PattyM
Active Member
I used a 6 gallon carboy with Notty and a 3 piece airlock with no issues.
I too would like a slighly sweeter finished Graff. I made the original recipe using 120L and notty, hoping it would finish a bit sweeter. It tasted ok, but not what I was hoping for. The guys think it tastes amazing! So maybe it's a gender thing. The original is more of a HE-Graf and what I would like is more of a SHE-Graf. I tend to like things around 1.020-1.028. So, how to I accomplish this best without losing the balance? Watch the ferment and bottle it at 1.030, let it carb a bit (losing a few points as it goes) and then bottle pasturize...or just let it finish and back sweeten with ??? honey, frozen apple juice concentrate, (again to approx 1.030, so it can lose a few points to carbintion)...then again, bottle pasturize. I'm new at this and usually do mead, but started doing cider becasue it's drinkable sooner than most mead. I've tried Apfelwein, but it's way too dry! Also can't stand the taste left by the Montrechet yeast (it has an after taste just like the nasty smell it has a few days into the ferment).
That is a little drier than mine, especially if it is 1.003. I don't have the final gravity with me right now, though. I have pasteurized other sweet ciders before, so it can be done, but it is considerably more work.
Too many pages to search through, not in OP: when bottling, do you use priming sugar? I assume yes.
Gonna be brewing up a 5 gallon batch this weekend with fresh pressed Ontario apple juice!
Going to try a dark one next. Store bought juice and Nottingham again but chocolate malt instead of crystal and dark malt extract.
I ended up racking one batch and backsweetening and bottling the other.
The 1.003 was the one that got sweetened and bottled.
I brought the FG up to about 1.01.
Now I'm just hoping I don't get gushers from over-carbing.
I am doing the plastic soda bottle thing so, here's to hoping... (the posts I saw talking about three hour carbonation are a little unnerving to me)...
EDIT:
Well, I pasteurized today.
Test bottle was ever so slightly over-carbed after about 20 hours.
I cracked it open and it foamed up about half an inch out of/over the cap.
Hopefully the actual bottles will be a bit calmer after a few weeks conditioning and chilling.
I'm just waiting for them to hit room temp before storing them in the fridge...
Ffarg finishes at about 1.010 without back sweetening, pasteurizing, etc.
BTW, my batches of Graff finished at 1.000 and 1.004. It was too dry and tart for me. That is why I came up with Ffarg.
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