Apple & Cranberry Cider for Xmas

[Rolster77]

My first attempt at cider decided to do a Cranberry Cider, well it is nearly Xmas after all!
4 litres Apple Juice
1 Litre Cranberry (both pasteurised and boilded)
+ 200ml of strong tea ( 2 x tea bags)
200g cane sugar
Some raisins boiled in water mashed up and thrown in
5g DAP
5g Champagne Yeast
~25degs
OG 1.060

 

[globell]

Let us know how it turns out!

 

[Rolster77]

So after 4 days I topped it up with apple juice and it continued to ferment a bit longer, this has fermented out to 1.000 after 7 days, I also added a little more DAP, about 1/4 teaspoon as I detected a whiffy smell. it needs clearing and back sweetening as its very sour, also and obviously it needs to clear for a few weeks, first taste was promising tho Any ideas what I can do to back sweeten, and how much? I don't want it too sweet, would prefer a dry - ish cider

 

[Rolster77]

So its been 15 days now, it has started to clear so I need to get it racked. I took another gravity reading (just in case) and it hasn't moved below 1.000, hardly surprising. It also gave me an excuse to sample it! it's starting to clear really nicely and looks a bit like a Rose!, before I add Sucrose to carbonate and artificial sweetener to back sweeten it, I added half a tsp of potassium Sorbate to stop any further fermentation. I do have one question for anyone, if I add a tsp of sugar (for carb purposes) will this also sweeten it or will it just carb it? I don't want it too sweet, so is a tsp of sugar and a tsp of sweetener over kill?? (330ml bottles).

 

[Rolster77]

I've just realised that I've made a fatal error, the sorbate will prevent it from carbonating what a *******, anyone got any ideas how I can carb this?

 

[bernardsmith]

With a Sodastream?

 

[Ogri]

So its been 15 days now, it has started to clear so I need to get it racked. I took another gravity reading (just in case) and it hasn't moved below 1.000, hardly surprising. It also gave me an excuse to sample it! it's starting to clear really nicely and looks a bit like a Rose!, before I add Sucrose to carbonate and artificial sweetener to back sweeten it, I added half a tsp of potassium Sorbate to stop any further fermentation. I do have one question for anyone, if I add a tsp of sugar (for carb purposes) will this also sweeten it or will it just carb it? I don't want it too sweet, so is a tsp of sugar and a tsp of sweetener over kill?? (330ml bottles).

I'm no expert,,,,,, but,,,,,,, if faced with the same situation, my intuition would lead me to try sweetening, with your artificial sweetener (that I'm assuming is non fermentable), the whole batch, incrementally, until it hit the taste I was looking for, then batch prime for carbonation, as the priming addition shouldn't have any real influence on anything other than carbonation.

I have two gallons of apple juice with a kilo of cane sugar, first try at an apfelwein/strong cider, OG 1.100, that I started fermenting 8 days ago using a white wine yeast. Did an SG check yesterday and it was at 1.030. Hoping it'll get to somewhere under 1.010 then the plan is to batch prime and bottle in PET bottles.

 

[Yooper]

I've just realised that I've made a fatal error, the sorbate will prevent it from carbonating what a *******, anyone got any ideas how I can carb this?

Well, if you just added sorbate without racking off of the lees and the cider isn't totally clear, maybe the sorbate didn't "work".

Sorbate doesn't kill yeast, but it inhibits yeast reproduction. So if you have billions of yeast in there, it may not prohibit carbonation. There are other issues though- adding sorbate early can stress the yeast (but not kill it) and cause some off flavors.

You can try taking out a sample, adding a bit of simple table sugar, and see what happens.

 

[Rolster77]

Well, if you just added sorbate without racking off of the lees and the cider isn't totally clear, maybe the sorbate didn't "work".

Sorbate doesn't kill yeast, but it inhibits yeast reproduction. So if you have billions of yeast in there, it may not prohibit carbonation. There are other issues though- adding sorbate early can stress the yeast (but not kill it) and cause some off flavors.

You can try taking out a sample, adding a bit of simple table sugar, and see what happens.

Thanks for this, i'll give this a go and let you know how it turns out, fingers crossed.

 

[Rolster77]

I'm no expert,,,,,, but,,,,,,, if faced with the same situation, my intuition would lead me to try sweetening, with your artificial sweetener (that I'm assuming is non fermentable), the whole batch, incrementally, until it hit the taste I was looking for, then batch prime for carbonation, as the priming addition shouldn't have any real influence on anything other than carbonation.

I have two gallons of apple juice with a kilo of cane sugar, first try at an apfelwein/strong cider, OG 1.100, that I started fermenting 8 days ago using a white wine yeast. Did an SG check yesterday and it was at 1.030. Hoping it'll get to somewhere under 1.010 then the plan is to batch prime and bottle in PET bottles.

Good idea, i'll syphon into a clean container and batch sweeten to taste, then bottle
Let me know how yours turns out, sounds like a nice punchy Xmas drop!

 

[Rolster77]

 

[Rolster77]

So I siphoned the cider into a clean vessel and added 16tsp of sweetener and 7tsp of table sugar, hopefully it'll carbonate. I had a little sip and it tastes great for a still cider! will update in a couple of weeks.

 

[acemannw]

Can't get my picture to post correctly