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This was the result of my first strawberry batch, pictures as promised........ Tasted it last night, so so impressed with the outcome! Strawberry is not overpowering, the colour is spot on, and carbonation perfect, very happy with myself right now :) Now it's time for a 5 gallon batch :)

I use S-04, and occassionaly pitch a 1 gallon batch were I use about 1/4 of a 11.5g packet. Definately don't use the whole packet, you'd just be wasting yeast

It won't get the yeast to fall out, it will just halt fermentation. Quite certain that if you added the tablets, then left it for a while, fermentation would resume. The only way to go is to regularly check the gravity, and taste it while you go. I generally check mine after a week to gauge how...

Have never kegged before, and don't know much about it, but Im presuming you still need to kill the yeasties off. The tablets stun the yeast for a short period of time, slowing down fermentation, allowing all the crap floating around in the cider to settle at the bottom and allowing for an...

I read 190F, thats what the sticky instructs.......

those that let it ferment for longer periods of time are making sure all the sugars have been eaten up by the yeast (ussually starting from a higher OG, therefore a much stronger alcohol content), which means that time is required for the cider to mellow and taste drinkable. You could leave...

I just did a quick search on google on heating up PET bottles and came up with nothing conclusive. The FDA don't mention any heat thresholds, simply that the way that they transfer their fluids in PET bottles is safe and no chemicals "leak" into the fluids. If it were me, I wouldn't do it...

Absolutely that's enough time! Just start her up and watch the gravity reading fall! My 5 gallon batches take about 10ish days to drop from 1.05 to 1.01. If you want the spices to be stronger then add them into the primary, otherwise let them mellow in a bag in the secondary for a couple of days...

ah crap, don't know how I got 3 weeks!!! Looks fine to me! If there's activity, then that gravity reading is going to drop sooner or later. If you want to speed up the process, try wrapping something around the carboy, ideally a nice thick, tightly fitted piece of clothing to keep that temp up...

It would be ideal to keep the carboy in an environment were there is a constant temperature, but if you can't avoid that then oh well. Any signs of a yeast infection? It's a bit strange that after 3 weeks there's only a minimal drop in your reading, something is definately wrong here. Send some...

you're right irchowi, try and simulate what's happening in your actual bottles with your tester. I use 640ml bottles, and use a 600ml water bottle as my tester. Not ideal, but at least it's similar. Vox: I've used upstatemike's caramel apple cider recipe twice now with fantastic flavour...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/ Can't go wrong with this method. Find your desired carbonation level, then pasteurize!

From what I know, it's ideal to add the pectic enzyme 12 hours before you pitch your yeast. I've been told that it doesn't hurt to add it after this, but that it just won't be as clear as a final product. A lot of the clearing happens in the bottle too, so if you leave your bottles in a stable...

If you want your cider to be strong (8% and above) then sure, add some more sugar in! I'm assuming you're fermenting it all out, so you'll need to backsweeten with pear concentrate to retain any flavour. It will need to sit in the secondary and concequently in the bottles for much longer in...

thanks for the strawberry cider idea HAREEBROWNBEEST, just boiled up 250g worth of strawberries on low heat for about an hour and got an amazing syrup out of it, around 1.5 cups worth. When I added it to my demijohn (only experimenting at this stage) it didnt kick up the gravity reading at all...

bottles were kept in a room at 74F overnight. And yes, only racked to secondary for the purpose of bottling, so maybe spent a total of 1 hour in the secondary bucket.

hey all! I bottled my second batch of Caramel cider yesterday......OG of 1.05, FG of 1.01, then 1.02 after adding the caramel syrup. Last time I did this, it took about 5 days for the carbonation level to be right. Just out of pure curiosity I felt my plastic tester bottle to see if there were...

great job CollegeCider!! So there you go! With that calculation, you can determine how strong you want the cider. If you let it go down to 1.02, then you'll have approx. 5.9% ABV, which for me is strong enough if you're aiming for a sweetish cider. Let it ferment more, and you'll end up with...

it all depends on what sort of cider you're wanting? My guess is sweet because of the rasberry puree. In that case, you dont want it to ferment out (you don't the bubbling to stop). Otherwise you should do what VincentVega has said and let it finish before moving onto the next stage. Let us know...

ended up just cold crashing, wasn't confident about the glass lasting in the heat :( Drank it all in one sitting with a couple of friends 2 nights ago. Was much much flatter than the bottled versions, but still tasted great! Thanks for the help guys