Recent content by zahna

Hey everyone, my hard pink lemonade is done with primary fermentation. Right now it's pretty darn dry so I'm wanting to sweeten it a bit. Are sulfites necessary even though it's done fermenting? I was thinking of adding just potassium sorbate to keep it from re-fermenting when i add sugar to...

When yours clears, is it really perfectly clear? As in, can you see straight through it like yellow water? Or is it hazy? Mine is always hazy (cider too when I make it), with no sediment floating in it. There was a light coating of sediment on the bottom of the old carboy when i re-racked...

Hmm... it's not clear. It looks like what normal lemonade looks like, ie. cloudy. In all honesty, I'm making this batch from Aldi's lemonade concentrate, so I don't know how much that affects things. The entire batch is going to cost me ~$8-10, so I figured it was a good way to learn how to...

Well, when fermenting fruit juices, what's the usual order of adding the sulphites and sorbates? My s.g. is 1.030 (I hope I said that right, I'm new to taking measurements). It still tastes pretty sweet, but one can tell it has alcohol in it. My tongue says it's perfect. :) So how do I...

Ah, this sorbate/sulfite tag team thing is something I haven't heard before. The guys at the LHBS never mentioned adding sulfites at the end, only the sorbate. Regarding the gravities, I didn't have my wine thief at that point so I didn't take measurements, but according to my taste test it's...

Thanks for everyone's input so far. I'm trying to stablize the lemonade, but so far it's been unsuccessful. I've put 3 1/2 teaspoons of potassium sorbate in my 5 gal batch, but it's had a minimal effect. After 3 days, it's still bubbling every 45-50 seconds. How much is too much when adding...

Sorry this is a lemonade question, but I figure cider, lemonade what's the difference? They're both fruit right? :) Anyway, my lemonade is currently bubbling at a rate of once every 23-27 seconds; however, it still tastes a bit sweet-ish (probably because in addition to the lemonade...

Hmmm... the cider I ferment is cloudy. The orchard I get it from simply crushes the apples and puts the cider into gallon jugs. What do you mean by strained juice?

I've heard that fermenting cider produces methyl as well as ethyl alcohol. I know methyl alcohol is bad stuff. Can anyone confirm whether 1) this is true, 2) it produces enough methyl alcohol to be harmful, 3) how much methyl alcohol is considered harmful. thanks everyone, Scott

Ok, so i just tried my cider after just over a week in the bottles. It's really dry and alcoholic (I'm decently buzzed after one 12oz bottle). I want to make sweeter cider next time, but here's my dilemma: I want sweeter cider, but I know that adding suger to make it sweeter just gives the...

I had the exact same smell (sans the sulfur) last night when I opened my carboy to transfer my cider to the bottling bucket. I was fearing the worst, but a quick sample taste confirmed that my cider was FREAKING YUMMY. I don't think what you're smelling is a big deal, but if you want to be...

Thanks for the info. Is the cider you mentioned the cider from your other threads? Did you add any priming sugar to it before bottling? I'm seeing two paths for bottling here: it's been fermenting a while, so I thought about adding maybe 1/4 cup of cane sugar to get good carbonation; however...

I've had my first batch of cider fermenting since late May. I've re-racked a few times during this period. Even since my latest re-racking a few weeks ago, I'm still seeing tiny CO2 bubbles rising in the carboy and the airlock bubbles maybe once a minute, if that. This is my first batch of...