1st Time

[Pickled_Pepper]

My definition would be that you rely only on the sugar content of the apple juice for cider. By not adding any additional fermentable sugar, you usually end up with an ABV of 5-8%.

With apple wine, you would add a lot of sugar (2 pounds for a 5 gallon batch?) and typically end up with a final ABV around 10-15%.

 

[vinper]

reading my hydrometer , dont know how to read yet , didnt have a seperate vial to put it in ,so i just put it in the on gallon mix and kept away from sides of glass . it was at 80 which i guess means 1.080....

 

[DWavs]

yes, one of my questions is whats the differance between apple cider vrs. apple wine . they seem to be the same recipe

Once you have added enough sugar to get above an 8.5% (approximately) alcohol content, you are leaving the realms of cider and moving into apple wine.

 

[vinper]

bottle temp right now is 64 . cooler tonight so most likley been in the low 70 range

 

[DWavs]

Bubbling away?

 

[vinper]

yes has been bubbling right from the get go ...if you look real close you seee those fine bubbles comming to the surface . going on 5th day

 

[vinper]

need to start asking about next step . I think when it stops bubbling approx. 2 weeks old. then i will graphity feed to (rack) to another clean container and let sit 2 more weeks till clears up.

 

[DWavs]

Any update on a hygrometer reading?

 

[vinper]

just got my thief tube in last night ... meter was bottoming out in the 1 gl container .. Its at 1.020 . from 1.080 still bubling but slowing . looks like at 8% .. I wanted to rack this weekend , is still sweet tasting but good .. I want to drink . So do i wait till down to 1.000 or what

 

[DWavs]

just got my thief tube in last night ... meter was bottoming out in the 1 gl container .. Its at 1.020 . from 1.080 still bubling but slowing . looks like at 8% .. I wanted to rack this weekend , is still sweet tasting but good .. I want to drink . So do i wait till down to 1.000 or what

Wait another few days and retest. As long as it is still going, you risk bottle bombs.

 

[16onRockandRoll]

How long does it usually take? I started a gallon over a week ago with no additional sugar using EC 1118 and it is still bubbling regularly. And how much sugar/dextrose do you add to a gallon for bottle conditioning? This is my first attempt at cider, I have one beer under my belt.

 

[vinper]

Mine has pretty much stop fermenting , can I rack put in fridge to crash , rack one more time and drink , then keep the one gallon container in the fridge .probably drink it in a few days

 

[vinper]

was at 1.000... racked , put in fridge ,started crashing ... now what. want it to clear looks like lot of sediment on bottom just since last night

 

[CCBrewer]

wait the time to crash it, I didn't and got sediment in bottles.... no off flavor but it looks kinda blah

 

[DWavs]

was at 1.000... racked , put in fridge ,started crashing ... now what. want it to clear looks like lot of sediment on bottom just since last night

As predicted, the cider did indeed turn out dry.

Give it some crashing time in order to clear up.

 

[vinper]

how do you tell , by the reading ? if it stopped like 1.010 means there is still sugar left?

 

[DWavs]

how do you tell , by the reading ? if it stopped like 1.010 means there is still sugar left?

Most ciders will turn out dry....which is anywhere from 0.996ish to 1.000.

1.010 would have an ever so slight sweetness to it. I just started a new batch and am gonna attempt to stop it at 1.012ish in order to have a little sweetness and then pasteurize. That way, you don't have to deal with back sweetening with an artificial sweetener if you are bottling.

 

[vinper]

another question , now that Ive racked, I put the cap on and put in fridge... There is quite a bit of air space in bottle is that ok ? did not want to add more juice