Question about Cider

First time poster long time reader. I have been brewing beer off and on for about a year and a half. So I decided its apple season why not try cider. Where I work there is a farmer that always comes by and he said that he had fresh pressed tree picked apple and pear cider. So I bought a gallon of each the pear and apple from him with intentions into turning it into hard cider. So I grabbed both apple and pear mixed them and took an OG measurement before adding any sugar and it came out to be 1.043 which I thought was a little low. I added about 5 teaspoons of sugar to it. Forgot to measure after that but I dumped it all into a 3 gallon fermentor with also a teaspoon of yeast nutrient. The yeast I picked was the English Dry Cider 775 yeast from White Labs. Shook it up like it said and then dumped that in. Made sure to aerate the cider before adding the yeast as well. So I did this on a Friday and came back on a Monday and saw absolutely no activity. The yeast was sitting on the bottle of the carboy and there was a tiny ring so I think there was some activity just not much. Now one question is I also saw a dead fly sitting on top of the cider.......dang thing mustve went in as I was putting the air lock on. If the cider fermented would you still drink it after that fly was in there? And the second question. After just 3 days do you think that yeast really fermented out what it needed to and turned that cider into a hard cider? Thanks all and cheers!

If you can grab a hydrometer reading, we'd be able to give you advice on how to proceed. Without one, all you'll get is "I dunno".

I'll grab one after work tomorrow. I was just going to dump it and start over with some store bought and lalvin 1188. What about that fly? Issue or no issue?

Check your juice for preservatives. Sometimes they add extra even to hand pressed juice.

These were just plucked from the tree. No pesticides nothing. Unpasteurized as well.

Alright so I just took a measurement of the cider and it looks like it did ferment. The SG is 1.000. Which would lead me to suspect it is between 5%-7% because I am not sure with the added sugar what it actually started at. Now I am assuming because no one has responded to it that I should say screw the fly and drink the cider? lol Also when I took a drink it was very tart on the front and finished pretty dry. What would be the best way to back sweeten?

Some use lactose to back sweeten it. The fly is obviously a potential contamination issue, but mostly its just a "yuck" factor that most of us would kindly disregard in our own brew. Sounds like everything went well with the fermentation.

Ya this is the first time in about 20 brews that an insect got in before I could close it up lol. The cider tasted fine. But because it was tree picked there is a lot of wild yeast in this one anyways. I am very pleased this came out because I was just about to dump it and write it off.

Do you think just using a few cups of store bought cider would work in back sweetening?

reonmaster said:

Do you think just using a few cups of store bought cider would work in back sweetening?

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Store bought cider will work just fine. Just make sure you're ready to pasteurize those bottles in a few days.

TexasWine said:

Store bought cider will work just fine. Just make sure you're ready to pasteurize those bottles in a few days.

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I was actually just thinking of kegging it to a corny. I dont need to pasteurize if I do that right?

reonmaster said:

I was actually just thinking of kegging it to a corny. I dont need to pasteurize if I do that right?

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If you're back sweetening you really have two options. One, back sweeten and then immediately put the keg in your kegerator to halt renewed fermentation. Two, add kmeta and sorbate before back sweetening, then back sweeten, then keg and carb. I use option two because I don't have a kegerator.

If you're intent is really to add just enough sugar to prime (not enough to sweeten) and let it naturally carb, then you'll be fine going straight to the keg and leaving it at room temp until it's done carbonating.

TexasWine said:

If you're back sweetening you really have two options. One, back sweeten and then immediately put the keg in your kegerator to halt renewed fermentation. Two, add kmeta and sorbate before back sweetening, then back sweeten, then keg and carb. I use option two because I don't have a kegerator.

If you're intent is really to add just enough sugar to prime (not enough to sweeten) and let it naturally carb, then you'll be fine going straight to the keg and leaving it at room temp until it's done carbonating.

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Im assuming what you mean by putting it into a kegerator is hooking it up to a CO2 tank then yes that is what my plan is. Have a set up with about 5 tappers and a 5 lb CO2 tank.

Found some Musselmans cider at a local Walmart for 4.88 a gal which is pretty cheap nowadays. Hope to use that for the back sweetening. About 4-5 cups worth.

reonmaster said:

Im assuming what you mean by putting it into a kegerator is hooking it up to a CO2 tank then yes that is what my plan is. Have a set up with about 5 tappers and a 5 lb CO2 tank.

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Well, really what I intended to say was get it cold. You'll have to get it cold and keep it cold to keep the fermentation halted. Hooking it up to CO2 won't impact fermentation.

TexasWine said:

Well, really what I intended to say was get it cold. You'll have to get it cold and keep it cold to keep the fermentation halted. Hooking it up to CO2 won't impact fermentation.

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Ah right on. Ya went right into a 44 degree fridge after racking off into a keg. Added the soft cider gave it a mix and closed the corny. Hooked directly up to some CO2 to carb it up.