Some help with first batch?

[El Oso]

Hi! Thank you for taking your time reading this.

I am making my very first batch of Cider, I added in some sugar and pureed strawberries for flavor, used 100% juice with no additives, my OG Reading was 1.070. I used a5 gram packet of Red Star Premier Blank yeast and right now my batch is fermenting in a closed bucket with a blubber on it.

I think I am pretty well set! I am just wondering what should I expect! My kit is a hand me down forma friend that moved away, I have a siphon and some swing top bottles (mix of 500 ml and 1000 ml bottles, enough for my batch).

I got myself some "Brewer's Conditioning Tablets" to add some carbonation.

Si yeah, how long do you think it will need to rest? Should I kill the fermentation once I reach a good ABD? (Thinking 1.010 so I end up with a sweet cider). Will my conditioning tablets do the trick, or are these no good? What should be my next steps?

Thank you so much!

 

[Sammy86]

Let the yeast do their thing...I'd check gravity again in 14-21 days...once the FG is stable you should be good to package! Remember, yeast are living organisms...they're gonna do what they are going to do!

Apparently those conditioning tablets don't do much...so don't be surprised if you don't get much carbonation or any...corn sugar is definitely the way to go if you want some carb...I keg my ciders so unfortunately I can't be of more help.

 

[bracconiere]

(Thinking 1.010 so I end up with a sweet cider).

not a good idea, have to back sweeten i bielive for sweet cider.....cider goes to less then 1.000...i don't know what the hell

"Brewer's Conditioning Tablets" to add some carbonation.

is but, if it's sugar gel caps, that would just compound the problem with not being done fermenting.....

 

[jseyfert3]

I got myself some "Brewer's Conditioning Tablets" to add some carbonation.

Si yeah, how long do you think it will need to rest? Should I kill the fermentation once I reach a good ABD? (Thinking 1.010 so I end up with a sweet cider). Will my conditioning tablets do the trick, or are these no good? What should be my next steps?

You cannot kill the yeast to have a sweet cider and then add sugar (carbonating drops) to add carbonation later. The carbonation is done by the yeast eating sugar in the bottle.

So, you can:

• Stabilize the yeast, and have a sweet but still bottled cider. (Note though that this is normally done by fermenting to completion, stabilizing the yeast, and then backsweetening as it's difficult but not impossible to stop an active fermentation).
• Ferment to completion, add carbonating sugar, and have a dry but carbonated cider.
• Bottle early, and with testing and experimentation find the appropriate point and pasturize the bottles to kill the yeast and have a sweet and carbonated cider. This has a not-insignificant of risk of bottle bombs.
• Ferment to completion, stabilize, backsweeten, and keg the cider, using a CO2 tank to force carb for a sweet and carbonated cider. This latter option is one of the easiest and risk free methods (no bottle bombs) but requires a somewhat expensive kegging setup.

Summary: Bottling typically leads to either sweet and still OR dry and carbed, but not both, though possible with more work and risk.

Hopefully this high level overview is helpful.

 

[El Oso]

You cannot kill the yeast to have a sweet cider and then add sugar (carbonating drops) to add carbonation later. The carbonation is done by the yeast eating sugar in the bottle.

So, you can:

• Stabilize the yeast, and have a sweet but still bottled cider. (Note though that this is normally done by fermenting to completion, stabilizing the yeast, and then backsweetening as it's difficult but not impossible to stop an active fermentation).
• Ferment to completion, add carbonating sugar, and have a dry but carbonated cider.
• Bottle early, and with testing and experimentation find the appropriate point and pasturize the bottles to kill the yeast and have a sweet and carbonated cider. This has a not-insignificant of risk of bottle bombs.
• Ferment to completion, stabilize, backsweeten, and keg the cider, using a CO2 tank to force carb for a sweet and carbonated cider. This latter option is one of the easiest and risk free methods (no bottle bombs) but requires a somewhat expensive kegging setup.

Summary: Bottling typically leads to either sweet and still OR dry and carbed, but not both, though possible with more work and risk.

Hopefully this high level overview is helpful.

Basically fermenting to completition menas, leave the cider in the fermenter untill I don't see any more co2 bubbles come out for a couple days? What do you think about transferring the clear fermented liquid after a couple weeks to a secondary fermenter without the sediments? Would that

 

[sreichenberger]

Basically fermenting to completition menas, leave the cider in the fermenter untill I don't see any more co2 bubbles come out for a couple days? What do you think about transferring the clear fermented liquid after a couple weeks to a secondary fermenter without the sediments? Would that

Hey El Oso, think your message got cut off. But you can transfer to secondary. I did for my first batches, but the risk of contamination exists every time you transfer to another fermenter.

So, usually early-Cider (and don't be surprised because it's common) comes with a slight sulphur smell. I cut this out by adding frozen and thawed fruits to the fermenter (same as primary, as I no longer transfer to secondary – you don't really need to unless you really want a clear Cider) as well as a couple of hops after two to three weeks of fermentation. The fruits, and especially the hops, will break the smell and taste of sulfur and add a good citric and refreshing taste to your Cider. With the following (all except the last one frozen and thawed):

• Sicilian lemon peel (not the chunks, just the peel);
• Strawberries, and;
• Barth Haas Citric Hops (dry hopping)

Gave me a really nice Cider with a taste of passion fruit. You will want to try different fruits until you have a product you like as you can see adding fruits won't necessarily give you a taste of that fruit. Sometimes you get slight hints of fruits you wouldn't expect.

I leave the fruits and hop in for about one to two weeks. Just enough for the Cider to catch a bit of that flavoring. I would say have it sit in this second step for at least two weeks (full process from pitching yeast to bottling in about five weeks). You really want to taste your Cider occasionally after adding fruit and bottle when you feel you have a good taste going.

Don't kill the yeast off before bottling if you want a crisp, dry and carbonated Cider. If you do that, you'll end up with a Cider that is not carbonated and rather sweet. Also, before bottling (and I have to agree with the other members on this thread) go for cornsugar or demerara sugar instead of the conditioning thing. I add demerara sugar and it always works really well.

If you can, try to bottle a pet bottle first before bottling the other flap bottles you have. You will use that pet bottle to check/feel the internal pressure of your bottles and know when to pasteurize. I just pasteurized my first batch yesterday but I used a pressure reader which I mounted onto a bottle and watched for the internal pressure to hit 2 atm before stove-top pasteurizing. That worked brilliantly well with no bottle bombs. It's a lot of info but the more you test, the more you will know how to get your dream Cider. And you get to do that drinking all sorts of Ciders along the road. Happy Cider-making