Recent content by brancaster

Let me know what you find out. I'm curious about it as well.

I think that all depends on how you like your cider to taste. I'm doing a few batches myself for experimentation. One of those test batches is going to be a gallon with nutrient and one without.

I'm a little confused. Your original post asks about yeast nutrient, but here you're asking about live yeast. Depending on where you're located in the world, you should be able to get a 2oz bottle of dry yeast nutrient shipped to you via amazon for about $6 + ($4-$7) shipping depending on...

Still hoping she or someone else much more knowledgeable than I am can come in and answer a questions I presented earlier in the thread: Something else I'm curious about...what about the cider making process makes it so difficult to produce exact results? Like brewing beer allows for...

Ah, yeah you could have left it in primary for a few more days if it was reading at 1.30. I wouldn't rack into secondary until it fell below 1.010, but that's just me. You should still be perfectly fine though. Once your fermentation stops in secondary make sure you don't get any of the...

Are you in a part of the world where you can order and have things shipped to you? If so, you can find all of the stuff you need at online brew shops and amazon.

Ah! Looks like we went off in two different directions then. ;) At any rate, thanks to you and a few others for allowing me to bounce information/ideas off of to get to where I'm at now!

First off, what are you using to backsweeten? (Juice, concentrate, honey etc.) Second, if you backsweeten then leave in secondary for a week you're going to skew your numbers greatly and I'm not sure there's an exact way to calculate your true ABV% after that. That being said, if I were just...

Thanks for the tip! I'll be doing a few different batches to test on. Adding varying amounts of backsweetener to each. We'll see how it goes in a week or two! ;)

I won't be telling it which to ferment per say, but adding enough to allow for desired carbonation levels while still being at desired sweetness levels once I stop fermentation. It would be a recipe for bottle bombs if I didn't plan to heat pasteurize after carefully monitoring the...

Okay, that makes sense. And I'll take your word for it and bow down to your 25 years experience! ;) Haha, I may be getting too bold, but I'm a perfectionist and even if I have to experiment with 10s of batches to get my recipes down to being somewhat predictable, I'll do it. What if I...

How long has it been fermenting and at what temperature?

I don't agree that pasteurization is more about luck than skill or technique. While I do agree that it isn't the most controllable method and there will be variance because of that, I think it can be controlled to an extent. I'm not using pasteurization as a sweetening technique, but a...

I'm not sure why you'd be confused about me aiming for a specific ABV%. You said it yourself, based on the amount of fermentable sugar and the yeast you use, you get what you get... well, controlling those factors will allow me to get what I want to get. We can assume that the yeast is...

Thanks for the info! I intend to heat pasteurized my bottles and that should kill the yeast, halting fermentation in the process, right? Or am I missing something?