my first...ish cider. let make this one drinkable.

[raptorvan]

Ive been brewing for years but i have only ever made two batches of cider. the first was when i was in high school and i dont remember it much, the second was a few years back. it sucked. i chalk it up to prep, i stored it in clear glass jugs which im told, if you dont use pectic enzyme, will kill the cider rapidly. and it was funky tasting...kinda like spoiled dry-ish wine.

so this year im doing it again. I picked up 5 gallons of (i believe) blended cider, pasturized (UV). i picked up a cider pack from my LHBS with a little bit of wine tanin, pectic enzyme and acid blend. i pitched the chemicals, the cider and let it rest for about 24 hours. i just pitched the yeast...english cider yeast. (ass opposed to champaign yeast which is what i think i used before)

Im not sure what i want out of this cider...i would kind of like a sweet spiced cider BUT i have never actually had a good hard cider so i dont know if i would like the dry. i know i like semi dry meads. how can i keep it sweet? or is dry better? or maybe split it?

also, what kinds of spices (quantities) are used and is it actually possible to bottle condition a sweet cider?

 

[oldmate]

First off, see the stickied thread about bottle pasteurisation for a bottle conditioned sweet cider. I've never used spices in my ciders (not yet, anyway) so I should let someone else talk about that, but I can say with confidence that I have never had any problems with pasteurising my bottles.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by 'i stored it in clear glass jugs which im told, if you dont use pectic enzyme, will kill the cider rapidly'?

 

[raptorvan]

First off, see the stickied thread about bottle pasteurisation for a bottle conditioned sweet cider. I've never used spices in my ciders (not yet, anyway) so I should let someone else talk about that, but I can say with confidence that I have never had any problems with pasteurising my bottles.

Also, I'm not sure what you mean by 'i stored it in clear glass jugs which im told, if you dont use pectic enzyme, will kill the cider rapidly'?

i was told that if i store the cider in a container that light can get into it will spoil (duh, i knew that) but if i make cider and dont use pectic enzyme, apparantly, it will spoil super fast if light hits it.