AussieCider
Member
Hi all! I'm Coen.
I'm new here, so I may as well introduce myself and give a bit of background. I'm a young aussie bloke studying for a Bachelor of Science in Viticulture and Oenology. I do like wine.....but I much prefer cider, so the way I see it, I will apply what I learn about growing grapes and making wine, to growing apples and making cider......one day....
Anyways, I have recently started a couple of VERY small batches of cider (1.5L each). The first is a very much blind batch, I bought some juice, threw some yeast in it and hey presto, it fermented. I didn't have a hydrometer at the time, so It really was a blind run. It has been fermenting for nearly a week now and I racked it to secondary yesterday. I can't really ask too much about that one, because I don't have enough detail to tell you guys. I will just have to play that one by ear.
What does confuse me however, is my second batch. I started with my juice, added some DAP as per the instructions, then added sugar to get an initial SG of 1060 and made a starting culture for the yeast. A few hours later I added the very active yeast to the juice and shortly after the airlock was bubbling away happily. It bubbled all night and the reading the next day gave me an SG of 1016. which, from what I have read is a HUGE drop over that time period. It bubbled for the next whole day and slowed to almost a stop the next day....with an SG of 1002.
It still has some little bubbles rising up in the cider. The solution is currently quite cloudy which I guess is to be expected.
What I am wondering about is this: Is my fermentation too fast? The way I see it, its nearly ready to be racked off to secondary.....and we are only 3 days in. I see people on here talking about spending 3 WEEKS in primary to get low enough SG to hit secondary. Did I add too much yeast? Have I done something wrong?
Another observation I have made is that the cider smells VERY yeasty. I guess this is to be expected....but I am not certain, any thoughts?
My budget (and the fact that I live in Aus.....AKA its bloody hot) only allow minimal temperature control. My cupboard seems to maintain a pretty constant 26C at the moment, which is the coolest I could find in the house.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated people.
Thanks heaps in advance.
I'm new here, so I may as well introduce myself and give a bit of background. I'm a young aussie bloke studying for a Bachelor of Science in Viticulture and Oenology. I do like wine.....but I much prefer cider, so the way I see it, I will apply what I learn about growing grapes and making wine, to growing apples and making cider......one day....
Anyways, I have recently started a couple of VERY small batches of cider (1.5L each). The first is a very much blind batch, I bought some juice, threw some yeast in it and hey presto, it fermented. I didn't have a hydrometer at the time, so It really was a blind run. It has been fermenting for nearly a week now and I racked it to secondary yesterday. I can't really ask too much about that one, because I don't have enough detail to tell you guys. I will just have to play that one by ear.
What does confuse me however, is my second batch. I started with my juice, added some DAP as per the instructions, then added sugar to get an initial SG of 1060 and made a starting culture for the yeast. A few hours later I added the very active yeast to the juice and shortly after the airlock was bubbling away happily. It bubbled all night and the reading the next day gave me an SG of 1016. which, from what I have read is a HUGE drop over that time period. It bubbled for the next whole day and slowed to almost a stop the next day....with an SG of 1002.
It still has some little bubbles rising up in the cider. The solution is currently quite cloudy which I guess is to be expected.
What I am wondering about is this: Is my fermentation too fast? The way I see it, its nearly ready to be racked off to secondary.....and we are only 3 days in. I see people on here talking about spending 3 WEEKS in primary to get low enough SG to hit secondary. Did I add too much yeast? Have I done something wrong?
Another observation I have made is that the cider smells VERY yeasty. I guess this is to be expected....but I am not certain, any thoughts?
My budget (and the fact that I live in Aus.....AKA its bloody hot) only allow minimal temperature control. My cupboard seems to maintain a pretty constant 26C at the moment, which is the coolest I could find in the house.
Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated people.
Thanks heaps in advance.