When bottling my cider (FG 1.000) I ran out of bottles and saw this as an opportunity to flavour the remaining third and try racking. It was v/clear and light yellow after being a month in the primary. I got no OG measurement (I was abroad) but it has serious kick. My wife added 1kg of sugar and champagne yeast to sweet ripe apples.
I added some boiled cinnamon and clove then left it for a day while I got around to purchasing a second carboy. It occurred to me that this may have been bad when the cider turned brown and, I swear, developed a heavier mouth feel. More change than I expected from cinnamon/clove. I suspect drawing in oxygen through my water lock as I bottled may have started it turning to vinegar. Could this or anything else bad happen so quick? (we used apples from our tree with no potassium metabisulphate)
To rescue the situation, I racked the 5 litres to a smaller carboy, begrudgingly adding half a tablet of potassium metabisulphate to kill off anything bad and added a small amount of brown sugar to initiate a small secondary ferment to push the O2 out of the head. I used brown sugar because i figured the caramel would go well with the cinnamon. I also decided to back-sweeten with a small amount of splenda (to taste). The contents of my glass carboy looks thick, cloudy and dark. It concerns me.
Were these measures appropriate? How long should I expect the secondary ferment and clearing to take?
TIA, Luke
I added some boiled cinnamon and clove then left it for a day while I got around to purchasing a second carboy. It occurred to me that this may have been bad when the cider turned brown and, I swear, developed a heavier mouth feel. More change than I expected from cinnamon/clove. I suspect drawing in oxygen through my water lock as I bottled may have started it turning to vinegar. Could this or anything else bad happen so quick? (we used apples from our tree with no potassium metabisulphate)
To rescue the situation, I racked the 5 litres to a smaller carboy, begrudgingly adding half a tablet of potassium metabisulphate to kill off anything bad and added a small amount of brown sugar to initiate a small secondary ferment to push the O2 out of the head. I used brown sugar because i figured the caramel would go well with the cinnamon. I also decided to back-sweeten with a small amount of splenda (to taste). The contents of my glass carboy looks thick, cloudy and dark. It concerns me.
Were these measures appropriate? How long should I expect the secondary ferment and clearing to take?
TIA, Luke