Cider Newbie

hey guys,

i just recently picked up a mexican 5-gal glass carboy for $7.50 and I am excited to finally get started brewing something!

i figured i would start out with a hard cider of some sort since cool weather is just around the corner...

i was just looking for some guidance into this foray...

i was going to use 5 gals of unfiltered natural apple juice along with a lb of dark brown sugar and ale yeast... i believe it needs to ferment for around a month or so before even thinking about bottling it

what i was wondering was if i could bottle straight out of the primary? after the yeast has finished eating up all the original sugar i could add some extra AJ or brown sugar, mix it up in the carboy, and then rack to bottles... does this sound like a viable option?

if this is impossible, please correct me

You'd be best to invest in a bottling bucket and bottle from that... There is plenty of info on here fir bottling and if you dump in sugar to the primary it won't mix evenly when you siphon into bottles...it adds like 3 mins forthe security of not having bottle bombs next to flat duds

can you explain why it won't mix evenly in the primary, but will mix evenly in the bottling bucket?

shouldn't i be able to add the sugar, agitate it a bit, and be fine?

Ok on the bottom of the primary is a whole bunch of yeast that has settled out (or will settle out with time) if you just dump in priming sugar, it will NOT mix evenly, so if you shake or stir, you'll now agitate and add oxygen into the cider - nit a great combo as far ad a preservation standpoint as well as it would put all that yeast back into suspension and all that time you waited for it to clear would be wasted.

Now when take your priming solution put it in a bottling bucket and siphion on top it evenly mixes without agitation as well as you leave behind all the nasty trub.

but there is still yeast floating around in suspension, right? isn't that how the bottle carbing works?

That's exactly how it works... So when that yeast settles out your left with some trub in the bottle. So if you add in a whole lot more yeast into suspension it will have no where to go but to the bottomof the bottle and well you'll have more yeast to try to not get into your glass.

OK, so I would need to use a second carboy/bucket, add the sugar into the bottom, and then siphon into that. from there i could rack to bottles? the amount of yeast left in suspension will be enough for bottle carbing?

That's exactly how it works siphoning into the very bottom will create a mini whirlpool which will evenly mix everything