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Well, I opened every one of my bottles from three different batches. None were building up much carb *except* a single bottle that had been at the end of a bottling session and hadn't filled up, which I had topped off with another of my batches, so that one must have had some sleepy yeast in it...

My cider is admittedly very old. I made it last fall, multiple unrelated batches (different apple varieties, different yeast varieties, varying racking and 2nd-3rd-fermentation schedules) and left it all in the basement for an entire year. So I suppose the yeast might have been truly and utterly...

When you ask if I'm inquiring about using extract as the exclusive source of flavor, are you referring to some sort of cider that has no apple juice in it? I'm honestly not sure I understand what such a scenario would involve? I made nine gallons from a huge pile of apples off my two-variety...

s I'm using almost entirely the apples from my tree, which I have concluded is a graft based on the wildly different appearance of the apples coming of the two trunks, but I have no idea what they are. One batch of cider was from a load of apples off a friend's tree, again of unknown type...

I was asking for input. I just wasn't asking to be condescended. Do you use frozen concentrate for the same purpose? If so, why do you consider it a more sensible solution -- and how to you control the loss of precision in back-carbing if you do it that way. Or are you against using frozen...

Umm, ok. Denigrating sarcasm aside, I think it's reasonably acknowledged that if you don't actually use crab apples, that a lot of apple flavor falls away during fermentation, and likewise, I thought I had read in multiple different places that adding frozen concentrate or extract was a...

Has anyone used either (or preferably both) of these who can comment on them? One is much more expensive than the other. Thanks. https://www.amazon.com/OliveNation-Natural-Apple-Extract-Ounce/dp/B004QXKQN8 https://www.amazon.com/OliveNation-Green-Apple-Natural-Flavor/dp/B00PAQ9GUO

I thought trapping the sulfur leads to a strong sulfur taste and that that was why you leave the must exposed during the twenty four hours after adding Campden tablets.

I believe it is advised to do one final application of Campden tablets before bottling. But, you're generally advised to leave the top exposed for 24 hours to dissipate the sulfur. But you don't want to oxygenate the cider at the late final stage right before bottling. So, how do you do this...

I was inquiring retroactively, having already racked to secondary and topped off quickly to close up the headspace. I'll know next time to take the proper measurements. Thanks.

I'm aware the potassium sorbate won't halt an active fermentation. And cold crashing presumably only works as long as you keep the cider indefinitely cold; move it from the fridge to the shelf and it will restart fermentation. But can you combine the two? Can you cold crash, rack off the...

Right, Right, but the only way to do this when topping up with juice or raw-pressed cider is to have the SG of that juice in hand -- before adding it. That way you cam factor it into the averaging out of the SGs as things mix. I guess that makes sense.

If you top off your secondary after racking with fresh cider, leftover from raw pressing and therefore untreated with sorbate (pasteurized at best, nothing done to it that would affect fermentation), doesn't that invalidate any subsequent SG and ABV calculations? If you then take an SG reading...

Yooper, you asked above why I thought there was any description of offgasing campden tablets and I gave two links that had confused me on the issue. Did you have any thoughts on how I had misinterpreted the information on those two other websites? I'm curious what you think of that. Thanks.

Well, I've been doing this for two months, so I have no stake in what I've learned so far. To the contrary, I'm asking because I admit to knowing nothing. :) So, there's this webpage: https://blog.eckraus.com/add-campden-tablets-to-wine which says: Be sure that you wait 24 hours before adding...

Maybe I'm using the term "degas" incorrectly, but I still can't figure out how to satisfy two seemingly conflicting requirements. First, it is clearly stated that cider needs 24 hours of unsealed air exposure after adding campden tablets. If degassing is the wrong term, that's fine, but my...

Ok, but what's the answer to my question? *How* do you do it? Does your secondary go straight to minimal headspace and an airlock? Is that sufficient to give the campden tablets their stated 24 hours of open air exposure? It doesn't seem like it would to me. What's your method?

I'm trying to nail this issue down. When racking it is recommended to add a campden tablets, not only to prevent infection but to alleviate any oxygen exposure that happened during the racking process. So, is the takeaway from the discussion above that you should close up the secondary, with...

I mean, that could partially work. Presumably during the moment when you pull out the vacuum plug and quickly insert a stopper or drill airlock plug, the external air would rapidly and forcefully get pushed back into the headspace.

The wine sealer I'm describing doesn't naturally fit over the top of an airlock. It's a custom device that comes with its own one-way-valved plugs that fit into a wine bottle. The vacuum pump goes over the top of the plug and pulls air out through the plug but doesn't let air back in. Here's an...