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In my experience taking a hydrometer and brix reading before fermentation then monitoring "on the way down" with a refractometer and on-line calculator gives you a good idea of what is going on without having to take large samples. As well as a regular hydrometer I have a finishing hydrometer...

I had one batch (a few years ago) that ended up with no carbonation. Unsealing, adding sugar and just a pinch of yeast then sealing with new crown caps resulted in nicely carbonated cider. The possibilities were... poor capping in the first place, or I hadn't rinsed the starsan from the crown...

I guess that if it fully fermented all the way down to 1.000, all the sugar will be gone, just leaving water, flavour compounds, alcohol and acid. So, the tartness isn't surprising. I find that sometimes S04 will stop a bit above SG1.000 and leave a bit of sweetness to offset the tartness. What...

I have scratched around and can’t really find out why beer on-line calculators appear to “understate” how much priming sugar is needed. Although, it does seem that they take into account the amount of C02 in the beer on completion of fermentation, but cider rarely gets a mention. For example...

Dry hopping works well. Use the search option at the top RH corner of the forum to find lot of posts on the topic. I posted re similar questions on 2 Feb 2023 and 28 July 2022. Basically about 3 grams per litre gives a good result, but you need to be able to get the hops out when you hit the...

Sixteen litres (4.3 gallons). More to come when I crush the apples... 115.75 + 4.3 = let's round it off to 120

Thanks again. The stainless-steel press looks very good. It is somewhat similar to mine and a close up of your press suggest that the screw is a machine thread similar to my old one which also started to shed some metal and bind. As I mentioned in the earlier post, I understand that acme or...

It sounds O.K. to me. Generally, I find that S04 and AS2 (quite similar) can get down from 1.050 to 1.010 in a week even at 12C, especially if I have included a small amount of DAP with the yeast. I then rack to secondary to let it clear for a month or so before adjusting and bottling, but I...

Yes, I am in about the same situation. We inherited a few apple trees when we moved here, then after giving away lots of apples every year decided to try making cider "just for fun", and became hooked! The second-hand grape press came from Santa after a couple of years making lots of mess with...

Thanks for the feedback, that is certainly Plan C. The hydraulic jack turned up yesterday so Plan B is underway. I called in at the local workshop where they will cut a 3/4" x 1"rectangular solid steel bar and fit it it across the top for extra strength. I am hoping that the hydraulic jack will...

Thanks for the feedback. I was afraid that was the case. Blan B is to improve the press by trying to rig up a hydraulic jack (cheap on eBay). A 3T unit which seems to be the smallest available, will just fit in the space available, and make it into a sort of combo basket/rack & cloth press. The...

After spending the best part of a day grinding and pressing the first cider of the year, I wondered if (cheap) technology has advanced to the point where domestic juicers are worthwhile for small batches of cider. Has anyone used a modern juicer, what are your thoughts, etc, etc? I have an old...

Yep, thanks for the suggestion. We have a Crimson Knight Crab but it produces quite small apples (didn't know that when we bought it) which are ready earlier than the others. So, I freeze them and must admit that my better ciders are the ones that the crabs are added to them. We have a couple...

Things are a bit quiet in “cider land” this time of the year. However, it is getting close to “cider season” down here in Oz as we are getting a few frosts and some apples are starting to fall. I have just carried out a comparison of two popular yeasts, and just for fun I thought there might be...

The easiest way is to sweeten with a non-fermentable sweetener, however many (including me) find that the taste isn't to their liking (some produce gastric effects or in the case of Xylitol can be toxic to dogs). You will no doubt get lots of advice on this. If using sugar, you need to add it...

It can be a little mind-bending trying to work out how much juice, concentrate or sugar syrup to add to the cider for carbonation. However, FYI the following is how I do it. It is based on the idea that (Sugar in the cider) + (Sugar in the juice ) = (Sugar needed in the combined volumes of...

Thanks for the comments. I am not getting hung up on the precision of measurements (i.e. two decimal places certainly isn't intended to indicate accuracy, that is just the way the maths works out). The 1.34 simply comes from 134 g/mol (molecular weight of Malic Acid) divided by 100. So, while...

Yep, that is my reason for titration. If I do the el-cheapo Jolicoeur method with my apples I can get the mix of apples somewhere near the desired 6g/L. My el-cheapo approach involves grating an apple (cheese grater) then squeezing this through a bit of cheesecloth to get a teaspoon or so of...

Based on your numbers you have about 12 litres of cider and your AJ has 118g/L of sugar (SG 1.054). I work on needing to ferment 5 gravity points (9 g/L) of sugar to get 2.5 vols of CO2 (and as a bonus you get another 0.65% ABV). The 3 x 8 oz of AJ you are proposing to add to the 12 litres of...

Can anyone tell me if demineralised water is suitable for making up a NaoH solution for titration. It seems that distilled water has been replaced by demineralised water in supermarkets, auto stores etc as it is cheaper and quite suitable for car batteries, preventing buildup of deposits in...