OK, so I wanted to juice my own apples up and brew up some of the real stuff, but I don't have a press so I had to use a juicer (extracts about 50% juice by weight of apples, pretty bad, but then I do some manual squeezing to get as high as 65-70%).
Thing is, it's so laborious that I have done it in batches - 2 litres about 5 days ago, pitched yeast (bayanus cider yeast, nothing else added). Another 2 litres added to the primary 2 days later. Fermentation seemed to have slowed in the meantime, but seemed to resume OK when I added the second batch of juice. All for practical reasons, though I had read somewhere that adding in stages like that MIGHT improve flavour too.
I was ready to add another batch today and I see there's no activity - I put in the hydrometer and it's down to less than 1.000 already (from OG 1052)?! Can't even quite measure it due to lack of depth, but it tastes a little sparkly but has basically fermented almost completely dry, probably in 995 territory.
Is that possible? The store-bought pasteurized juice I have brewed before took, I kid you not, a good month to ferment out (though using S04), so I reckoned I had plenty of time to add my juice in stages.
So what now? Add the next 2-4-6 litres, whatever, and hope fermentation restarts. Repitch if it doesn't? Make another batch separately and mix them later in the secondary?
Experts, help appreciated!
P.S. I am happy with the dryness as I grew up with British-type dry cider, just wondering how to continue adding to the batch!
Thing is, it's so laborious that I have done it in batches - 2 litres about 5 days ago, pitched yeast (bayanus cider yeast, nothing else added). Another 2 litres added to the primary 2 days later. Fermentation seemed to have slowed in the meantime, but seemed to resume OK when I added the second batch of juice. All for practical reasons, though I had read somewhere that adding in stages like that MIGHT improve flavour too.
I was ready to add another batch today and I see there's no activity - I put in the hydrometer and it's down to less than 1.000 already (from OG 1052)?! Can't even quite measure it due to lack of depth, but it tastes a little sparkly but has basically fermented almost completely dry, probably in 995 territory.
Is that possible? The store-bought pasteurized juice I have brewed before took, I kid you not, a good month to ferment out (though using S04), so I reckoned I had plenty of time to add my juice in stages.
So what now? Add the next 2-4-6 litres, whatever, and hope fermentation restarts. Repitch if it doesn't? Make another batch separately and mix them later in the secondary?
Experts, help appreciated!
P.S. I am happy with the dryness as I grew up with British-type dry cider, just wondering how to continue adding to the batch!
