a few questions from a new guy

[amandley]

Ok. Never brewed anything before this. My first recipe was destined to be a cider. ( my dad runs an organic apple orchard in n. Wisconsin/ unfortunately im not using his apples because i live in Washington) i used 4 gallons tree top apple juice and 1 gallon of "simply apple". I added 2.5 cups brown sugar and the cider/ mead yeast they had at the local brew store. I am brewing in the basement as it stays a consistent 65-70'
Here are the q's
At the most frequent my airlock was bubbling every 2-3 seconds but has slowed in 6 days down to 10-12 seconds. At what point should i move it to my secondary/ glass carboy?
Bearing in mind i plan on adding a raspberry puree tomorrow.
After i add the raspberry should fermentation take off again?
And of course after it sits in the glass for a while at what point do i add the bottling sugar (still kinda confused on what to use for that) then bottle?

 

[amandley]

One more,........ i neglected to take an OG reading, because i suck and didnt read enough. Is there a way i can still approximate alc%?

 

[VincentVega]

Don't add raspberry until you move to secondary. Usually, one moves to secondary when fermentation stops. You seem to have slowed, but you need to go get a hydrometer. Take a reading every day, and if you get 3 days in a row of the same reading, no budge, then you can rack to secondary. At this point, add your raspberry. 2.5 cups sugar? My GUESS is you were around 1.070. If you let ferment in primary for another week or two, you should finish around .990 which means you'd be at 10% ABV. These numbers are all speculation though as you didn't take a reading.

 

[sa101]

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 what your aim is.
Also, buy a hydrometer, they're invaluable

 

[amandley]

Looking to end up slightly sweet, not mouth pucker dry but not syrup or juice sweet. I do have a hydrometer, i just didnt realize i was supposed to take a reading before i started fermentation.

 

[Yooper]

Out of curiosity, where is your family's orchard?

 

[CollegeCider]

Well, since all the stuff you are using, you can calculate the amount of sugar in it, and then by finding out how many gallons are in your batch, you can find out how much sugar per gallon you have and then you can see your OG by reading the eqivilants on the triple scale hydrometer, or look at a chart online

 

[CollegeCider]

if both your apple juices are 28g sugar per 8 oz. then you have an OG of 1.059 and 14.5 Brix (Brix is grams of sugar/100grams solvent) so I calculated that for 28grams of sugar per 8 oz, that is 448 grams of sugar per gallon, and I found 2.5 cups brown sugar is ~500 grams so that divided by 5(gallons) is 100 extra grams per gallon, bringing us to ~550 grams of sugar per gallon, then I converted to 100ml so I divided by 37.85 and got 14.53, so you have ~14.5 brix and that was put into a calculator that gave an OG of 1.059. You are welcome, and yes I was bored enough to do the math.

 

[sa101]

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 something quite strong, and you'll more than likely need to backsweeten.
If I were you, I'd get it to 1.02 (5.9%) or 1.015 (6.7%), rack it to your bottling bucket, then add your rasberry puree. Taste it, and go from there. Some people wait 24 hours before bottling, some do it immediately. I think the only reason some people wait is to increase the alcohol level with the introduction of the new sugars. It's up to you, it's all about experimenting.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/

read the above when you come to pasteurising. You'll need to look up on the priming sugar stuff, I'm still experimenting with that myself, so many different options out there from the simple 1/2 tsp of sugar per bottle to full on calculations. Your best bet is to prime, then pour some of your primed cider into a plastic bottle so you can feel how hard it gets over time

 

[CollegeCider]

If you prefer a dry, carbonated cider like I do, I would let it frement out and then add in the puree. I typically add 1/4 cup of sugar per gallon for carbonation(that is what priming sugar is for). If you are using a store bought puree, 1/4 cup is ~60 grams of sugar, so I would add the puree and whatever other sugar I needed to get to 100g sugar per gal. If you like a sweet cider, use sa101's version. Or you could make a happy medium. If you want a carbonated sweet cider, it is difficult to master and could lead to bombs if you dont check carbonation every day.

Edit: 1/4 cup is ~60g sugar, not ~100g sugar
for cups to weight conversions I used this site btw http://www.traditionaloven.com/conversions_of_measures/sugar_amounts.html

 

[amandley]

Yooper- The orchard is called Deedon Lake orchard, it is right outside Turtle Lake, WI. On a side note, I'm assuming by your name you are from the U.P. I was born in Hancock.

College Cider- THANK YOU! You must have been all kinds of bored. 4 gallons of the juice I used was 26g/ 8oz. The last gallon was 28 g/ 8 oz. so if my math is righ ( which it may not be) for the 4 gallons the brix is 13.6 should I just assume an average between the 2 numbers? or is it close enough to not really matter? I think I am going to try for a "happy medium" situation as you mentioned. I was originally going to try for a carb'd sweetish cider but I am thinking now to just let it be still and be done.

 

[CollegeCider]

its a weighed average, so the average is (26*4 + 28*1)/5=26.4g/8 oz I ended up getting 13.8 brix, so the OG would be 1.056. Does'nt really matter as they are close. Still cider is easier and im lazy sometimes, but I prefer carbonation, so whether I carb or not depends on the day for me

 

[amandley]

I took a measurement today. If i read it correctly and with temperature correction it is 1.002. And the airlock had slowed to around one bubble per minute. So i went ahead and moved it over to 2nd ferm. Added the raspberry puree ( by the way it was not store bought, i made it from 5 lbs of raspberries i picked at my neighbors house) it has started bubbling again. I ended up having about half a gallon that wouldnt fit in the carboy so i just said screw it and bottled that. Any health concerns there? Will the carboy clear up just sitting or should i do that "cold shock" i read about?

 

[amandley]

Oh. And i am stove top pasteurizing the early bottles

 

[mdgapinski]

One thing I have done to keep my cider sweet and carbonated is I start with an anticipated ABV of 10% around 1.070 and then I pitch my yeast. After about 4 days I take another reading. Once I have fermented out half of the sugar I add in potassium meta-bisulfite and potassium sorbate. This will stop fermentation giving me 5% ABV and some carbonation with sweet apple flavored beverage. You could also back sweeten also if you do not get enough sweetness. I have found this helps with the flavor and cuts some of the bitterness out of the cider.

 

[amandley]

Ok. So i just finished moving things along. After adding my puree yesterday i let it all sit for the night. Today i transferred on more time while screening out all the seeds, pulp etc. I wasnt sure if i should do it or not but i read somewhre that the pulp and seeds could give it an off taste if not screened out. I guess thats another thing i wish i would have read first. I took another measurement today. The spec grav is sitting at 1.002 if i am thinking right that puts me around 8% ???. I tasted it as well. I am kind of worried b/c it has an almost sour but maybe just tart aftertaste. Is this a bacteria thing or maybe i just need to back sweeten. If i do backsweet whats a good natural non fermentable sugar? Do i add that at the same time that i add my bottling sugar? And last question for now. How annoyed are you with my incessant questions and rambling. Seriously tho thanks for the help

 

[Yooper]

Ok. So i just finished moving things along. After adding my puree yesterday i let it all sit for the night. Today i transferred on more time while screening out all the seeds, pulp etc. I wasnt sure if i should do it or not but i read somewhre that the pulp and seeds could give it an off taste if not screened out. I guess thats another thing i wish i would have read first. I took another measurement today. The spec grav is sitting at 1.002 if i am thinking right that puts me around 8% ???. I tasted it as well. I am kind of worried b/c it has an almost sour but maybe just tart aftertaste. Is this a bacteria thing or maybe i just need to back sweeten. If i do backsweet whats a good natural non fermentable sugar? Do i add that at the same time that i add my bottling sugar? And last question for now. How annoyed are you with my incessant questions and rambling. Seriously tho thanks for the help

Berries are pretty tart when they ferment, as they "lose" their sugar and keep the acidity. That should mellow with time. But you can sweeten it if you want with some lactose or splenda. (I don't like splenda, so I'd use lactose if anything).

 

[mdgapinski]

What Yoop said. Let it bulk age and that should mellow out the tartness.

 

[amandley]

Ok. Thanks for the reassurance. Just to make sure ive got this right....to bulk age let it sit in the 2ndary ferm with airlock for a couple weeks. Rack it over to something else every once in awhile to clear it up right?

 

[mdgapinski]

Yeah that will work. I heave heard aging on oak barrels is really nice because it allows for the product to breath, but we don't all have oak barrels. I just use my carboy.