Only 6% ABV first cider

[Rottenfence]

Hey guys!

Last night I used my hydrometer to check the FG and it read 1.028.. leaving me at 6.17%.

OG: 1.075
FG: 1.028

ingredients: one gallon organic apple juice, one pound of brown sugar, cinnamon sticks, whole clove and raisins.

I tasted the cider and it taste great (sweet not dry) So that’s a plus. I racked it into the secondary and will let it sit for another week or two before bottling.

The only weird thing is I used one gram of lalvin EC-1118? I thought this should’ve gone much higher. The cider is about 12 days old. I’m just looking to understand this better.

Thank you!
RF.

 

[dmtaylor]

It's probably not finished yet. Give it at least another couple weeks, as you had planned, but wait until the FG remains stable from week to week. It might potentially need another month or even more for the FG to stabilize. Check it about once per week until it's stable. Then you can bottle it safely.

 

[Rottenfence]

It's probably not finished yet. Give it at least another couple weeks, as you had planned, but wait until the FG remains stable from week to week. It might potentially need another month or even more for the FG to stabilize. Check it about once per week until it's stable. Then you can bottle it safely.

To prevent it from drying out. Because I enjoyed the taste last night. Should I go ahead and back sweeten a little bit? While it’s in the secondary?

 

[Rick Stephens]

To prevent it from drying out. Because I enjoyed the taste last night. Should I go ahead and back sweeten a little bit? While it’s in the secondary?

If you add sugar it will turn into alcohol unless you have no active yeast.

If you want it sweeter without more alcohol you have to do a yeast kill. If you add more sugar now you will just get more fermentation from that sugar as well as what is left from your primary. 1118 is going to finish off pretty much all sugars you have unless you stabilize or pasteurize.