Nine_Notches
Member
Hi all,
I've just cracked open my first home brew cider and disappointingly it was flat. As my first cider I was aiming for an easy dry sparkling finish, unfortunately it seems I have gone wrong somewhere and am hoping someone can help me out...
I started with five litres of store bought juice (no orchards around here) added some brown sugar and Red Star Cuvee yeast (local home brew shop recommendation, going to use an Ale yeast next). Had a good fermentation going within 24 hours at 18-22 degrees C. Left it in primary for 2.5 weeks and then secondary for a further two. The cider didn't clear which I suspect was a result of the pastuerisation of the store bought juice. FG was 1.000 and I bottled with priming sugar with carbonation drops at the recommended rate of one drop per 350ml bottle (my bottles were 330ml). I left these to condition for three weeks at 18-22 degrees. Unfortunately I wasn't organised enough to take an OG.
My plan was to leave for three weeks and then try one bottle per week to see how it ages. Just opened the first bottle expecting it to be nice and fizzy and ... nothing.
I tasted the cider before bottling and it was pretty bland which I now know is to be expected for a dry cider. After three weeks in the bottle it is slightly better but that may be because of the dissolved carbonation tablet.
My thoughts are that the yeast settled completely to the bottom in the carboy and hence I didn't transfer any into the bottles resulting in no bubbles. I used a siphon to bottle, keeping it well above the sedimentation layer. I have had a good read through this forum and haven't seen anyone else mention the same problem. Could I be correct?
For my second batch I added sugar to get an OG of 1.060 and bottled at 1.012 (fermentation was still pretty active at that point). I used the plastic bottle method and after three days the bottle is firming up so I know that the next batch is carbonating...
Thoughts anyone?
Cheers.
I've just cracked open my first home brew cider and disappointingly it was flat. As my first cider I was aiming for an easy dry sparkling finish, unfortunately it seems I have gone wrong somewhere and am hoping someone can help me out...
I started with five litres of store bought juice (no orchards around here) added some brown sugar and Red Star Cuvee yeast (local home brew shop recommendation, going to use an Ale yeast next). Had a good fermentation going within 24 hours at 18-22 degrees C. Left it in primary for 2.5 weeks and then secondary for a further two. The cider didn't clear which I suspect was a result of the pastuerisation of the store bought juice. FG was 1.000 and I bottled with priming sugar with carbonation drops at the recommended rate of one drop per 350ml bottle (my bottles were 330ml). I left these to condition for three weeks at 18-22 degrees. Unfortunately I wasn't organised enough to take an OG.
My plan was to leave for three weeks and then try one bottle per week to see how it ages. Just opened the first bottle expecting it to be nice and fizzy and ... nothing.
I tasted the cider before bottling and it was pretty bland which I now know is to be expected for a dry cider. After three weeks in the bottle it is slightly better but that may be because of the dissolved carbonation tablet.
My thoughts are that the yeast settled completely to the bottom in the carboy and hence I didn't transfer any into the bottles resulting in no bubbles. I used a siphon to bottle, keeping it well above the sedimentation layer. I have had a good read through this forum and haven't seen anyone else mention the same problem. Could I be correct?
For my second batch I added sugar to get an OG of 1.060 and bottled at 1.012 (fermentation was still pretty active at that point). I used the plastic bottle method and after three days the bottle is firming up so I know that the next batch is carbonating...
Thoughts anyone?
Cheers.