Apple cider/wine

[devil]

Hello I am brand new to brewing/homebrewing. i started a apple cider/wine. This is my First Brew
I used
1) Motts apple juice with couple of cinnamon sticks
2) half a packet of Lavlin Ec-1118.
3) i used little pectic enzyme to clear it out
4) Fermaid O
what kind of taste can i expect this is my first brew only thing i brewed before this was ginger ale with bread yeast. i have this under an airlock sitting in garage its pretty cold these days that's why in garage it is fairly active, i started this on 9 th march, so what should be my next step.
equipment
i don't have no fancy equipment only one fermenter and hydrometer and refractometer and bottles for carrbonation, when i started this brew i wanted a sweet drink with hint of cinnamon, i been discussing this on reddit.
Result i want is sugary drink
Question). When should i stop fermentation should i let it ferment completely.
Question 2). how should i kill the yeast after fermentation(tell me the easiest non dangerous way to do this, no bottle explos). i want to kill yeast( i am going to use potassium sorbate and campden tablets)
Question 3) if after fermentation is done and sugar is gone how to back sweeten it( i don't want to use other bad types of sugar i was thinking of using either honey to sweeten it or just cane sugar)
question 4) what should i use in secondary fermentation, how should i do

i don't care about amount of alcohol content. i care about sweetness with a little kick

Question 5) Should i let it fermentation completely or cut it off prematurely

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi - and welcome, devil. Sounds like your first cider is going to be fine. If I were you, given the price of yeast and given the cost of fruit and juices , I would always use a whole pack of yeast. a) you can NEVER over pitch with a single pack. Not possible. but b) you can always under-pitch and that can cause problems and c) an opened pack of yeast stored in a fridge makes the yeast a haven for bacterial infection which can spoil any next batch. Cost /benefit analysis suggests you pitch the entire pack.

Motts ' apple juice tends to have a starting gravity of about 1.045 , if memory serves - which is a potential ABV of about 6%. Perfect for cider. I would allow the yeast to finish the job and then you need to decide whether you want this cider to be sweeter or whether you want it carbonated (sparkling) . If carbonated and you do not have a kegging system, you need the yeast to stick around because you will be adding a controlled amount of sugar (you can buy carbonation drops that contain a measured amount of sugar designed for beer bottles. You cannot carbonate with corked bottles - the corks will pop and the glass may shatter under the pressure. Beer and champagne bottles are designed for pressurized liquids. If you prefer to have the cider sweetened, you need to stabilize with the two compounds you mention.
You can make cider (or apple wine) with all kinds of yeast- each variety will emphasize different qualities in the apple juice. 71B is my favorite as it has an affinity for the malic acid in apples and will metabolize this acid transforming up to about 40% of it into a far more smooth tasting lactic acid (malic is quite sharp). but Nottingham - a beer yeast clears quickly and many folk in the US like the flavors Nottingham provides.
To stabilize the cider (kill the yeast) you need to have racked the cider two or three times so you are leaving behind more and more of the remaining viable colony. When the colony is small enough and you add the K-meta and K-sorbate, that will destroy any yeast left in the carboy o fermentation vessel.
If you want the cider sweet, you need to perform a bench test. Take say three to five small samples of the cider of a known volume and to each sample you add a known but different small amount of sugar. Mix well and taste. You may need to repeat this using less sugar or more until you find the sweet spot (pun intended). Since you know the sample volume and you know the total volume , you divide the total by the sample size and you multiply that number by the amount of sugar that you mixed that hit that sweet spot. THAT is the amount of sugar you add to the total volume.
You can add any kind of sweetener you like from table sugar to honey to maple syrup or agave etc etc etc.. but if you want to highlight the apple flavor of the cider you may want to add table sugar.
Not sure I understand question 4. There would be nothing to add to the secondary fermenter. In your case , you are simply using it to rack your cider off gross lees and to allow the cider to age until it clears. If you were flavoring the cider with say, raspberries, you might add some fruit or fruit juice to the secondary and allow that to ferment in the alcohol - using the alcohol already produced as a solvent to bring out flavors that are more bright than water (juice) used as a solvent in the primary would extract flavors but that is your call.
One thought. Not sure how much tannin is in the apples that Mott uses. you may want to taste the cider and see if it might benefit from added tannin (crab apples are high in tannin - but your local home brew store will sell powdered tannin which will give the cider added mouthfeel (bite) because of added astringency.
Last thought. In the fall, when apples ripen, you might approach local orchards and see if they can press for you apples grown for hard cider (they tend to be more sour and more sweet than the apples used for soft drinks
Good luck

 

[devil]

i was thinking to use saf-cider-tf6 or safcider- as -2. I have never used those cider yeast before, but read alot of things about those on internet

and thanks for your answers

 

[bernardsmith]

A gallon of pressed apple juice at the moment costs around $10. A gallon of Motts apple juice is less than $4. At four dollars a gallon experimenting with a variety of yeasts is not going to break the bank and if you can buy say, three or four gallons of Motts and experiment with three or four different yeasts at the same time, you will get a good handle on how clear each yeast will make the cider after a week, two weeks, a month, etc: how low the final SG will drop; which yeast creates more or fewer problems for you at the temperature of your wine room; and which flavors and aromas of the cider you prefer.