Should I top this off and if so with what? **PICTURE**

Today I racked 6 gallons of fresh, raw juice which I pressed from my orchard. It has been in the primary since 9-16-12. It started at 1.052 SG and today was 1.002.

According to this site (Daves Dreaded Actual Specific Gravity) my alcohol content should be around 6.55%

I had about 3/4 inch of lees left behind.

The airlock had stopped bubbling about 4 days ago. I had opened the primary and felt like it smelled bad. I was encouraged to rack and so I did.

I thought about topping off with a little spring water but remembered that I do have some of the same juice frozen.

Should I thaw it out and then top off with that? Should I use water? Should I use store bought juice? Or can I leave it as is? Seems like too much air space to me. Here's the picture of the carboy after racking.

Definitely too much headspace for a secondary. That frozen juice would be my first choice, then store bought juice, with water being better than nothing.

The frozen juice will have fresh yeast and dissolved solids. Think that's ok?

Never done it but I would think freezing the juice woulda killed the wild yeasts. Solids shouldn't be a problem, just mix in some pectic enzyme and bentonite.

I wish I had an orchard...

Unferth said:

Never done it but I would think freezing the juice woulda killed the wild yeasts. Solids shouldn't be a problem, just mix in some pectic enzyme and bentonite.

I wish I had an orchard...

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That would work, but I'm going for a totally natural cider here. Fresh juice, my apples, no sulphite, no sorbate, no enzymes nothing added except apple juice and its natural yeast.

Any ideas?

Definitely respectable. Wish I could do the same.

Assuming yeasties are dead from freezing, shouldn't be a problem. If they aren't, you'll get more cidery goodness! But just from some pissed off yeasts that have been in your freezer hinterland

solids are just going to make it less clear. If you don't like cloudy cider, and you don't want to use clearing agents, you'll need to wait, potentially a long time. My apple wine has taken a month or more to clear without clearing agents.

Personally, i think cloudy cider is rustic and cool. It'll taste the same, you'll just get some fiber as you chew your hooch.

Just thaw to roomish temp and top up. DO NOT USE WATER!

What apples and how's it taste btw?

Unferth said:

DO NOT USE WATER!

What apples and how's it taste btw?

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Why not water? I did try to top off with spring water today and only added about 12 oz just to see how much I was going to need.

The apples are predominantly Grimes Golden. I also used some Jonathan and some Baldwin, but this batch is mostly Grimes Golden.

Don't know how it tastes yet. The foul smell had me a little concerned. Thought I'd let it go a while then try it. Only pressed it September 16th.

Here's a link to the first part of my cider making videos.

if you add anything with sugar to it, it'll reactivate the dormant yeast, and it'll eat all the sugar you add to backsweeten it. if you add anything with sugar in it to make it a little sweeter, you HAVE to add potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite to stop that from fermenting out, too. if you don't want to add chemicals at all, live with it as it is or add water

lumpher said:

if you add anything with sugar to it, it'll reactivate the dormant yeast, and it'll eat all the sugar you add to backsweeten it. if you add anything with sugar in it to make it a little sweeter, you HAVE to add potassium sorbate and potassium metabisulfite to stop that from fermenting out, too. if you don't want to add chemicals at all, live with it as it is or add water

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Thanks. My worry is not back sweetening and I'm not adding juice now for that purpose. I'm just trying to top off the carboy. So are you saying not to add juice to top off? The only juice that could ferment would be the newly added stuff. What's already in there is about done and I've racked it off the lees.

I guess I'm a bit worried what a new addition of juice to already fermented stuff will do since the new juice will be raw from the orchard and have its own yeast and bacteria. The stuff already in there looks like it's about 2 quarts low. Too much water might make it weak, you think?

UncaMarc said:

Thanks. My worry is not back sweetening and I'm not adding juice now for that purpose. I'm just trying to top off the carboy. So are you saying not to add juice to top off? The only juice that could ferment would be the newly added stuff. What's already in there is about done and I've racked it off the lees.

I guess I'm a bit worried what a new addition of juice to already fermented stuff will do since the new juice will be raw from the orchard and have its own yeast and bacteria. The stuff already in there looks like it's about 2 quarts low. Too much water might make it weak, you think?

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I wouldn't worry about it now, it is not that much head space. There will still be CO2 being produced that will fill that up, I wouldn't dilute your perfectly fine cider with water just for that purpose.

I would not leave that much headspace bc of oxidation. Water will dilute the taste of your cider.

Of course that KY spring water does make damn good bourbon... Maybe it'd make some good cider too.

If its the same juice you should have the same yeast profile assuming the suckers are still alive after freezing them, I'd pitch the thawed juice.

You might want to think about picking up a 5 gallon carboy for secondary. Then you can fill it almost to the top. Your other option is to fill the headspace with CO2, which you can do from a CO2 tank if you have a kegging system. If not, you could get a can of wine conditioner. Next batch, you might want to mix some more of the Jonathan with those Grimes Golden. GG is a good base apple, but needs something a little more acidic to balance it.

I'm very new to cider brewing myself. So what every one is saying is minimal headspace is important, unless the headspace is filled with something(CO2) other that air ?

i would definitely top that sucker off, get some juice in there. would be a shame to dilute it with water. but a bigger shame to lose it to a nasty infection. what are you worried about with the new juice? it will ferment out and you will have more cider. that fermentation will protect the cider by taking away oxygen and filling the space with CO2, so even if it's not completely full you will be much safer. it will start to re-ferment slowly since the yeast count is much lower after racking, so don't be fooled into thinking it's done, just give it a bit more time and you'll be glad you did. i only make cider with fresh apples, but i have no problem topping off a carboy with a bit of juice from the store, you'll never know the difference from that little bit. freezing doesn't kill yeast very efficiently by the way.

You could sanitize some marbles and put them into a new carboy, and rack onto them to reduce headspace