. I am using whole foods apple cider in the handy glass bottle.
1 St bottle
Nottingham ale yeast
1/4 cup molasses
64 degree room

2ND bottle
Red star champagne yeast
1/4 cup brown sugar
64 degree room

Started on 5 July red star has stopped bubbling almost 1 bubble every 15 min. Racked it into a different jug ( working on patience still). Tasted pretty good little tart but a nice kick. Did not get hydro reading before but have .95 now.

Like i said just started this on the 5th so some questions.

1. When it comes to sweetening could you not have a sg that would produce more alcohol than the yeast could consume?

2. Any thing I might have done wrong or might need to do soon. This is kind of confusing I catch on quickly but starting is confusing with the amount of info and the wide difference between it.

Thanks Paul

One more question. Will my cider clear as the yeast falls out or will I need a clearing agent of some kind?

First, your cider should clear all by itself if you give it time to do so.
I'm guessing these are 1 gallon batches, You'll eventually want to rack the cider off the lees, but wait till it stops fermenting.

As to the question of sweetening; I'm not exactly certain what you're asking, but if I understand you correctly, you want to calculate your OG so that the yeast reaches its alcohol tolerance before all the sugars are fermented out? If this is what you're asking then the answer is yes.

You'll have a MUCH higher ABV though. Champagne yeast can go over 18% ABV & I've heard of Nottingham going as high as 11%, I've gone as high as 9% with Nottingham. You'd end up with cider that was actually wine, or at least VERY strong cider. The higher the ABV, the longer it takes to age.
Regards, GF.

You can sweeten to taste at bottling time by adding a non fermentable sugar such as Xylotol (Xylo-Sweet brand is available at health food stores and Walmart). It's organic and doesn't have an aftertaste like Splenda etc. If you're also looking to get carbonation you can bring the SG up to 1.005 with fermentable sugar, it'll get converted by the yeast but won't add sweetness.

As for the cloudiness, if you had added pectic enzyme in the primary bottle the cider would clear up much better than without it. Too late now. But cloudy cider tastes just fine...

Thanks for the input Gratus and Maylar.

1 gallon whole foods cider pasteurized no additives

Red star champagne yeast

1/4 cup brown sugar

64 degree room

Bubbling has stopped a few days ago. Racked to secondary gallon with airlock no bubbles. SG .95. In my hurry I added 1 can apple juice concentrate. For sweetness. Now as I have been reading i think in the 32 OZ grolsch type flip top bottles i just made bombs. Should I cold crash,pasteurize on stove top or let it go?


And update on the Nottingham with molasses and cider. Still bubbling away at 63 degrees

Adding that much AJC will definitively re-start fermentation. Adding one can to 5 gallons, if I remember correctly, will prime 5 gallons of cider to bottle, so 1 whole can into less than 5 gallons is an accident waiting to happen. Your options are somewhat limited: pour bottles into larger container and wait until yeast is done, or take your chances and pasteurize in a few days, and have a very sweet carbonated cider. To answer your question, yes, you could get to the yeast's alcohol limit, and fermentation would eventually stop, but, I couldn't even guess how long that would take.
Have you heard of Apple Jack? If so, have you thought about it? I use the $2.95 gallon Apple Juice from Wal-Mart as a base, pour out 16 ounces into a sterile container, and cap loosely. I then pour one 12 oz can of frozen Apple Juice into the gallon jug, shake like crazy, add yeast, shake again and put in a cool, dark place to ferment, just like the other ciders.

I would guess bottle bombs, but flip cap bottles will usually vent out the extra pressure. I would not take my chances and 1) put into a larger container until sugar is gone, or 2) Pasteurize very soon and have a bubbly sweet cider. I have had a few bottle bombs, and when they explode it is really dangerous.
I had just looked into a box of fermenting bottles to count, and when I got 12 feet away,and boom!, there were glass shards within a foot of where I was standing. If I hadn't walked away... I really don't want to think about that.

MODS, I didn't think the above post wasn't uploaded.

Thanks for the info. Going to pasteurize and roll with it. It tastes ok gonna stop yeast and forget about it for a while. Starting a few more batches with diff sugars.

you really want to open a bottle and check the carb levels BEFORE pasteurizing. over-carbed bottles and pasteurizing is a recipe for bad things to happen.

Roger I am tracking that part this is confusing with the vast amount of techniques. I will be writing down procedures and choices i make before just running into it. I have a quart freezing now to try the apple jack thing. If I just keep the other bottles in the fridge I should be ok from the info I have read. Thank you all for the help. Hopefully as i progress through this i can help others the same way.

RPowell said:

you really want to open a bottle and check the carb levels BEFORE pasteurizing. over-carbed bottles and pasteurizing is a recipe for bad things to happen.

Click to expand...

Definitely check the carb before attempting to pasteurize! Too much pressure & they'll explode. Read the pasteurization sticky:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/
One thing to remember though, set your temp to 180*F NOT 190; Pappers himself later ammends the 190 temp to 180.
Regards, GF.

Right now I have them in the fridge. Think we will just use this batch as is out of the fridge and tweet the next 100 or so batches think i am hooked. Just found the hard lemonade threads. In the fridge there is no carb now. If i do pasteurize I will vent first but just going to drink the mistake and start over.