Too sweet cider..

So, I started my very first hard cider on 9-30-09:

1/2 gallon unpasteurized cider
1/2 tsp red star bread yeast
1.5 cups white sugar
1.5 cups lt brown sugar

stored around 65-70

I dissolved the sugar into some of the cider (about half) over low heat, no boiling or anything. Let it cool, tossed the cider and the sugar cider mixture into the bottle with the yeast dropped on top. I racked into another bottle on 10-11.. it seemed like the fermentation had stopped (airlock bubbled MAYBE once per min.) so I added half a crushed campden tablet, let it sit 24+ hours in the fridge reracked it again. I tried calling it done and drinking it (has a great flavor), it's just WAY too sweet.. I saw a thread on Graham's English Cider and I'm toying with the idea of getting some apple juice and starting some of it and just adding what I've made instead of sugar.. I'm not really sure what to do with it (the sweet cider that is).
Thanks
LuigiMario

Did you take gravity readings? It may have not finished fermenting.

3 cups of sugar in half a gallon of juice? Thats almost a pound and a half. Thats usually what I put in 6 gallons.

I'm surprised you could get that much sugar to dissolve. Not surprised that bread yeast wasnt able to ferment it out. Maybe champagne yeast could ferment it out

I don't have a hydrometer, I've been thinking about getting one but my funds are extremely tight atm.

It did take a while to dissolve and was quite thick afterwords.. I got some lavlin d47 and some ec-1118 yeasts I picked up from the brew store a few days ago, could I just make a starter with one of those and toss it in to finish fermenting it?

I'm not really sure what either of those yeasts are for, I told the guy I was making some hard cider and he gave me one and I asked for a champagne yeast (someone mentioned it has a higher alcohol tolerance)..
Thanks for the input,
Luigi Mario

use the EC1118

Ok, cool. Would it be a good idea to get some more un-fermented cider to add when I pitch the yeast again?

Luigi Mario

yes! you have way too much sugar and not nearly enough juice

haha ok, When I was trying to figure out how I wanted to make it I used a conglomerate of recipes and must have gotten my information crossed somewhere.. Should I just add another 1/2 gallon or would that make it end up too dry? I'm looking for something with a semi-sweet..
I have another full gallon I started on 10-7 and racked 10-17
2 1/4 c. dark brown sugar
3 c. white sugar
1/4 t. nutmeg
1/4 t. cinnamon
I actually need to check on it, based on how the other did it's probably slowing way down now.. do I need to go ahead and add more juice/yeast to this batch as well?

Luigi Mario

You should probably start with a basic yeast and cider recipe to make your hard cider, before you start on additives. Adding sugar before fermenting is primarily to increase alcohol content. The exception being if you are going to stop the fermentation process at a given point. Given the fact that you used three cups of sugar on 1/2 a gallon of cider, I don't expect that you'll be having much success on crashing either.

I would suggest making a regular cider, letting it ferment out, then backsweeten it after you are done.

I know I should have started basic and went from there.. I just wanted to make it right the first time. And second

I already started the super-sweet half-gallon, the gallon recipe above, a prapple (pear/apple... about the color of diarrhea), a gallon of grape wine my aunt asked me to make with grape juice from her vines, and last but not least a grape wine from concord grapes.

The only access I have that I know of to usable cider was from the farmer's market now over.

Maybe some of these are close to you
http://www.allaboutapples.com/orchard/oh.htm

Try this basic recipe:
-5 gallons fresh pressed juice ( no preservatives)
-2 lbs brown sugar
- wyeast sweet mead yeast or safale S-04 yeast

Take gravity readings. rack at 1.010, then cold crash. leave for a few days to a week. rack again. bulk age for 1-2 months, or longer if not clear. Bottle.

Wicked easy and awesome results. if you only want to do 1 gallon, use 6 oz of brown sugar. (some prefer dextrose or other sugars, I like brown sugar.)

As far as the whole backsweetening thing, that is for batches that you have left too long and accidentally fermented out to dryness. Stopping fermentation at a proper gravity (1.010 is a good semi sweet but tart SG) will produce superior results, and should be the goal.

There's one more thing that wasn't mentioned yet, and that is the fact that getting fermentation to start when your SG is so high is extremely difficult.

I am currently trying to make a homemade rum (sans distillation), and my OG was over 1.200. After an entire month, using champagne yeast, my SG was only down to about 1.160. Fermentation is going, but it is EXTREMELY slow.

As somebody who has done the same thing, let me say that you've made several mistakes in this batch. (Don't worry, though, it's how you learn!)

Given enough time (and maybe some more juice and yeast), this batch could turn out OK. I would follow the other advice, though, and do another batch, using a much, much simpler recipe to get a baseline.

For instance, I got a pretty good apple cider using store-bought (Kroger) apple juice and Nottingham yeast. That's it. Took less than 5 minutes to prepare 5 gallons worth. SG was 1.048. FG was just under 1.010. Good flavor, very apple-y. Next time, I think I'll add a little bit of brown sugar, but at least I've gotten a baseline for comparison.

I saw some pasteurized apples cider (Kroger's organic section) that didn't have any preservatives in it and I'm thinking about using it to add to my sweet stuff and to make plain cider with just the juice and some yeast. The cider at krogers was as clear as reg. apple juice, and that got me thinking.. Will a reallly hazy/cloudy cider clear up after it ferments? or will it only get as clear as the original cider? I have pH strips from previous science experiments will those work fine to test the pH level of the cider? I don't see why they would read any differently than a pH testing kit or whatever the do-yourself-shop has.

Well, you certainly did go "BIG" on you your first try.
If you like the taste of the apple juice, you should like the cider it can produce.
If it is cloudy, it will be cloudy after fermentation and it might clear after months, or you could use clarifying agents on it. I really have no problem drinking cloudy cider as long as it's tasty.
You can always add a few cans of Tree Top apple concentrate to up the flavour if you want. I usually use one after fermentation is completed to back sweeten. I have a few batches ageing now that I put 2 cans into the primary.

I did an Apfelwein using cloudy cider. 2 months in, after using 2 separate clarifying agents, it's still cloudy. I'm thinking that a mechanical filter would be necessary at this point. I won't use cloudy cider again.

Kauai_Kahuna: I got a bit over-excited when I was about 13 I learned a little bit about wine-making and I thought that it sounded like a lot of fun so my G-ma took me to the local do-it-yourself shop so I could look around. Needless to say she didn't buy anything for me at the time. Shortly after I turned 21 she bought me a 1/2 gallon of unpasteurized apple cider. I can't say as she thought about me fermenting it but as soon as I saw it that's what came to mind.. Then I just got way too excited with it..

MBM: What's the difference in an Apfelwein and a Cider? Or, is it just and apple wine that sounds nifty?

Apfelwein and a Cider? Or, is it just and apple wine that sounds nifty?
--
Loosely:
Apfelwein has an ABV of a wine and taste more like a wine.
Cider has an ABV of a beer up to the wine levels.
Different strokes for different folks.

From EdWort's Apfelwein Wiki page:

Apfelwein (German: apple wine) is a German style of cider. Unlike many other cider traditions that rely solely on the naturally occurring sugars in apples, this German variant usually includes added sugar, resulting in a higher gravity beverage.[1]

Page can be viewed here:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Apfelwein

This seems to reinforce my understanding, which is that an Apfelwein is a cider with added sugar to bring the OG up to about 1.09 or higher, with an ABV of 9% or more. I think it can still be considered cider if you add SOME sugar, but it's kind of like the line between IPA and DIPA/IIPA... there's a lot of crossover.

Anyone else want to chime in?

Thanks!