a little more help

[ob111]

Hi my first cider has pretty well gone dry
last week I transferred it to a second rack and I'll be damned after a few days it became clear I noticed about 3 bubble streams coming up from the bottom
so today I racked it again leaving all the sediment behind and I tested the alc. content I could only get potential of 5% at the start and now I'm at 0% potential so I would say it's about 5%
now I believe it is not necessary to rack a 3rd time but I could be wrong
I racked my 1 gal to another freshly cleaned and rinsed 1 gal carboy and I added a 1/4 tsp potassium sorbate. I will leave it for another few days and see if I get anymore settling or bubbles
sorry about the story but I didn't want to ask this question and then be bombarded with questions
if after a few days I see no settling or bubbles is it safe to think that its done
and if I back sweeten it with apple juice will it start fermenting again
and if it can start fermenting is there a way to prevent it from happening
thanks

 

[ob111]

one last thing I forgot to mention I will be force carbing it after if the matters

 

[avi8tor]

From what I've read here, I think the addition of Potasium Sorbate kills the yeast so it won't ferment after adding more juice/sugar.

 

[ob111]

From what I've read here, I think the addition of Potasium Sorbate kills the yeast so it won't ferment after adding more juice/sugar.

I read kinda the same thing but it said the active yeast will still produce co2 and alc. the just won't reproduce I guess it's a powdered vasectomy for yeast:cross:
my thought was that if it can live and not reproduce it could stay alive but have no sugar to consume and then I add apple juice to back sweeten an it starts fermenting

 

[CandleWineProject]

From what I've read here, I think the addition of Potasium Sorbate kills the yeast so it won't ferment after adding more juice/sugar.

No. It prevents it from reproducing, but doesn't actually kill the yeast. If there is a tiny amount of yeast left, it could ferment, but very very slowly. Letting it sit for a long time completely dried out is the way to kill yeast.

So, a few questions - what is your SG? It might not be fully done, or it might just have CO2 still absorbed in the fluid.

When you say carbing, you mean bottle and not keg, right? Actually, if you added potasium sorbate, you won't be able to get it to bottle carb.

 

[ob111]

my sg is at 1.0
I'm working with 1 gal carboys
so my thought was I'll force carb it in 2l bottles with my homemade carb cap for a week then transfer it to bottles after

 

[CandleWineProject]

well, it is possible for it to ferment a tad bit more, but it is at the end of it's cycle. You did add sorbate after racking, which will help stabilize it. Some of the CO2 can be just absorbed into the fluid - the mead people are always talking about how to "degas" to get a truely still mead. I say from the sounds of it, you have things under control. Yes, there is a slight risk that it isn't, but you can probably proceed with your plans without too much worry.

 

[ob111]

how much does age affect the taste
last night I added a 1L can of apple juice in to the mix
of course I had to much now so I put the excess of the mix
in to a plastic pop bottle and force carbed with 50 psi
chilled it in the freezer for 45 mins topped up my co2 to 50 psi
shook it up for 5 mins hit it again with 50 psi and put it in the fridge for 2 hours
picked up the wife from work and thought we should have a drink
to my surprise I thought it would be like apple juice with a kick
but it was like a wine
I'm not a wine person at all! but I had no problem knocking this bottle off with the wife
I thought it was great (so did she)
so now I'm wondering what age will do to the flavor. seeing as I'm not a wine person I have now idea what aged wine (or cider) taste like
for my first batch I think I did pretty good so far my only mistake is that I made it in a 1 gal carboy instead of a 5 gal