I started two gallons of cider on October 13th. Moved it off the cake on the bottom of the two 2 gallon carboys yesterday and decided to stick it in the fridge as at 1.008 FG, it seemed ready to go.
The recipe was as follows-
2 Gallons cider (local orchard stuff from southern ME)
About 6 oz. of clover honey
6 grams of Safale-SO4
SG- 1.05 (average of a couple readings corrected for temperature)
FG of 1.001
By my math- about 6.4% ABV
I'll get to the point- I don't much care for it.
It's pretty clear, still but more like a low alcohol wine than what I was expecting. I'd love some carbonation, but I'm on a budget here. I backsweetened with quite a bit of the same cider I had hardened, but it's still not anywhere near what I expected. It bubbled steadily until I moved it to secondary and off the cake- but I decided to call it quits because there was quite a bit of headspace in the secondary and not much action (I wanted it to clear a bit, but didn't want cider vinegar). I've had some J.K scrumpy's that I fell in love with, and would like something a little more on that idea. I'm thinking next time- higher SG (achieved with brown sugar), higher finished ABV, and more backsweetening to a final ABV of about 5%. (Sorry if this makes no sense- I've been really hammering this stuff).
The recipe was as follows-
2 Gallons cider (local orchard stuff from southern ME)
About 6 oz. of clover honey
6 grams of Safale-SO4
SG- 1.05 (average of a couple readings corrected for temperature)
FG of 1.001
By my math- about 6.4% ABV
I'll get to the point- I don't much care for it.
It's pretty clear, still but more like a low alcohol wine than what I was expecting. I'd love some carbonation, but I'm on a budget here. I backsweetened with quite a bit of the same cider I had hardened, but it's still not anywhere near what I expected. It bubbled steadily until I moved it to secondary and off the cake- but I decided to call it quits because there was quite a bit of headspace in the secondary and not much action (I wanted it to clear a bit, but didn't want cider vinegar). I've had some J.K scrumpy's that I fell in love with, and would like something a little more on that idea. I'm thinking next time- higher SG (achieved with brown sugar), higher finished ABV, and more backsweetening to a final ABV of about 5%. (Sorry if this makes no sense- I've been really hammering this stuff).