urgent help needed - fermentation done in 9 days?

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LewisM

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Hey all, on the 24/10/06 i made up a batch of Cyser, hoping to drink it in time for xmas.
recipe can be found a few threads down, the one about "help in OG"
reasen i didnt put this in that thread? well, as bad as it is i needed this to get attention. Mods, feel free to move, delete or anything that you feel is necisary to this reasonably soon :)

So any way, last night i gave my first attempt at siphoning from a bucket, it went horribally and i sucked up plenty of yeast :)
so i left it in the carboy with the hope of racking again today to get rid of the rest of the yeast.

It was pretty clear yesterday, and had cleared up a wee bit more today.

Any way, as i was siphoning i noticed little bubbles coming to the curface, like in a fizzy drink, puzzled i thought nothing of it and carried on.

It was only when i took a taste test that i was truly shocked, it had started to carbonate :eek:
I grabbed the hydrometer and took a reading, it read 1.002.
Well that cant be right i thought, grabbed by spare (i got given one ^-^) and it gave a reading of 1.003
That cracks it out at 6.8%, i swear that cant happen in 9 days =/

So yea, this is a new one for me, it reckons its time to bottle :S
it does actualy taste quite nice, very dry, not to alcaholic and lightly carbonated. Its pretty much the exact same colour as apple juice from the cartons and just slightly cloudier. The cloudiness was caused by the honey, and i'm quite happy with it at the moment.

Soo, to sum up this post, will this be ok to bottle? its giving out a fair bit of Co2, even though there is no yeast, and yes, i checked for floating bits, its completely clear.

Dont think ill be adding any priming sugar to this one :D

*edit*

dam this 4 smiley limit! heh
 
Since I haven't bottled anything but beer thus far, I can't help with the bottling, but I can tell you that I've had a similar experience with my ciders (which are still in secondaries).

I waited until the bubbling dropped to 1-2 BPM in the primaries and then racked over to the 2ndaries... as I was racking, I, too, noticed that the cider was carbonated! :drunk: In fact, it was hard to get a SG reading with all the bubbles in the test cylinder!

At this point (about a week after transferring to 2ndaries), I doubt there is much carbonation left in the cider. If it were possible to maintain CO2 pressure in the cider, then perhaps it would retain the carbonation during clearing, but I think most of it has probably escaped into the head space and out through the airlock at this point.

I'll be doing another SG test tonight, so if I find out that it's still carbonated, I'll post another response with my findings!

-Rich

*edit*

BTW, in regards to how fast it fermented, I'm the originator of the following post:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=15189

I had 3-4% ABV in 2 days, so 9 days to 7% seems reasonable to me ;)
 
wow, ok, i'll probs leave it in the secondary for a while to clear then, shame to waste the carbonation :(
 
Just an update on last night's activities...

It appears that the two batches in the secondaries have lost almost all of their carbonation.

Though the two batches that are still in primaries are both somewhat carbonated.

From what I can tell, the speed of the fermentation determines the amount of carbonation. The two batches that are currently carbonated in the primaries are both less carbonated than the last two batches were at the same SG. The previous two fermented most of the sugars in a couple days. The current two are taking at least a week or two.

Just my $0.02 :)

-Rich
 
Do not bottle yet! It's not through fermenting yet, that's why it's carbonated. Your yeast is still producing alcohol and CO2, it's still eating sugar.

Put it in the secondary. Keep taking the gravity reading. When it stays the same over 3 or 4 days time, then you can safely bottle. Personally, I would let it sit and clear even longer than that though.

If you bottle now, there is a very real possibility that you'll get bottle bombs.
 
yea as i said, i was a bit warry of bottling, seems my fears were justified for once.

I reckon ill leave it a week and check it then.

thanks all!
 
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