1st cider

[Shawnstve]

Last week I juiced almost a gallon of apples (mixed a few pairs in there) and made some cider. I used a cider yeast, just apple juice and yeast and placed it in a 1 gallon carboy. I tried to keep the temp as low as I could with a shirt over it wicking up water sitting in a container. So the outside kept cooler than it would normally. My house is a constant 75 (well actually I talked the wife into letting me drop the thermostat to 73 for the week). So it’s a constant 73 in the house.

Anyway, I just bottled the cider because I noticed it stopped bubbling finally yesterday. (Was going pretty strong for 3-4 days, then subsided to a slow rate finally by the day before yesterday, and pretty much stopped all together yesterday. Anyway I tasted it, and it tasted a little funky. Not much like apples, more like burning. Also it was very dry. So I added a little sugar, about 7 grams each 16oz flip top bottle. Also the cider was very cloudy. I read that there is a chemical you can add that knocks the pulp out of the cider and clears it up? Anyway, let me know if I made a mistake just adding regular white granulated table sugar to the bottles before bottling. I figure it will help fiz up the cider a bit and sweeten it? I don’t have the ability to read gravity or alcohol content. I don’t know if it will just eat all those sugars and keep this super dry again? Anyway let me know if I added too much and I’ll end up with bottle bombs or if I added too little.

 

[Harleybrew32]

every cider I have made has fermented out under 1.000
making it very dry and Hot/burning. the only way i was able to sweeten it up was to add apple juice concentrate to the keg. I tried Potassium Metabisulfite to kill the yeast but i could taste something off because of it even tried to pasteurize a batch once, that kinda worked.
your bottles should carb up nicely. how long did you let it ferment for? I usually let mine go 3-4 weeks.
cheers

 

[Shawnstve]

Oh boy, I only fermented one week. I hope they will be ok.

 

[Harleybrew32]

if they are swingtops just give the top a little push to bleed some pressure off.
if it was dry it might of been done, I leave mine the extra time to clear.

 

[Immocles]

It will eat up the sugar that you added. I'll usually add about 1/2 tsp of sugar to a 12oz bottle to get some carbonation. Those things might blow on ya.
You could have let the jug sit for a couple weeks to clear. I've only ever made cider from store bought juice but it always clears a few weeks after fermentation ends. Cold can also help thing come out of suspension. Dry cider will need a bit of time to mellow out but it's turned into one of my favorites.

 

[S-Met]

Last week I juiced almost a gallon of apples (mixed a few pairs in there) and made some cider. I used a cider yeast, just apple juice and yeast and placed it in a 1 gallon carboy. I tried to keep the temp as low as I could with a shirt over it wicking up water sitting in a container. So the outside kept cooler than it would normally. My house is a constant 75 (well actually I talked the wife into letting me drop the thermostat to 73 for the week). So it’s a constant 73 in the house.

Anyway, I just bottled the cider because I noticed it stopped bubbling finally yesterday. (Was going pretty strong for 3-4 days, then subsided to a slow rate finally by the day before yesterday, and pretty much stopped all together yesterday. Anyway I tasted it, and it tasted a little funky. Not much like apples, more like burning. Also it was very dry. So I added a little sugar, about 7 grams each 16oz flip top bottle. Also the cider was very cloudy. I read that there is a chemical you can add that knocks the pulp out of the cider and clears it up? Anyway, let me know if I made a mistake just adding regular white granulated table sugar to the bottles before bottling. I figure it will help fiz up the cider a bit and sweeten it? I don’t have the ability to read gravity or alcohol content. I don’t know if it will just eat all those sugars and keep this super dry again? Anyway let me know if I added too much and I’ll end up with bottle bombs or if I added too little.

I wouldn't say that you did anything wrong, but there are many ways that you can improve your cider. First, and easiest is to not rush things. Cider is not beer, give it time, and lots of it. The hot, brandy-like burn is probably suspended yeasts. I notice when I taste my hydrometer samples that the burn is there early on but starts going away around the time it clears. I also suspect that the yeasts take longer cleaning up after themselves than they do for beer.

every cider I have made has fermented out under 1.000
making it very dry and Hot/burning. the only way i was able to sweeten it up was to add apple juice concentrate to the keg. I tried Potassium Metabisulfite to kill the yeast but i could taste something off because of it even tried to pasteurize a batch once, that kinda worked.
your bottles should carb up nicely. how long did you let it ferment for? I usually let mine go 3-4 weeks.
cheers

K-meta won't do much for an active fermentation, its like trying to stop a speeding train with a stop sigh. Massive dose might do it, but it would definitely affect flavor and potentially be toxic at that level.

Usually for the home brewer, best option is to ferment dry, then stabilize with sorbate (which inhibits yeast reproduction) and sulfite which will suppress new yeast activity as well as help reduce oxidation. At this point, you can back sweeten. Carbonation can only be achieved from force-carbing, though spunding may be an option.

Some people have had success with an off-dry cider by fermenting a the low-end temp of the yeast, then cold crashing near the desired gravity. At this point, stabilize and sweeten.

 

[Shawnstve]

Those things might blow on ya..

Like bottle bomb blow? Hmmm. I really don’t feel like that happening. Lol! Any suggestions? Should I pop the cap on them a few days in to release some gas?

 

[Harleybrew32]

one other thing i do with my ciders, I bottle them in 1liter plastic seltzer bottles.
they can hold more pressure, just in case of over carbing.

 

[Shawnstve]

Oh man, good idea, except I’m one of those weirdos that is afraid of plastic. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll drink water from a plastic bottle if I have to, but try not to as much as possible. Especially things fermenting or acidic since the acids can leech more chemicals. I’m borderline hippy but really I’m not. Haha! No dreads or anything, just try to do natural stuff. Partially why I wanted to get into making my own cider and beer. The yeast isn’t killed off and I get the beneficial microbes. Been doing fermented sauerkraut, pickles and my own kombucha recently.

 

[Immocles]

Like bottle bomb blow? Hmmm. I really don’t feel like that happening. Lol! Any suggestions? Should I pop the cap on them a few days in to release some gas?

I just noticed that you said 16oz bottles instead of the 12oz I use so it might just be extra fizzy and not go explosive on ya. I've only had one bottle bomb. It's not something that I ever wish to deal with again. After that one, I had started carbonating in a blast chamber of sorts to mitigate any possible explosions, haha. If it were me, I would monitor it. The cider will be dry though. I didn't think I would develop much of a taste for it, but it really grows on ya I think.

+1 to the kombucha. I love that stuff. And it's insanely fun to experiment with the flavors.

 

[Shawnstve]

Ok thanks, so the bottles came in a heavy cardboard box, with separating cardboard slots, like you would see with wine cases... anyway, I have the fermenting ones in there, with a tray under. I am not sure how powerful the bottle bombs are but, I figured the cardboard would help keep it from ruining my apartment? Unfortunately I’ve got them right next to my gallon kombucha jug currently fermenting. Could they expload with enough force to like destroy everything in my house? Like a really dangerous type thing? Is the cardboard not enough? I’ll upload a pic...

 

[Shawnstve]

Btw, I only got 4 bottles out of it. There was lots of pulp and yeast at the bottom that I left behind. I also got a small amount to put in a glass, maybe 6oz to try. I didn’t fill these bottles all the way, only like up just past where it starts to narrow. Here I’ll get another pic.

Also I popped the top on them and it Definitely had carbonation, but wasn’t like crazy or anything. I hope I didn’t mess it up by popping the top once to release gas. Lol!

 

[Immocles]

The one I had was a 12oz beer bottle. It was in a similar case and probably 75% shattered, but contained. I'd hate to have had it just sitting out on a shelf or happen to be standing right next to it or something. Checking a bottle shouldn't screw anything up. It just might be a little flatter than the others, but should still have some carbonation to it as it conditions. You'll get a feel for it after a few batches

 

[Shawnstve]

Ok I feel a bit better now that I opened them and none seemed to really act like overly carbonated, granted it was only 3 days in the bottle so far, but I would expect it to like pop off violently if it was gonna become a bottle bomb after re sealing. I’ll take a change and let it sit for a few weeks without touching, maybe open a bottle and see how it tastes after. If it goes crazy on the fiz, I’ll make sure and open the rest soon after. Maybe I’ll have some friends over to drink it and make sure it doesn’t have more of a problem. Oh wait, I can’t have friends over, damn corona virus! Haha. Well looks like in a few weeks, I might be having some heavy drinking nights. (To me, 16oz is enough, heck half that is enough for a night. Haha!).

 

[Shawnstve]

I just realized I didn’t boil the sugar into water. Just dropped it in. Hmmmmm. Maybe that’s why it’s slow to carb up. Slower to eat up the granules of sugar? Just spit balling here. It could end up dissolving I guess in little time, maybe it’s not a problem. That’s how I do my kombucha, never thought of making a simple syrup though until someone commented on my beer brewing post. Lol! I’ll do the simple syrup from now on.

 

[Immocles]

I rarely make a solution anymore. Most of my brews, both cider and beer, are in the 1-3G range so I funnel sugar into the bottles individually. Carbonation will generally take a couple weeks. If I am impatient, I will agitate the yeast and sugar up daily by slowly swirling and inverting the bottles, but it generally benefits from a few weeks in the bottle anyway.