Griffin10
Member
Hi All,
Thanks to everyone who gave me advice or reassurance on starting my First Cider - it is now bottled!!
Yesterday was day 21 of my cider. It spent pretty much exactly 2 weeks in primary, then 1 week in secondary. I know it could probably do with a little more to mellow out, but I am too darn impatient to try my first batch! When I racked into secondary it was at 1.002, and when I went to take it out of secondary it was 1.000 even.
My secondary was in three one gallon jugs, and jug #3 kept bubbling a little bit (my guess because it was from the bottom of the carboy closer to the lees?), so to get a nice homogenous batch, I racked from secondary back into my carboy to add the sugar. I added 2 cans frozen AJ, and the SG went up to 1.022 - tasted it and it was pretty sweet if you only pay attention to the sweet and not the fairly strong alcohol bite. I'm hoping it will kinda even out in the bottles.
From here I'm planning to check a bottle in a day or two and see if it is a good carb/sweet balance, then take a shot at stovetop pasteurizing. Since I'm not doing the PET plastic bottle that many of you seem to do, is there any other way to tell how carbonation is going? Will it look bubbly inside without opening? I don't have too many bottles and I'd rather not have to open 2 or 3 of em over the next week just to see if the carbonation is right.
Thanks!
Thanks to everyone who gave me advice or reassurance on starting my First Cider - it is now bottled!!
Yesterday was day 21 of my cider. It spent pretty much exactly 2 weeks in primary, then 1 week in secondary. I know it could probably do with a little more to mellow out, but I am too darn impatient to try my first batch! When I racked into secondary it was at 1.002, and when I went to take it out of secondary it was 1.000 even.
My secondary was in three one gallon jugs, and jug #3 kept bubbling a little bit (my guess because it was from the bottom of the carboy closer to the lees?), so to get a nice homogenous batch, I racked from secondary back into my carboy to add the sugar. I added 2 cans frozen AJ, and the SG went up to 1.022 - tasted it and it was pretty sweet if you only pay attention to the sweet and not the fairly strong alcohol bite. I'm hoping it will kinda even out in the bottles.
From here I'm planning to check a bottle in a day or two and see if it is a good carb/sweet balance, then take a shot at stovetop pasteurizing. Since I'm not doing the PET plastic bottle that many of you seem to do, is there any other way to tell how carbonation is going? Will it look bubbly inside without opening? I don't have too many bottles and I'd rather not have to open 2 or 3 of em over the next week just to see if the carbonation is right.
Thanks!