Needing Advice On My 1st No Hassel Cider

Greetings everyone!

2 months ago I brewed my first cider. As the title says I went as no hassel as possible as I was basically just experimenting.

My recipe is as simple as it gets:

2 1/2 gallons Pre-pasturized organic apple cider
2 1/2 cups table sugar
Safale-05 American Ale yeast

O.G. 1.072

I dumped the the cider in my fermentation vessel, added sugar, added yeast, and fermented at 67 degrees for 4 weeks.

At week 4 I racked to secondary, where it has been for 1 month.

My question is of course, what should I do now? Let it sit longer? Bottle?

The cider is not yet clear, however I can see where it has cleared some as light can at least pass through.

Let it sit in secondary longer, or am I good to bottle?


What I desire is crisp cider carbonated cider to about 2.5-3.0 vols CO2

I've read a lot of horror storys on cider bottle bombs! Since I am NOT going to be adding additional yeasts (if I don't have to), can I just prime the same as I would beer and age my bottles for some months with no worries?

I read where you have to stop fermentation, is this going to be necessary?


Any input you guys have would be greatly appreciated!

 

Your current gravity reading will give you an indication on which steps to take next. Two months will do a lot for your cider since you started with such a high gravity, but it might require additional time considering you are probably into wine territory. If you let it ferment completely dry, you are looking at about 9.5% ABV.

Take a reading now and see where you are. It will also give you a chance to taste the sample and see how it is aging. Unfortunately, without a really cold crash, I'm not sure it will become completely clear. I've never had much luck getting US-05 to clear completely.

As for priming and bottling, yes, just prime it with Dextrose (or other fermentable) and bottle condition just as you would beer.

 

Do I have to let it ferment out completely? I don't really want it dry, but I know bottling while still actively fermenting can be trouble. I also am not looking to get a perfect cider as this was only a 2 1/2 gallon experiement. I'd like to bottle it up as soon as I can with out rushing the process TOO too much.

 

You can cold crash it and slow it down quite a bit. But stopping it above say 1.005-1.008 will be rather difficult when bottling it for carbonation. At least in my experience anyway. I've never tried to bottle anything above these gravity readings. If you want to stove top pasteurize, then you can basically bottle it at any gravity you desire.

Since it's only 2.5 gallons, you could bottle it, let it carb up and then put it in the fridge as cold as possible. I'm not saying it won't produce a bomb in there, but people have said they do it with no issues. I've never been brave enough to put sweet ciders in my fridge that still have active fermentation going on.

I know I haven't provided a definitive answer for you. I wish I could, but without pasteurizing, I'd suggest a dry-ish cider to be safe. Since your ABV is on the higher side, sweetening in your glass when serving could be an option and it won't dramatically reduce your alcohol content.

 

Well I took an the FG today and it was .998 at about 73F

So I do believe that is about 9.7% alcohol =O

I ended up bottling today just under 2 gallons with 48 grams of corn sugar. I was aiming for 2.5 vols of CO2, but that was for 2 gallons exactly. Since it came under I am guessing I will have more volumes of CO2. I just botted in standard 12 oz bottles. I hope they do not explode!

So am I going to have to kill the yeast after some days?

 

24 grams per gallon is fine. (.85 oz/gal) Looks pretty clear. I don't think you'll need to pasteurize them if you only added the priming sugar and didn't back sweeten also.

 

So should I just let them go in the bottle as is and not pasteurize them via stove top method?

 

Unless you want a sweet cider. Your yeast will eat that sugar up and leave it dry, but it will carb it. If you want a sweet cider, you'll want to add more sugar and pasteurize. I've heard of pressure tests with plastic soda bottles work very well. Nice choice on the beer bottles, though. In my opinion, they're better than a lot of things to bottle in when you plan on carbing.

 

That looks pretty clear! Mmmm