Hi,
I'm new to homebrewing and to this forum. What a great resource. Anyway, I'm on my second batch of cider. For the first one I used champagne yeast and unfiltered apple cider and it came out clear and light and sparkley with no flavor and I think very little alcohol.
For this second batch, here is what I've done so far: 3 gallons of apple cider + 2 gallons all-natural apple juice + about 2 lbs of raw cane sugar (dissolved in water) + a vial of White Labs English Cider yeast. Let that bubble away in a glass carboy until it stopped. Not apple-y enough at that point so I added 4 cans of pure apple juice concentrate (no preservatives). That caused a few more days of action.
When that was done, there were a couple of inches of yeast sludge at the bottom so I siphoned off the cider from the sludge, washed out the carboy, and put it back in (a little of the sludge got in the cider, but not much). I also added 4 more cans of concentrated AJ (same brand as before).
Now it's been 2 days and nothing. Would any action be expected at this point? I know I'm not doing this riight, but it just seemed like a good idea....
I've got a whole big mess of Grolsch bottles ready that I'm going to bottle it into. Should I let it sit in the carboy some more, then bottle it, or is it time to bottle now? If I bottle it now, for a sparking cider, should I add some more sugar (and how much?), or is the sugar from the concentrated AJ enough?
It tastes pretty good right now.
I am sooo excited about batch number 2! I'd be thankful for any help.
I'm new to homebrewing and to this forum. What a great resource. Anyway, I'm on my second batch of cider. For the first one I used champagne yeast and unfiltered apple cider and it came out clear and light and sparkley with no flavor and I think very little alcohol.
For this second batch, here is what I've done so far: 3 gallons of apple cider + 2 gallons all-natural apple juice + about 2 lbs of raw cane sugar (dissolved in water) + a vial of White Labs English Cider yeast. Let that bubble away in a glass carboy until it stopped. Not apple-y enough at that point so I added 4 cans of pure apple juice concentrate (no preservatives). That caused a few more days of action.
When that was done, there were a couple of inches of yeast sludge at the bottom so I siphoned off the cider from the sludge, washed out the carboy, and put it back in (a little of the sludge got in the cider, but not much). I also added 4 more cans of concentrated AJ (same brand as before).
Now it's been 2 days and nothing. Would any action be expected at this point? I know I'm not doing this riight, but it just seemed like a good idea....
I've got a whole big mess of Grolsch bottles ready that I'm going to bottle it into. Should I let it sit in the carboy some more, then bottle it, or is it time to bottle now? If I bottle it now, for a sparking cider, should I add some more sugar (and how much?), or is the sugar from the concentrated AJ enough?
It tastes pretty good right now.
I am sooo excited about batch number 2! I'd be thankful for any help.
