Way too sweet

RugenBrau said:

What type of yeast did you use. Without checking , I figure you have to be near 14%. Perhaps your yeast can't tolerate that alcohol level. Don't toss it out. You can always blend it with another batch. We've all made batches that don't turnout as we wish.

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Firstnten said:

. The air lock stopped bubbling about a week ago.

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BrewFrick said:

So was there apple juice used in this at all or just sugar? And what is your volume that you tried to ferment? If I assume this to be 5 gallons of juice with these sugar additions then yes, there is almost no way around it being too sweet. It also probably tastes like rocket fuel right now. If you are trying to eek out more alcohol then I would recommend making a starter with the champagne yeast and then adding in some yeast nutrient to the fermenter when you pitch the starter back into it. You need to keep a mix like that above 70 degrees to keep it warm and the yeast working hard for you. Try swirling it and if that does not work rack it to a carboy and that might get your fermentation restarted. Do some more research on the mead forum also, they work with very high sugar and alcohol issues in there all the time. A lot of the advice above is from mead making and my own experience in the subject. Give all this a try and see what you can't make work on this.

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curbdawg said:

The airlock stopped but was there still tiny little bubbles running up the sides of the carboy?? I ask because one on my batchs stopped bubbling, but I still had activity in there. I waited it out a couple more weeks and the SG was still dropping down slowly. Did you add nutrients when you re-pitched it?

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conpewter said:

Well it can be hard to get a yeast working when there is already 14% alcohol. Most of the time you need to step the yeast up slowly instead of putting them in a high sugar environment to start. You can also just pitch a massive amount of yeast to get it going.

Pitching another pack of yeast was not a bad idea, but you may need to rehydrate a couple packages of yeast, and then get the temperature at the higher end of their range so they can work better.

Otherwise you may end up blending it, or sending it to me as I love sweet cider

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Firstnten said:

Thanks!!! Yes 5 gallons of fresh pressed. I raised the room temp and will try two packets (primed) with yeast nutrient after a few day at the higher temp. I was worried I screwed up big time with the temp drop.

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estefano said:

If that fail, dilute it with some water, or a lot of apple juice (divide it between two fermentors). It should restart under 72 hrs.

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phred_02 said:

What you are making is more of an apple wine than an apple cider. When you get into that high of alcohol contents it can take quite some time for fermentation to finish. I usually let my fruit wines sit in the primary for a week or so until fermentation has slowed and then move to a glass secondary where fermentation will often continue for a month or more.

Not to mention with 17% alcohol you will want to let it age for a minimum of 6 months, maybe closer to a year.

Anyway to answer your question it should still be fine. Just move it to a secondary and forget about it for a long time.

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Firstnten said:

Update:

I don't have a graduated cylinder or anything that will work with my hydrometer while using a carboy. So this weekend I poured off a 1.5 liter bottle and took a reading (SG1.000-002). the cyder is still dark. After the reading i corked the bottle and let it sit for 48 hours. Within that time allot of sediment had appeared so I opened it. It seemed pretty clear that I would have had a bottle bomb had I not done so from the "pop" i got while opening it. Any guess as to how long it will take before this clears?

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BrewinJack said:

i would guess at normal temps your looking at at least 2-3 weeks of clearing. I fyou drop it below 40F then you will clear alot faster and alot of that extra yeast you pinched in will drop out of solution. but you wont ferment anymore. Likely as it is at 1.002-1.000 then its decently dry, but all the unfermentable sugars you used in the molasses and the brown sugar your sill gonna have a sweet flavor, more of the taste of molasses. It sounds like good suff. If you do this again to shoot for a high ABV then i would sugest using one type of Champagne yeast and trying to use honey instead of molasses. This stuff is gonna stay dark, it wont ever lighten unless you set it in the sun for a week after youve bottled it and let UV scrubb some of the color, but then youll get off flavors in the bottle. Were you planning on carbing this??? i mean youve got somthing like dark apple champagne here, definatly not cider.

cheers

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gratus fermentatio said:

Might take some time to clear after repitching. Did you use pectic enzyme at all? that helps to clear in fresh-pressed juice, but it's not instantaneous. Time is usually all you need. You can always cold crash when it reaches the gravity you want & it should clear pretty quick then. I'd let it bulk age at least till it's clear before bottling; but then I've bulk aged things for a few years in carbouys. That's my 2 cents worth, GF.

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Firstnten said:

I didn't use anything besides Yeast and sugar. Yeah I have seen your posts you have the patients of a saint. I think before you told me to get a pipeline going LMAO!! Thats what I'm shooting for. As much as I want to start drinking this stuff I'm going to pour off one more bottle and then as you guys say "forget about it".

On a side bar: I have a batch of 80% apple and 20% cranberry juice going. I saw that you had tried different percentages of cranberry to apple before only to have it come out tasting like cough syrup. If you are right I'll drink that green to get ride of it and make room.

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