I visited Ireland this summer and came back with a new found taste for cider. I made a 1.5 gal test batch in July that came out fantastic. I took it to parties to get feedback and the response was great.
I live is a great area for apples in the Champlain Valley of NY. I got 5 gal local juice that was according to the orchard very lightly UV treated. 60% spartan, 30% Mac with the rest Empire and Cortland. The juice alone was low in sugar 1.036 gravity. I decided to campden it. I got a 32 oz bottle of juice with no preservatives from the store so that I could heat that and add my sugar and honey. I added 1 lbs of local honey, 1 lbs corn sugar (dextrose) and 1 lbs turbano sugar. I waited a day and then pitched with cote de blanc wine yeast with yeast nutriant. I was shoot for a 7% cider but got a 1.058 gravity + 7.5% alch.
It did nothing for day and a half - no bubbles nothing. So i called the midwest tech support and they suggested stirring it up, and then giving the bucket a slosh every 6 hours so so. I did all this and then read the yeast specs and decided to turn the heat on to 60 degrees. It then fermeneted like crazy.
the air lock stopped bubbling after 6 days and 1.5 of those it hadn't bubbled at all. I checked the gravity and it was at 1.004. I checked with tech support at midwest and they said this was " atypical" for this yeast. It is supposed to be slow fermenting and doesn't ferment totally dry. Since it was pretty cloudy i waited a day and then decided to rack it to seconday. I also bottled a few bottles to see how it was without the seconday. When is racked it it smelled good. next time i'm going to add the peptic enzyme.
Sorry for being so long winded but my questions are
1) has anyone esle seen this fast of a fermentation? Should i have left it on the yeast lees longer? Will a faster fermentation yield a good cider
2) the better bottle secondary has small bubbles rising it it but no activity on the air lock. Is this a malolatic fermatation going on? How long should i wait before bottling the rest.
I live is a great area for apples in the Champlain Valley of NY. I got 5 gal local juice that was according to the orchard very lightly UV treated. 60% spartan, 30% Mac with the rest Empire and Cortland. The juice alone was low in sugar 1.036 gravity. I decided to campden it. I got a 32 oz bottle of juice with no preservatives from the store so that I could heat that and add my sugar and honey. I added 1 lbs of local honey, 1 lbs corn sugar (dextrose) and 1 lbs turbano sugar. I waited a day and then pitched with cote de blanc wine yeast with yeast nutriant. I was shoot for a 7% cider but got a 1.058 gravity + 7.5% alch.
It did nothing for day and a half - no bubbles nothing. So i called the midwest tech support and they suggested stirring it up, and then giving the bucket a slosh every 6 hours so so. I did all this and then read the yeast specs and decided to turn the heat on to 60 degrees. It then fermeneted like crazy.
the air lock stopped bubbling after 6 days and 1.5 of those it hadn't bubbled at all. I checked the gravity and it was at 1.004. I checked with tech support at midwest and they said this was " atypical" for this yeast. It is supposed to be slow fermenting and doesn't ferment totally dry. Since it was pretty cloudy i waited a day and then decided to rack it to seconday. I also bottled a few bottles to see how it was without the seconday. When is racked it it smelled good. next time i'm going to add the peptic enzyme.
Sorry for being so long winded but my questions are
1) has anyone esle seen this fast of a fermentation? Should i have left it on the yeast lees longer? Will a faster fermentation yield a good cider
2) the better bottle secondary has small bubbles rising it it but no activity on the air lock. Is this a malolatic fermatation going on? How long should i wait before bottling the rest.