Newbie

Hello, I'm new to making cider (or anything), and I wanted to get some help. I've been looking around the site, and reading what I could, but in the meantime I thought it would be helpful to get more specific help on my first batch. I'm at about day 10 now.

I mostly used the directions on this page as a basis.
http://www.savvyhousekeeping.com/?p=680

I'll try to provide as much information as I can about what I changed. I don't have a cider press, so I had to use store bought juice. It's Treetop brand, from concentrate, with no preservatives or additives. I got it off of the shelf, though after I bought it I noticed some of the bottles actually said apple cider and some of them said apple juice. I tried to look up the difference, but couldn't find anything conclusive. I noticed that had the same makeup, and the same nutritional information, so I put them in together, 5 gallons total. I added in 1/2 pound of light brown cane sugar. I made sure to clean everything out ahead of time with 1 part bleach to 10 parts water, and then rinsed the whole thing out with tap water after reading that tap water wouldn't hurt anything. I also tossed in 5 campden tablets, mashed together into the fermenter (which was a food grade 6 gallon bucket that comes with the starter kits).

For the yeast, I used Lalvin EC-1118. I followed the instructions on the back of the packet, and mixed the yeast with about 2 oz. of warm water to start it up, leaving it alone for about 30 minutes, and then mixing it again before adding it to the fermenter. It stuck a little bit, so I added some more water in in order to rinse out what I couldn't get with a spoon. I'm not sure if that was a good choice or not, so any word on that part would be appreciated. I sealed the fermenter up, and put the air lock on top of it. Afterwards, I stored it in my hallway closet, and the temperature has slid back and forth a little between about 70-74 degrees fair. The directions said to let it ferment for 3 weeks, but I used a different yeast, so I wanted to know how much that would change things. The directions also said to keep it between 68-70, but mine's a little warmer than that. I think the temperature should be ok because I'm using a different yeast that said it was ok at up to 95 degrees or so, and I'm still curious about how long to leave it fermenting, and when to put it into the secondary fermenter. Should it spend 3 weeks in each? Longer? Shorter?

I also wanted to carbonate it, and instead of beer bottles, I bought some wine bottles for storage space. Lastly, what kind of alcohol content am I probably looking at? I have a hydrometer, but I didn't know when to use it. I heard 5-7% is about normal, but I was wondering if it would be higher because I'm using wine yeast.

After 10 days, I'm down to about 1 bubble every 45 seconds or so. When should I start looking at the secondary fermenter, and what do I do when the time comes? Do I just add a little more sugar and the juice, and let it sit for an unspecified period of time?

Also, I recently had a problem with fruit flies somehow getting into the hallway closet to attack the cider. It doesn't look like they could get through the air lock, but not for a lack of trying. I took some white vinegar and some dishwashing soap to try and get rid of them, and I haven't noticed any new ones to replace them.

Sorry for all of the info/questions, but any kind of feedback would be great. I'm really looking forward to this, and I want this first batch to come out perfect.

Well, with the exceptions of the fruitflies & the vinegar, you're mostly on the right track. Fruitflies carry acetobacter, which is the bacteria that turns wine/cider into vinegar. I'm not sure if comercially produced vinegars have viable acetobacter in them or not, but it's possible some do. You'll want to use cheap vodka in your airlocks instead of water, this will deter those fruitflies. And keep the vinegar away from your fermenter.

Now for your wine bottles, unless they're champagne bottles, they cannot withstand the pressure of carbonation & will either blow their corks or explode, sending shards of glass & a sticky, boozy mess everywhere. If you want to carbonate, use beer bottles or chanpagne bottles, they're both designed to take the pressure.

As for whether it's done yet, don't go by how many bubbles are going thru the airlock; get a hydrometer & learn to use it, that's really the only sure way to know if it's done or not. You may find this useful: http://www.grapestompers.com/hydrometer_use.asp
Hope this info helps & hope your cider turns out tasty. Regards, GF.

I can't thank you enough for telling me about the bottles. I already got about 24 bottles, but they were all regular wine bottles, so I'll either have to not make my first batch sparkling or get another set of bottles. I'm glad I didn't have to learn that the hard way.

Alright, so I looked over the page and another video on using a hydrometer. Because I didn't take an original gravity measurement, is there any way I can estimate what it should have been? I found a chart here

http://winemaking.jackkeller.net/hydrom.asp

would that be an accurate way to guesstimate the original gravity, or is there something else I can do?

Also, none of the things I looked over mentioned anything about a two stage fermentation? How do I use the hydrometer to tell when I should switch?

Ok, so I measured it with a hydrometer today, and it came out to 1.000 at 76 degrees Far. I read a correction table that says I should add a .002 to that to adjust for temperature. So what does this mean? is it ready for the second stage? On a side note, I tasted the sample after I was done with it rather than put it back in. It seems a little dry, sort of somewhere between a strongbow and a bulmer's. I'll probably try to mess with the flavor a little more, but it's a relief that it came out so far.