Noob making some cider.

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KBR97

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I decided on a whim to throw together a gallon of cider. I was at a local home brew shop with a buddy so I grabbed a 1 gallon glass jug, an air lock, and the guy there suggested some d47 wine yeast, and pectic enzyme.

I used a gallon of 100% Motts, and about a 1/3 of a 1lb. box of sugar.
I'm not sure if I added "too much" sugar. I took a gravity reading after the sugar and yeast and got 1.069. Not sure if that number is due to the late reading.

How long should I let this ferment before I attempt taking the next steps as far as tasting, bottling, carbing...ect.

The guy at the homebrew shop also suggested that I eventually add some sort of additive that will stop the yeast, and also maybe an extract that will add some sweetness back to the cider.

Got any advice, suggestions, criticisms?


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If you include the 'additive' (probably sorbate) then you won't be able to naturally carb your cider. It will keep the yeast from reproducing and there probably won't be enough to create carbonation. This would give you a still cider.

If you want to carbonate it in the bottle with some residual sweetness, you'll probably have to pasteurize it. (See sticky at top of forum)

You can let it ferment out, prime it with a little corn sugar and bottle it. It will be 'dry' so you could then just add a splash of AJ to your glass when you consume it.

The third option is to bottle it dry, (1.000 or lower) prime it with corn sugar (for carbonation) and then also add a non-fermentable sugar like Splenda. (ack)

Achieving sweet, carbonated cider without force carb'ing is tough without one of these methods.
 
If I cold crash these bottles after about a week of carbing then I don't have to pasteurize correct?
 
It's possible you could cold crash D-47...I'm not very familiar with that strain. But you won't ever completely stop it. I don't think I would take a chance on leaving a bottled 'sweet' cider in my fridge that hasn't been pasteurized. I saw a photo of someone's fridge the other day where a bottle of something exploded and shattered the top two shelves. It wasn't pretty.
 
Ok then if I decide to go the that route then I will just pasteurize. Looks pretty simple, especially for only a 1 gallon batch.
 
If you decide to pasteurize don't let your bottles carb too much beforehand, or you might get some bombs.

I make cider pretty much strictly these days and I just cold crash after moving to plastic bottles. I use plastic because I constantly give it away and if it goes off on someone's countertop (if they forget to put it in the fridge like I told them to) it won't make a glass grenade. Cold crashed Nottingham yeast WILL restart in a car or counter in the Florida heat. Ask me how I know this.
 
I don't usually use pectic enzyme. my ciders usually clear very nicely on their own. That is my sign that they are ready to taste/etc.
 
Ferment to 1.10-1.15 and you can stop there. It'll be a smooth cider without a high abv. You can then back sweeten with fajc to taste and pasteurize to kill off the yeast.

jeremymschneider said:
I don't usually use pectic enzyme. my ciders usually clear very nicely on their own. That is my sign that they are ready to taste/etc.

I do the same, just make sure when siphoning to do it from top down to leave the lees behind.
 
McNorseman said:
Cold crashed Nottingham yeast WILL restart in a car or counter in the Florida heat. Ask me how I know this.
Ok, I have to ask because this has to be a great story.
 
Ok so two weeks later. This is what I have...
Original reading - 1.069
Final reading - 1.006
Is my calculation of 7.9% correct?


I bottled half of these with a some apple juice (1/4 bottle) and the the other half with fruit punch just for a different taste. If I let these sit for 4-5 days will I get a little carb from the apple juice and fruit punch sugars? I figure I could let them possibly carb for 4-5 days then pasteurize them. I'm thinking just a sparkling carb, not a heavy carb.
 
I think it might be slightly higher than 8%, but thats pretty close.

Just crack one open in 3 days and test...if not enough give it another day or so and check another...hard to say how long with some many variables to consider.
 
Ok, I just saw the request for the story. I was moving a bunch of non pasteurized cold crashed cider over to a buddys house for a barbeque. I had it all in my trucks toolbox in bags. This was in glass bottles mind you. I just took the bottles out of the fridge put them in bags and loaded them in the toolbox. One of them fell out of the bag and rolled under the other crap in there so I didn't see it. So about four days of nice hot September weather goes by and were driving down the street. We hit a speedbump and it sounds like a bomb goes off in my toolbox. Scared the crap out of me. Opened up the box and there isn't a shard of glass bigger than an inch other than the bottom of the bottle. Scary stuff. I had to hose out the whole box, tools and all.
 
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