First attempt! Advice needed from the pros

Ok, so I caught the cider bug after a trip to Ireland and a lot of Bulmers.

Yesterday I put a little over 7 gallons (a mix between a fresh cider mix from a local distillery and store bought fresh pressed juice) in a 7.9 gal. fermenting pail. The sg was 1.040. I added a little over a pound of brown sugar which brought the sg up to 1.053.

I added English cider yeast, stuck the lid on and popped on an airlock, and figured that I better start checking with people that know about best next steps, figuring that I will be ready when I do another batch.

What should I do now? What temperature should I try to keep the pail at? How long should I forget about it? Anything else?

Thanks a lot, this is fun.

Guess I should have added that I consider everyone on here 'pros'.

I would highly recommend fermenting as close to 60 degrees as possible. Keep an eye on the gravity, but it will most likely take a month or more at that temp.

Most people prefer it semi- sweet as opposed to completely dry, so I would be looking to stop the ferment about 1.010 by racking it to a different container, and cold crash by bringing it down to a temp in the mid 30s if possible. then when the majority of the cloudiness has settled to the bottom, rack again.

Aging it a few months is preferred, but at 1.010 it should be very enjoyable almost immediately.

Thanks!

1 pound of brown sugar seems low to me for 7 gallons, but to each his own. Usually people put in 2 pounds for 5 gallons. That's 0.4 pounds per gallon.

Fermented to 1.010, this will get about 5.6% alcohol. Fermented to 1.000 will get you about 7%.

agreed. I use 2lbs per 5 gallon.

Like I said, first try.

I use four pounds for five gallons

Ok, so maybe this is a no no, but after the talk of more sugar, and since I had just put the yeast in, I added a pound of brown sugar, stirred, took out a gallon to ferment separately in a small carboy so I could watch it, and sealed everything back up.

Hey Ben...Adding sugar in mid ferment isn't necessarily a "no-no". For example, if you are going for a super high gravity beverage, you have to do a lot of extra work to make sure the Yeast is buffered to maximize the best environment. It is not uncommon to add sugar in stages during take off when dealing with certain applications so don't fret too much about it.

On another note, if you open the lid and insert a stir spoon, just make sure you are sanitizing.

Good, I do sanitize everything - pretty anal about it.

Should I check the sg every week or so, or how long do I do the initial ferment for? I was planning to rack to a carboy, but really was just starting to figure out next steps. I've been reading about bottling and pasteurization and bottle bombs on here this morning, and my head is swimming. I had been planning to rack it, let it sit for the proper time, and then bottle into flip top growlers, but now I'm not sure.

Ben34 said:

Good, I do sanitize everything - pretty anal about it.

Should I check the sg every week or so, or how long do I do the initial ferment for? I was planning to rack to a carboy, but really was just starting to figure out next steps. I've been reading about bottling and pasteurization and bottle bombs on here this morning, and my head is swimming. I had been planning to rack it, let it sit for the proper time, and then bottle into flip top growlers, but now I'm not sure.

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It should be common practice to check the SG often. After a few tries, you will get to the point where you notice the slowing of the bubbles and that is your Que. Before you bottle, just make sure the majority of fermentation is complete, i.e no more bubbling.
If you want a little carbonation while drinking, you can mix up a small amount of warm sugar water for your bottling bucket...something like 1/4 cup per gallon.
Initial ferment should be around 1-2 weeks (double check by using your hydrometer). You can then rack into a secondary to help clear the brew. let it sit for another 2 weeks. Bottle and then age for another 1-3 months. Just remember the longer it sits, the better it will taste. Pasteurizing is a whole different thread my friend. That's where campden tablets would come in handy...

Thanks!

BeerBrewBob said:

It should be common practice to check the SG often. After a few tries, you will get to the point where you notice the slowing of the bubbles and that is your Que. Before you bottle, just make sure the majority of fermentation is complete, i.e no more bubbling.

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In most cases, fermentation should be complete, not nearly complete, when you bottle. Bottling a cider before it's done fermenting gives you cloudy cider and/or lots of sediment. It also risks bottle bombs. I would suggest letting the cider clarify in secondary.

I'm not a fan of taking SG readings often. As long as the airlock is bubbling, I don't see the need and it risks contamination. I take an SG reading when I pitch my yeast and another when I rack to secondary. Unless there's a reason, such as knowing when to cold crash, I never take intermediate SG readings.

Ben - Your first thing to consider now is what you want your final product to be. If you allow the cider to ferment all the way out, it will likely drop to around 1.000 or even lower and resemble champagne. This is perhaps more convenient if you want to carbonate, but you can also halt your fermentation a little higher and easily pasteurize your cider in the bottles after allowing them to carbonate through several hours of regular fermentation. This will kill all the yeast in the bottles, and the dead yeast will subsequently settle at the bottom of the bottles.

Simply put, if you want cider that will be like champagne, allow it to ferment all the way out before bottling. If you want this carbonated, add priming sugar at bottling time. Otherwise, don't.

If you want cider that is sweet and flat, bottle at probably 1.015-1.020 (your taste is your best indicator; drink your gravity samples), and immediately pasteurize your bottles. If you want the cider to be sweet and carbonated, bottle, and then start cracking a bottle ever 4 hours or so to see where your carbonation is at. Remember that the majority of your co2 will be in the head space rather than in solution so it can be hard to gauge. I have found that 8-12 hours gives me the mild carbonation I want. When you think it's been given long enough to carbonate, pasteurize your bottles.

This method for sweet, sparkling cider has worked out fantastically for me. The cider is actually better at 5-6% abv, because fresh cider is so cloyingly sweet to begin with. This way, you are left with a tart, refreshing cider with just the right amount of sweetness that will also give you a mean buzz.

Edit: I should also add that halted cider like I described above is ready immediately. People talk about aging for god knows how long, but I have to assume that only really applies if you let it ferment out. Once it's pasteurized, stick it in the fridge til the yeast settles out, and you're good to go. It will get a little better over time but hardly enough that its even worth waiting for.

If you don't want to have to crack a bottle every four hours or so to check your carbonation (this seriously cuts into batches <2gal), then use the coke bottle method. What I personally do is buy a bottle of some sort of carbonated soft drink that I want the carbonation of my beverage to turn out like. For ciders, I buy a plastic bottle of Perrier. Prime and fill that bottle the same as your others, and when it feels like it did with the soft drink of choice still in it, you have achieved your desired carbonation level (maybe give it an extra several hours to be sure). To me, checking every 4 hours seems a little excessive. My last cider took 4 days to carbonate to where I wanted it and I have a sparkling mead that has been carbonating for about 10 days now. How quickly things carb up deprnds on the amount of yeast present, the activity of those yeast, the strain of the yeast, and how much sugar there is for them.