OK to bottle?

We are thinking about bottling our first batch of cider this weekend.

We started the batch on 11/5, and it hasn't been bubbling for quite some time (it's in a secondary now).

I was planning on adding some corn sugar and bottling it up, and maybe it would be ok to drink by xmas.

Any opinions? From what I've read many people recommend waiting a long time, but it should still be drinkable after this period of time? Thanks!

If it is no longer bubbling, and your SG hasn't changed in a few days, you have fermented out all of the available sugars. (Or, your yeast has reached it's alcohol tolerance, but unless you have added quite a bit of other sugars, it has fermented out.)

At this time, add your priming sugar, mix in and bottle.

What was your recipe?

steve

We boiled the following in 1 gallon of water for an hour:

2 cinamon sticks
1/4 tblspoon allspice whole
1 tablesppon orange peel
1/2 teaspoon cloves, ground
8.5 oz can of pears heavy syrup
1 teaspoon irish moss at 15 mins

Then we added that gallon of liquid to 4 gallons of apple juice, and pitched with champaign yeast (My wife wanted it really dry)

Then in the secondary we added 2 cups of honey.

We really just made the whole thing up so I guess we will see how it goes...

it might be drinkable by x mas but not very good. i have one going right now and its been two months and it still needs about another month to taste good
don't mean to be a downer but thats what happen to me....good luck

We bottled it today, and it isn't bad but it is very light. Maybe that is because of using some much water boiled with the spices?

Is there any way to calculate the ABV since we added honey to the secondary? I realize now that probably wasn't the best idea.

The OG was 1.042 and FG was 1.000 but that doesn't take the honey we added into consideration. Any ideas? Thanks!

Any ideas? Yeah, here's one...with the use of cinnamon, allspice and cloves your brew is not going to be mellow until April 07.

Do me a favor and get back to me on that date and tell me how far off I am.

Your FG was 1.000??!!!!!!!


Isn't that... like... ummm... ridiculously low? I didn't know that was even possible.

F.G. is determined by the amount of fermentables/nonfermentables. My wines always finish around .990 to .996. If you want a sweet wine/cider, you usually have to backsweeten. I wouldn't bottle a wine or cider unless it was under 1.000 or stabilized with sorbate and then backsweetened after fermentation ceased. Otherwise, you'd have bottle bombs.

Wine and beer are different animals, and wine usually starts with a higher s.g. and ends lower (hence the higher alcohol content). Beer does not taste very good super dry, but wine does. Some wine yeasts (like champagne yeast) have an alcohol tolerance of up to 18%. Ale yeasts peter out at much, much less.

So, the s.g. at 1.000 is about right for a dry cider, but it could go a bit lower with champagne yeast, unless the added honey exceeded the alcohol tolerance.

Lorena

crisis said:

The OG was 1.042 and FG was 1.000 but that doesn't take the honey we added into consideration. Any ideas? Thanks!

Click to expand...

The honey you added won't increase the gravity much - It's not an issue. I'm with HB_99 though on the spices. Plain, simple ciders are better after 6 months aging. Add spices (or extra fermentables for higher ABVs) and you've got to allow even more time to let them mellow.

If the OG was 1.042, not counting the 2 cups of honey, it was probably at 5% or lower, when it fermented out.

I just checked on my triple-scale hydrometer. You are going to be at 5%, not counting the honey.

If you have a triple-scale hydrometer, the %alcohol by volume scale shows the percent potential you have, by your OG. If you subtract the FG reading from the OG reading, you get the final % alcohol.

Let me try that again. When you take your OG reading, at the same level, around to the other side, is the % alcohol scale. Look at that number. Now find your FG reading(unless it is 1.000, in which case it is zero) Subtract the FG % alcohol reading from the OG % alcohol reading, and you get your alcohol reading.

Your %alcohol OG reading was 1.042, which corresponds to about 5%. Your FG was 1.000, which equals 0%, so you end up at 5%.

The 2 cups of honey in your secondary will add to that, as will any conditioning sugar.

If that makes sense, you're doing better than I am!

steve

Oh, 5% or even 6% is well within the limits for most yeasts. Your champagne yeast will probably be capable of 18%.

steve

I'm not sure what you mean by mellow out, but it seemed pretty light without any dominating flavors when we tasted it this weekend. But again, in hindsight I don't think we should have added as much water from the boiled spices.

What do you guys think? Would it have been better to use 5 gallons of cider and boil the spices in one of the gallons of cider?