I've just gotten into home brewing and after messing around with a beer kit, wanted to give cider a try. I've done a lot of browsing this forum and and various other places on the web, and so am suffering from a bit of information overload, so any suggestions, links, or pointers about proceeding would be more than welcomed.
My recipe was as follows:
2 gallons cider
6 cups water
.5 lbs brown sugar
1 lb honey
pectic enzyme
yeast nutrients
Nottingham yeast
Poured the cider (pasteurized, no preservatives) into the carboy, added the pectic.
Mixed the honey and brown sugar in the water, heating gently until dissolved, added to the carboy.
Starting SG 1.05.
I rehydrated the yeast, added the nutrients to the cider, then added the yeast.
The airlock was bubbling merrily by the next morning, no real foam accumulation (I'm not worried about this part).
My first question is when do people recommend that I rack it? Once the airlock goes quiescent? From my reading, I'm guessing give it at least two weeks, or a SG around the 1.01ish mark. Does this sound right? After that, how long should I let it sit in the secondary before carbonating and bottling?
I have some of the most delicious wildflower honey I've ever tasted, and along with using it above, I wanted to use it and apple juice concentrate for back carbonation. I want the final product to be fizzy, and a little sweet - How do I judge how much honey needs to be used and how long I should let it sit to carbonate? (I'm going to pasteurize in the bottle to kill the yeast so I don't end up with any bombs once it's the right level of sweet and fizzy). My guess is crack a bottle on day two and see how it is, but specific advice would be well appreciated.
Thanks in advance for any help, I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of my new hobby.
My recipe was as follows:
2 gallons cider
6 cups water
.5 lbs brown sugar
1 lb honey
pectic enzyme
yeast nutrients
Nottingham yeast
Poured the cider (pasteurized, no preservatives) into the carboy, added the pectic.
Mixed the honey and brown sugar in the water, heating gently until dissolved, added to the carboy.
Starting SG 1.05.
I rehydrated the yeast, added the nutrients to the cider, then added the yeast.
The airlock was bubbling merrily by the next morning, no real foam accumulation (I'm not worried about this part).
My first question is when do people recommend that I rack it? Once the airlock goes quiescent? From my reading, I'm guessing give it at least two weeks, or a SG around the 1.01ish mark. Does this sound right? After that, how long should I let it sit in the secondary before carbonating and bottling?
I have some of the most delicious wildflower honey I've ever tasted, and along with using it above, I wanted to use it and apple juice concentrate for back carbonation. I want the final product to be fizzy, and a little sweet - How do I judge how much honey needs to be used and how long I should let it sit to carbonate? (I'm going to pasteurize in the bottle to kill the yeast so I don't end up with any bombs once it's the right level of sweet and fizzy). My guess is crack a bottle on day two and see how it is, but specific advice would be well appreciated.
Thanks in advance for any help, I'm looking forward to seeing what comes of my new hobby.