Recent content by ptafan

Two months ago I made a few batches of cider: 1x 5-gallon batch and 2x 1-gallon batches. They've been sitting in my guest room for two months now completely untouched. In all reality it will be another month before I can get the chance to bottle it. Its been steadily around 80* in the room and i...

It was a Craigslist ad, and the seller was wrong - it ended up being a 6 gal bucket and 5 gal carboy. Score!

I've had my ciders sitting in secondary 1 gallon carboys for about two weeks now, as this level, to allow them to settle. There's almost no fermentation activity happening since I've racked, so probably not much CO2 buildup. I'm worried that this may have been too much headspace. Thoughts?

I have found a great deal on a 7 gallon bucket + 6 gallon carboy that somebody was using to make wine. I don't really plan on making batches larger than 5 gallons, so I'm worried about the extra headspace that both these will create with their size. Thoughts?

I diluted the yeast starter by boiling 1/2 gallon water, cooling to 70*F, then adding to starter. Added another 1/2 tsp of nutrient as well. OG now rests at 1.050, airlock is bubbling at least every 3 seconds. Hopefully this works.

Its already been going at it for a good 18 hours. Too late to dilute it?

1.03 is far from 1.15 though.... but I've got to think that is the yeast is visibly fermenting then all is well, right? Any good ways to check my starter before dropping it into my carboy?

I'm also wondering the same thing, as I think bottling in mason jars would have a fun aesthetic to it, sort of like a moonshine. I've also wondered if boiling the jars full of cider (which is needed to seal the canning lids) will have an adverse effect.

I was creating a starter for my WLP775, and this was my process: Juiced apples to make 1 liter of juice. Pasteurized juice by heating to 140-160*F for 10 minutes. During heating, I added 1 lb Brown Sugar to the starter, which shot the SG from 1.040 to 1.150. I then chilled it to 70*F, and...

Thanks William - I agree that patience is a virtue. It seems odd to me that a primary fermentation with 1 cup of sugar will only last a couple of weeks, but adding a cup during racking with cause a vigorous secondary fermentation that's lasted almost 8 weeks now. Why is this the case? Is there...

So I'm new to the cider brewing, and have several different experimental recipes I'm trying. Two of my gallons I adding sugar to two weeks into primary fermintation while racking. Now they both been vigorously fermenting for over a month since racking. Eager to bottle, I'm added Camden tablets...

Thanks. I cleaned out the airlock and replaced with new water. Gonna keep an eye on it and hopefully will not need the blowoff tube at this point.

So I'm brewing my first batch of hard apple cider. Everything seems to be going well, except for one of my gallon containers. I'm using English Cider Yeast (WLP775). I split one vial (for 5 gallons) between 3 gallons of Cider. 3 of the 4 containers, I used Yeastex nutrient in -- the fourth, the...