first cider brew, a few questions

[1miniman]

Hey guys,
Fairly new to homebrew only done 4 beer kits, but now trying somthing new.

So i have decided to make good use of apple tree in my garden. I pressed around 2 gallons of juice to which i added 3/4 handfulls of blackberrys. Black berrys had been frozen and then thawed as i read this was best way to get the flavour out of them.
Used 5 campden tablets to supress any wild yeast, left to sit for 2 days and then pitched a champagne yeast.
OG. 1058
Also used a Ph meter as i was read acidity is important and should be somewhere between a Ph of 3.2 - 3.8. mine came up 3.6

2 weeks later i have a SG of 1.004 and a nice red coloured liquid that tasted half alright. I know I still have to rack it and let it clear after which I'm planning on bottleing, for first time.

But I have 2 questions;

1) How do I know when the fermentation is over? Now I'm not a fool I know how to tell when fermentation is over, but the hydrometer cant tell me how much sugar is left in the blackberrys. Is there a way of telling if the blackberrys are finished?

2) How much priming sugar will be needed for this amount of cider? I have never bottled before as I have used keg for my beer.

thanks
MM

 

[Yooper]

The fermentation isn't over. With that OG and that yeast strain, it will finish at about .990. It might take a while to stop dropping lees, so rack to a new vessel (and keep it topped up!) whenever you have lees 1/4" thick or any lees at all after 60 days. My last cider dropped a TON of lees for two or three weeks, then cleared. Some don't drop that much, though- it just depends on how much pectin and solids are in the fruit.

You can use 1 ounce of priming sugar per gallon for a beer-like carb level and that would work fine.

 

[mattmmille]

The fermentation isn't over. With that OG and that yeast strain, it will finish at about .990. It might take a while to stop dropping lees, so rack to a new vessel (and keep it topped up!) whenever you have lees 1/4" thick or any lees at all after 60 days. My last cider dropped a TON of lees for two or three weeks, then cleared. Some don't drop that much, though- it just depends on how much pectin and solids are in the fruit.

You can use 1 ounce of priming sugar per gallon for a beer-like carb level and that would work fine.

Just bottled my first of 3 batches of crabapple cyser! It was racked about 3 times since Iate October and is nice and clear...going for dry, sparkling for this first batch. I used Champagne yeast and the FG was right on 0.990. I went with 3/4 oz. priming sugar for just under a gallon and I got 6 flip-tops and a 12 oz regular bottle.

 

[1miniman]

It might take a while to stop dropping lees, so rack to a new vessel (and keep it topped up!) whenever you have lees 1/4" thick or any lees at all after 60 days.

What do you mean by keep it topped up?
Also 0.090 is a very low FG which I'm guessing will make the cider VERY dry.
How should I go about sweetening, are there any non fementable sweeteners out there?

 

[podz]

What do you mean by keep it topped up?

When you rack off the lees, you will have less liquid and thus more headspace. The headspace is a bad thing as it can provide room for infection to take hold, so you top it back up to replace the lost liquid. Use store-bought apple juice (without preservatives) for this purpose.

 

[SchillingBrewing]

To sweeten it if it is dryer than you would like use concentrated apple juice or apple cider. You can even use wine conditioner. Add one of these until you get the flavor right where you want it. This is called back sweetening. Only back sweeten before bottling. Also before you back sweeten, add potassium sorbate to prevent re-fermentaton of the back sweeteners. If fermentation is not finished and you top off with apple juice then you could screw up your gravity reading by adding sugars that weren't accounted for in the original gravity reading. He is right though, it is best to have as little headspace as possible. Secondary should be left for at least a month. Primary can also take while but the final gravity should be at or below 1.000

 

[podz]

don't worry about the gravity reading and definitely don't top up with water. the top up juice will ferment and you will get more cider - win!

otherwise the only way to keep your headspace down is to have a series or combination of progressively smaller vessels. too much hassle.

if you ferment store juice, you won't ever have lees in the first place because it's already clear.

 

[1miniman]

Well having an exact ABV isn't going to happen anyway because the hydrometer can't tell me the sugar content of the BlackBerry so adding Apple juice can't do much more harm. As long as I know the minimum ABV percentage it will be fine.
I'll rack off in a week or so as its only been in primary for 16 days.

Thanks for the help guys. I'll keep posting as I go along with this brew

 

[1miniman]

Hey guys I went to a few different stores looking for 100% pressed Apple juice to top up with. But all of them have an antioxidant listed- Ascorbic acid, even the organic Apple juice had it listed.
Is this useable or will it ruin the brew

 

[GrogNerd]

ascorbic acid is vitamin C, if that's the only other ingredient, you're good

 

[Descender]

Ascorbic acid is ok

 

[1miniman]

Cheers guys

 

[mattmmille]

I felt like a batch of my crabapple/fuji blend cider was a little too weak on flavor and I was going to add some frozen juice concentrate (thawed) to get some apple flavor back into the batch. The store only had one option, the store brand. It stated that it could include juice from China and/or Argentina. What?! So, I went to the juice aisle and picked up a jug of Murray's Cider. It's filtered and pasteurized, it's 100% juice from whole apples and bottled in Roanoke, Virginia...and it comes in a 1/2 gallon glass carboy! Win-win!!! And Murray's has been around a loooong time.