Apple Cider Noob attempt

[Wildbill001]

After the bushel of apples that my wife bought for a holloween party went unused, I thought, "Let's make cider!" I did the following all before I found this board.

So we juiced the apples, loaded up the stew pot and pasteurized. Possible mistake #1--during this process the temp got away from me and I ended up boiling the juice for about 10-15 min. Brought the fire down and kept it at about 190-200F for 45min.

Possible Mistake #2--Had gone to the local homebrew shop looking for a small carboy, 3gal. They were out. Found an empty 3gal water-cooler jug so got that. It's one of those blue-plastic Purex brand jugs.

Possible mistake #3 -- Didn't deal with the pectins so the juice is very cloudy.

Possible Mistake #4 -- Let the juice cool down to about 80F then pitched Red Star Champagne. Didn't think to get a hydrometer at the homebrew store so I have no idea what my starting sugar was. I had added about a cup of light brown sugar before I pitched the yeast. After about a day, I got some bubbles in the airlock but nothing like the foaming I've seen in pictures.

Gonna pick up a hydrometer this weekend. The mix has been "fermenting" for seven days. This morning I noticed that there are no more bubbles coming out of the airlock.

Where do I go from here? Should I add some additional sugar(depending on the SG readings of course)? Add some yeast nutrient? Taste and bottle?

Any help would be appreciated.

Wildbill

 

[JLem]

chances are it fermented just fine - my ciders have not had much in terms of foam - just some small bubbles. So, I wouldn't bother with the nutrients. Nor would I worry about additional sugar at this point - you don't know where it started anyways, so you'll just be throwing sugar in there willy-nilly, which is never a good idea in my book. Take a hydrometer reading and give it a taste. It will likely be very dry with little sweetness, which is normal. Regardless of what the gravity is, personally, I would leave it alone for a few weeks (at least) before bottling. I would even rack off the lees then and secondary it for a while. Once you bottle, stash them away for 6 months or more.

As for the haze, I wonder if you can add pectic enzyme now...I don't know as I have never tried. Someone here should know though.

 

[oldmate]

+1 for adding pectic enzyme to get rid of the haze. It's fine to add it prior or following fermentation, so I'd get on that if you want a clear cider! If you add the enzyme give it a few days to a week in a secondary vessel before you see any changes.

 

[Fletch78]

It's probably not a good idea to add yeast nutrient at this point either.

 

[Wildbill001]

Racked to secondary and off almost all the lees. Took a sample, sg is 1.0 (which explains the lack of fermentation) and it is definitely alcoholic! Should I let it sit in the secondary for a bit then bottle? I'd like to end up with a sparkling, sweet cider if possible.

Thanks for any and all help.

Bill

 

[oldmate]

Have a read of the sticky on bottle pasteurising and follow the instructions. (the longer you age it, the better it will taste - mine don't make it past a week)

 

[Wildbill001]

Even though I was still getting some settling in the secondary, the wife wanted to get this bottled up so it would be ready for Xmas. I tried to explain that probably wouldn't happen but SWMBO won out.

Back-sweetened with about 2lbs of Brown Sugar, placed in 12oz longnecks. Also put about 10oz into two used, cleaned, sanitized soft-drink PET bottles. Wife wanted still, I wanted sparkling. So I figured I'd use the PET bottles as an experiment to see how fizzy I could get before the wife didn't like it.

Anyway, with the champagne yeast and all that added sugar, the PET bottles got fairly hard to squeeze within a couple of days. So off the pastuerization went the longnecks and the PET went into the fridge. Waited 2 days then cracked those boys open. WOW! For a first attempt and not really knowing what I was doing, I'm REAL HAPPY

Yeah, it's real cloudy, probably too sweet, a bit too much ABV BUT it's all mine! :rockin:

Thanks to all who have answered by questions!

Wildbill