Recent content by dblynch

I am not really an "advanced" cider make, but I have talked to them. Kingston Black is considered one of the top cider varietals. Farnum Hill in NH uses this apple in their premium ciders. May be hard to source this juice. Last year I made my cider with equal parts Reine des Reinnetes, Roxbury...

I posted last week about my cider not bubbling after about three days even though I had put in good Lalvin 1118. After six full days, it started to bubble and is quite bubbly right now. I'm glad for that, but still a little puzzled as to why it took so long to start. Always had it start well...

I think that I will just let it go and see what happens in a few weeks. At worst, I'm out 20 bucks worth of good cider. Thanks for the responses, folks.

It's a 5 gallon bucket

Got my 5 gallons of cider (brix of 1.050) from the orchard on Friday last week, added campden and let sit for 48+ hours. Pitched champagne yeast on Monday morning. I started the yeast in warm water and it appeared to be active. Now, 48 hours later, not a bubble. The temp in my place is about 65...

That's interesting. I thought the whole reason for adding Campden before pitching yeast was to kill off any other potentially competing natural yeasts. The idea of cold crashing makes sense- but might be a challenge to find good place to store. Thanks for the response. I'll keep thinking.

I have a question that I have never quite been able to wrap my mind around. How can I stop fermentation to retain a little bit of residual sweetness, but still have a sparkling cider. Do I add Campden to stop the fermentation and then when I am ready to bottle, add a little bit of new yeast?

I have a conceptual problem: what if I want to stop fermentation at a certain point- I understand that I can do this by adding a campden tablet. However, what if I also want a sparkling cider? Haven't I just killed the little guys that are supposed to make the bubbles after bottling? Do you just...