First cider Question

I made on 2/20/10 my first cider recipie and was looking for a dry cider and have a few questions about it.

Recipie is as follows:

4.5 gallons of apple cider without preservatives and was just pasteurized.
juice of 3 key limes with 1 cup of water and simmered for acid
1/2 tsp yeast nutrient
1/2 tsp Grape tannin for mouthfeel
White labs English Cider Yeast

It appears to be done fermenting however is as cloudy as it was when starting. How can I clarify it? What fining agents would you recommend?

I forgot to take a OG reading so what could one estimate my alcohol content in this from your past experiences.

Even with using a gelatin or finier will it still be able to prime and bottle? I am new to fining agents and wasnt sure if it would knock all the yeast out of suspension and not be able to prime.

Thanks for your help

Looks like all you would have to do to calculate your starting gravity is get some more of that apple juice and take a hydrometer reading. Then use your final gravity reading and do the math.

Have you tried racking your cider to a secondary container and chilling it? That will greatly clear it up. You could then rack again and bottle or keg.

Apple juice tends to run in the 1.045-1.060 range, but usually falls around 1.050-1.055.

In the future, adding some pectic enzyme a few hours before the yeast will help clear the cider later. When the yeast starts to from lees, the enzyme will drag the solids down with it. Follow the directions on the packaging.

The answer depends on what's causing the cloudiness. If the cloudiness is due to yeast in suspension then both fining with gelatin or isinglass or cold crashing/cold conditioning will make a massive difference. You should still have enough yeast in supsension to carbonate unless you lager for at least a month or more.

If it has other causes then I would suggest (not absolutely) that it is due to processes not carried out before fermentation. Whether or not that will clear I'm not sure. Some have suggested pectic enzyme - this is not something I have used so I can't comment. However a method I have tried (and had crystal clear ciders resulting) is a method used in breton style cider making.

In this method you let the juice (I don't pasteurise mine either) sit in a closed vessel (minimum headspace) for 24 - 48 hours. A crust will form. Rack the cider into a new vessel and leave this crust behind. This will help clarify the resulting cider. I'm not sure how pasteurising will effect this method (worth checking).

The above is a risk - breton cider relies on the yeasts in the apples for fermentation. I haven't got to the point where I'm ready to try that and there is a possibility wild yeasts could take over. No need to worry about e.coli or toxic bacteria - the resulting alcoholic environment should take care of that but you still want the cider to taste good. To avoid problems I make a starter with my yeast, yeast nutrient and fresh apple juice prior so when the main juice is racked off, the yeast is raring to go and fermentation happens fairly quickly. I do also fine and cold condition the cider at the end of ferment and I ferment at low temps (12 -15 deg Celcius). I get a nice clear cider at the end of it that carbs up perfectly with bulk priming - no extra yeast.

If you give us what the SG is now, we could tell if it has finished fermenting. I did several ciders and they all ended around the 0.996 range. I then crash chilled for a few days, then racked into a keg and backsweetened slightly and force carb them. Crash chilling works to help the reamaining yeast fall out, and clarify the cider.

Ok sorry for the late reply but I finally got the gravity as 1.003 right now. Its tasty and has been in the fermenter for about 35 days. It tastes good, dry, and slightly tart but im worried it is low in alcohol content. Im starting to think I should have added maybe even 500 g of dextrose. Im thinking about crashing it if it stays at 1.003 and if it still has cloudiness adding gelatin then kegging it and letting it carbonate without force carbing it. Any thoughts?

Will319 said:

im worried it is low in alcohol content. Im starting to think I should have added maybe even 500 g of dextrose.

Click to expand...

Please expand on this thought - why are you worried?

Worried was probably the wrong word choice, however I do enjoy a fair alcohol content in my homebrews. I usually have at least 4 or 5 percent minimum (when I remember to take readings) in most beers I make.

Relax then - cider is usually 5%-8%. Edit: 5-8% naturally without the addition of sugar.

I make cider all the time, and its fair to assume that your cider was ~1.050. You stated you have a FG @ 1.003, that is 6.1% abv in my book.

Sounds like you can drink 2 or 3 and you will no longer be worried at all ;-)

So to follow up. I cold crashed it for 3 weeks at 38-40F then added gelatin to clarify a little. Last night I added 2.5 tsp Potassium Sorbate and racked it on to a can of Apple Juice Concentrate to backsweeten because I felt it was too tart. ( I definately added 1 too many limes). I then put it in a corney and set it to 12 PSI. I couldnt wait for it to carbonate and tried some this afternoon. It was quite good, and I definately dont forsee it lasting too long, so I need to start another. Thank you all for your help.