Recent content by AppleChex

Well, it's been 4 days since bottling my brew at 0.005 SG, and while the airspace at the top of most of my PET bottles has filled in some, none are "soda bottle" hard yet and in fact most are still "squeezed in" a little. In pondering the issue of how to stop fermentation with sugars...

Well, it tasted bland and not unpleasant. Rather like a glass of apple juice that was not sweet. Right now I'm scratching my head and pondering what has been pointed out to me: that 2-liter PET bottles may have been a poor choice for heat pasteurization.

Alright, I'm sorta following my original plan. I was ready to prime and/or backsweeten today, but when I checked the SG on my cider it was 1.005. Thinking I caught that nicely, I bottled into 6 2-liter PET bottles and 2 1.25-liter PET bottles. I left a decent amount of air at the top, but...

0.11 cups. 5.28 teaspoons.

I wonder if the bottle size matters. I have mostly 2-liter PET bottles. Would I need to heat longer for 2-liter bottles than for a similar volume of cider in 1-liter bottles?

Earlier this week someone pointed me to Northern Brewer's Priming Sugar Calculator. According to that calculator, you would need 23.22 grams of sucrose (white sugar) to prime 1 gallon at 70F (the temperature matters) to 2.5 volumes (the pressure matters). As far as back sweetening goes, I guess...

Did you add any non-sugar sweetener? Sometimes sugar alcohols like xylitol can do something like that.

Hmm. Actually I'd rather sweeten with a real sugar. So if I let the fermentation finish, then use the priming sugar calculator to figure how much sugar to add for carbonation, I just have to figure out how much extra sugar to add for sweetening (then stop the fermentation through heat...

I'm a noob but I would try using Lalvin EC-1118 yeast. With an alcohol tolerance of 18%, you should end up with a FG somewhere just above 1--perhaps 1.002-1.003 (if things work out in practice the way the calculators promise--going from an OG of 1.140 down to exactly 18% ABV).

You people are persuasive. More and more I'm thinking I'll rack to a secondary and let it go dry off the lees, then prime with brown sugar or something and backsweeten with some Splenda we've had around the kitchen not being used. This is day 4 and I'm entertained watching the lees...it's like...

Thanks for the tip about the carboy handle, PP. As it happens, I noted the paper that came with the handle called it "decorative," (though it didn't exactly warn me not to lift the carboy with it). So I was curious and learned from these forums not to lift with those handles. I've just used the...

Over the holidays I enjoyed some sparkling cider provided by my nephew. Wanting more, I spent some time discussing with him how he made his cider, with the thought of emulating what he did. Now, as I read online what other people do, his method is seeming a little unorthodox. He claimed to...

An unfermentable sweetener is something like a sugar alcohol (e.g. xylitol) or sucralose that yeast can't eat.