help....

[Gatoreye]

5 gallons of cider with 4 pounds of dark brown sugar, I used safale-05 for yeast

start gravity was 1.85
finish gravity(I think it's finished) is 1.25 after 4 weeks in carboy

What is the alcohol content?

What is the alcohol tolerance of S-05?

At 1.25 it is on the sweet side for my taste, if I add a apple wine to take some of the sweetness away is there a chance that fermentation will restart from the added apple wine? (the apple wine I was going to add has a gravity reading of .99 and is 5 months old)

 

[Tw0fish]

1.85 - 1.25
= 0.6
x 131
= 78.75% abv

Forum search says it tolerates about 12% abv.

So I think you missed a pair of zeroes in there somewhere.. If you're reading 1.085 and 1.025 you're hitting about 8% abv - a tad bit more realistic

If your apfelwine was made with a higher-tolerance yeast, there's definitely a chance of refermentation. I'd say the surefire solution to that is to just age it on its own and blend it right before you drink it. I had a mead once that was really unpleasantly dry, that came around nicely at 50/50 with some apple juice rocket fuel my brother made.. but with all the sugar in the juice still available, there's no way I'd wanna bottle it like that.

 

[Gatoreye]

Well I had done alittle sampling before taking the readings.

Ok so 8% sounds good thanks. Sounds like I better let it sit for a few more weeks before bottling. I didn't think S-05 would go that high.


Yeap, the apple wine was made with montrachet yeast so I was alittle afraid of restarting fermentation.

 

[Pickled_Pepper]

I'm no expert with cider by any means...but a couple of things that came to mind are, stuck fermentation or maybe it's just taking longer because of colder temps.

How long has the FG been at 1.025 (I assume you mean that instead of 1.25), maybe it needs another pitch of yeast.

What temp has it been sitting at? If it's low 60's F, it could just be taking a while.