I used this recipe found on leeners.com http://www.leeners.com/cider.html (towards bottom of page). It says to rack to secondary within ten days even if fermentation is still going strong. It stresses NOT TO LEAVE IT IN THE PRIMARY FOR MORE THAN TEN DAYS! Mine hase been in there 11 days today and is still going, although not very strong. Other similar recipes I've found on HBT have said to let it go in the primary for at least 2 weeks to a month. Keep in mind I have followed this recipe exactly with the campden, pectic enzyme, and yeast nutrient. The next step is to rack to a secondary with more campden(I'm assuming to kill the rest of the yeast and stop fermentation), then bottle after two weeks. I want this to be a sparkling cider...so if I kill the yeast with the campden today, what good is priming sugar going to do in two weeks when I bottle? Won't all of the yeast be dead leaving me with a still cider? Is this website full of it? Please help if you can...I don't want it to go to much longer in the primary if it's going to go bad.
Hard cider help! Please hurry!
- Thread starter Pyro
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Evan!
Well-Known Member
I'm by no means a cider expert, but my first batch is currently in primary and has been for over 3 weeks. It tastes awesome, and has fermented from 1.059 to 1.002. There's no reason, absolutely no reason, that I can see why leaving it for longer than 10 days would harm it. Don't listen to that hogwash.
Maybe they add campden tablets to arrest fermentation while there's still sugar, thus making it a sweeter cider...but you hit the nail on the head when you note that bottle fermentation-carbonation will be impossible if you don't add back more yeast...and if it's still got excess sugar in there, it'll overcarbonate anyway if you do add back yeast at bottling time. So, again, I'd disregard their instructions and don't add the tablets. If you want a sweeter cider in the end, all you need to do is add some lactose or splenda or maltodextrin at bottling time. None of those sugars are fermentable by beer/cider yeast. Personally, I like dry cider, so I'm not gonna add anything.
RDWHAHMC (Home Made Cider)
Maybe they add campden tablets to arrest fermentation while there's still sugar, thus making it a sweeter cider...but you hit the nail on the head when you note that bottle fermentation-carbonation will be impossible if you don't add back more yeast...and if it's still got excess sugar in there, it'll overcarbonate anyway if you do add back yeast at bottling time. So, again, I'd disregard their instructions and don't add the tablets. If you want a sweeter cider in the end, all you need to do is add some lactose or splenda or maltodextrin at bottling time. None of those sugars are fermentable by beer/cider yeast. Personally, I like dry cider, so I'm not gonna add anything.
RDWHAHMC (Home Made Cider)
rpucci
Well-Known Member
If you kill all of the yeast, it wont carbonate.
Pyro said:
That's right. As Evan said, what the website is trying to do is arrest the fermentation creating a sweeter cider. And a still one at that. Personally, I love Still ciders. Of course if you keg, you can carbonate anything regardless. If you want to suspend the yeastly duties like the website would like, wait until its done chomping on all current fermentables by leaving it primary another 3 weeks. Then rack, add campden and/or sorbistat k, then frozen concentrate (4 cans per 5gallons) really does wonders. Of course this is a still cider and can't be carbed unless kegging.
If you rack today without the campden, it will continue to ferment. You sound like you feel pressured, so don't sweat it, leave it in the primary another 3 weeks, rack it, let settle another 2 weeks to 2months, rack to bottling bucket, backsweeten w/ splenda/lactose (1 to 2 lbs), add priming sugar, chuck it in bottles and let em age til whenever for your sparkling cider.
Thanks guys. I was sweating it for a bit, but I think I'll take your advice and wait another 2-3 weeks. I just wasn't sure why they would tell you to kill the yeast before fermentation has finished...I thought there might be a primary rotting factor I didn't know about. After being reassured by all of your comments, I feel alot better about letting it go. Thanks all for the quick help!
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