chmcgrat
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- May 4, 2016
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Hi there!
Sorry for the long post, but if you can, please bear with me. I just need some affirmation or advice on my first real brew.
I am relatively new to brewing cider.
I was introduced to this whole thing by a friend of mine who makes it in a pretty rudimentary way. I followed her instructions the first time I made it, and I did it the amateur way, using the plastic jug that the cider came in, pouring off one cup of cider, adding one cup of sugar, adding bread yeast (I know, gross!), and then loosely sealing it off with a piece of plastic wrap. I fermented it for about 4 days (and it smelled pretty gross while fermenting, which I have assumed could be attributed to the bread yeast that I used) and then poured it through a coffee filter to get most of the sediment out (which took forever!) I added the extra cup of non-alcoholized cider, and then added some apple juice concentrate, and refrigerated it in the plastic jug it came in.
Anyway, the taste turned out surprisingly good (especially when mixed with Sprite for a sweet and bubbly cooler-like drink), but after reading real cider recipes online, I was really itching to try making it using the proper equipment.
So, I went to my local winemaking shop and was recommended to start small and try making it in a 1-gallon jug for my first try. I bought an amber glass 1-gallon jug, a bottle cap for the jug, a #6.5 drilled bung, a plastic 3-piece airlock, and a 5g packet of Lalvin wine yeast. Then I went to the grocery store and bought a 3L jug of preservative-free unsweetened apple cider and a can of preservative-free apple juice concentrate.
I went home and cleaned out the inside of the glass jug by shaking some peroxide around in it (it's all I had), and steam sanitized the bung, the bottle cap, and the airlock. I melted the airlock, because I'm stupid and plastic melts in heat obviously, LOL, and I went back and got another, which the man at the store sanitized for me. I poured the cider into the glass jug, added the apple juice concentrate, and sprinkled a 1/4 tsp of yeast on top (which I estimated to be about 1g or 1/5th of the packet) without first rehydrating the yeast, as the packet instructed. Now, the reason I didn't rehydrate it was because my recipe said to sprinkle it on top, and the packet was assuming I was making wine, so after thinking long and hard about whose instructions to follow, I went with the recipe's.
Without resanitizing the probably contaminated airlock (I'd had enough of trying to sterilize things at this point, and my other cider turned out drinkable without sanitizing anything), I filled it with water, stuck it in the bung, stuck the bung in the jug, and called it a day.
After about 48 hours, it started to show some airlock activity. I expected to see some sooner than that, but it is definitely fermenting now, and that is good. I started the batch on April 28th, so it has been going for about 6 days now, and bubbling for 4 days. I know I should have, but I did not buy a hydrometer, so I'm just going on what the airlock looks like. It is only releasing 1 bubble per 10.5 seconds, which seems slower than I think it should be going. I looked up clips on YouTube of these airlocks bubbling and they are all bubbling at a much faster rate than mine. But the videos on YouTube are also showing much larger batches, and they are fermenting them in fermenting buckets, and not 1-gallon glass jugs.
So I guess I have 2 main questions:
1. Does the rate at which it releases bubbles just relate to the amount of cider you are fermenting?
2. This may sound dumb, but why do people use fermenting buckets for the primary fermentation as opposed to using the glass carboys?
I read something online where someone said to actually leave the lid of the fermenting bucket off(!) during the primary fermentation because oxygen helps the fermentation. Do people only do this when they are relying solely on wild yeasts in the air to ferment the brew and they aren't worried about contamination?
If you can offer me any insight or suggestions, they would be much appreciated! Thank you in advance!
Sorry for the long post, but if you can, please bear with me. I just need some affirmation or advice on my first real brew.
I am relatively new to brewing cider.
I was introduced to this whole thing by a friend of mine who makes it in a pretty rudimentary way. I followed her instructions the first time I made it, and I did it the amateur way, using the plastic jug that the cider came in, pouring off one cup of cider, adding one cup of sugar, adding bread yeast (I know, gross!), and then loosely sealing it off with a piece of plastic wrap. I fermented it for about 4 days (and it smelled pretty gross while fermenting, which I have assumed could be attributed to the bread yeast that I used) and then poured it through a coffee filter to get most of the sediment out (which took forever!) I added the extra cup of non-alcoholized cider, and then added some apple juice concentrate, and refrigerated it in the plastic jug it came in.
Anyway, the taste turned out surprisingly good (especially when mixed with Sprite for a sweet and bubbly cooler-like drink), but after reading real cider recipes online, I was really itching to try making it using the proper equipment.
So, I went to my local winemaking shop and was recommended to start small and try making it in a 1-gallon jug for my first try. I bought an amber glass 1-gallon jug, a bottle cap for the jug, a #6.5 drilled bung, a plastic 3-piece airlock, and a 5g packet of Lalvin wine yeast. Then I went to the grocery store and bought a 3L jug of preservative-free unsweetened apple cider and a can of preservative-free apple juice concentrate.
I went home and cleaned out the inside of the glass jug by shaking some peroxide around in it (it's all I had), and steam sanitized the bung, the bottle cap, and the airlock. I melted the airlock, because I'm stupid and plastic melts in heat obviously, LOL, and I went back and got another, which the man at the store sanitized for me. I poured the cider into the glass jug, added the apple juice concentrate, and sprinkled a 1/4 tsp of yeast on top (which I estimated to be about 1g or 1/5th of the packet) without first rehydrating the yeast, as the packet instructed. Now, the reason I didn't rehydrate it was because my recipe said to sprinkle it on top, and the packet was assuming I was making wine, so after thinking long and hard about whose instructions to follow, I went with the recipe's.
Without resanitizing the probably contaminated airlock (I'd had enough of trying to sterilize things at this point, and my other cider turned out drinkable without sanitizing anything), I filled it with water, stuck it in the bung, stuck the bung in the jug, and called it a day.
After about 48 hours, it started to show some airlock activity. I expected to see some sooner than that, but it is definitely fermenting now, and that is good. I started the batch on April 28th, so it has been going for about 6 days now, and bubbling for 4 days. I know I should have, but I did not buy a hydrometer, so I'm just going on what the airlock looks like. It is only releasing 1 bubble per 10.5 seconds, which seems slower than I think it should be going. I looked up clips on YouTube of these airlocks bubbling and they are all bubbling at a much faster rate than mine. But the videos on YouTube are also showing much larger batches, and they are fermenting them in fermenting buckets, and not 1-gallon glass jugs.
So I guess I have 2 main questions:
1. Does the rate at which it releases bubbles just relate to the amount of cider you are fermenting?
2. This may sound dumb, but why do people use fermenting buckets for the primary fermentation as opposed to using the glass carboys?
I read something online where someone said to actually leave the lid of the fermenting bucket off(!) during the primary fermentation because oxygen helps the fermentation. Do people only do this when they are relying solely on wild yeasts in the air to ferment the brew and they aren't worried about contamination?
If you can offer me any insight or suggestions, they would be much appreciated! Thank you in advance!