jamessh
Member
I am relatively new to brewing and have just bottled my first beer. I am now fermenting some store bought, pasteurized (Whole Foods "apple juice") cider. From what reading I have done it appears there is a pretty standard divide between people who either 1) advise that you do NOT leave the cider in the primary for > 10-11 days (i.e. once the SG is about 1.005 rack into secondary) or 2) say that leaving the cider on its lees is probably beneficial and does not appear to impart any off flavours.
for e.g. see this post: http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=95029
As is the case in most aspects of life, it seems that this would be context dependent so I will describe the "recipe" I gleaned from the world-wide-web.
2 gallons of cider into sanitized 5 gallon plastic carboy
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1/4 tsp wyeast nutrient
(starting gravity: 1.059)
sit for 24 hours and while this was going on
rehydrated yeast in a dash of honey and 3 Gala apples that I pressed ("pasteurized" this via a bit of heat, but not boiling)
1/2 package of 5.0 gram "Red Star" Pasteur Champagne yeast
let this bubble for 24 hours and then pitched into plastic carboy with air-lock
It has been 11 days and I am just curious what you all think. It appears that bubbling has stopped but I have yet to take a gravity reading (because I will probably have to thief it or be creative to get the cider out of the carboy since I am not using a bucket). Do I rack it or it let it sit on the lees for a month?
Its future holds modest amounts of xylitol (sugar-alcohol that yeast can't eat) plus some corn sugar for bubbles.
for e.g. see this post: http://forum.northernbrewer.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=95029
As is the case in most aspects of life, it seems that this would be context dependent so I will describe the "recipe" I gleaned from the world-wide-web.
2 gallons of cider into sanitized 5 gallon plastic carboy
1 tsp pectic enzyme
1/4 tsp wyeast nutrient
(starting gravity: 1.059)
sit for 24 hours and while this was going on
rehydrated yeast in a dash of honey and 3 Gala apples that I pressed ("pasteurized" this via a bit of heat, but not boiling)
1/2 package of 5.0 gram "Red Star" Pasteur Champagne yeast
let this bubble for 24 hours and then pitched into plastic carboy with air-lock
It has been 11 days and I am just curious what you all think. It appears that bubbling has stopped but I have yet to take a gravity reading (because I will probably have to thief it or be creative to get the cider out of the carboy since I am not using a bucket). Do I rack it or it let it sit on the lees for a month?
Its future holds modest amounts of xylitol (sugar-alcohol that yeast can't eat) plus some corn sugar for bubbles.