I had posted this in the recipe section for the unicorn blood cider recipe, but it occurred to me there's probably not as much traffic in there, so it might be better to ask here. Does anybody have any comments or suggestions on my plan below? Thanks.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=7942174#post7942174
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?p=7942174#post7942174
PitRow said:I started a 1 gallon batch of this last friday (3/17/17) using 3 quarts of tree top and 1 quart of the Just Black Cherry. This is my first time ever making cider, so we'll see how it goes.
I was planning on adding a little brown sugar to get the OG up but I was surprised when I checked the gravity of just those two mixed it was already somewhere around 1.060 (I didn't look too closely at it) so I just let it go without adding anything.
Pitched a whole vial of WLP060 and it took almost 24 hours before any noticeable fermentation started, but then it took off. Without a whole lot of headspace in the 1 gallon carboy it pushed quite a bit of gunk out the blowoff tube. Monday I switched over to a regular airlock. It's still bubbling about 3 or 4 bubbles a minute.
I'm looking for a slightly sweet, lightly carb'ed, bottled cider so I'm planning to start checking the gravity once the bubbles slow to about once a minute, aiming to hit about 1.010ish. Then add slightly less priming sugar than I normally would for beer (maybe use honey instead) and letting it bottle carb for a couple days (4 maybe?) then stove top pasteurizing. I will definitely try one before pasteurizing to ensure no gushers and that the carb level is about where I want it.
Anybody see any flaws in my plan? Thanks!