Racked my first batch of cider this weekend to get out the lees. It had a somewhat pleasant taste but was still yeasty and a little sour but I think I'm getting fairly close to what I want to get. I lost a little volume and since I was working on another batch at the time I added in a little more cider just to keep my little yeast buddies working a little bit. Now that it's in secondary and it tastes like a good young cider what are my next steps, should I let it go in secondary for another month? Or should I look to get it outside while the fall weather drops to the upper 30s at night and cold crash and call it a success? Any help would be really appreciated
Been a month
- Thread starter chubbzm
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Brewkowski
Well-Known Member
Bottling or kegging? Dry or backsweetened? How thirsty are you? All depends on what you want really.
I'd like to back sweeten some to give it some carbonation and I'm going to be bottling it. I'm thinking about cold crashing my 1gal "tester" this week then siphoning it into my bottling bucket and back sweetening with a little brown sugar dissolved in fresh cider. Then bottling immediately and letting sit for 2-3 days and the doing the simple stovetop pasteurize! Does this sound like a kosher plan or am I off base?!? And being that it's my first of 4 batches I made this year , and I have a little 1 gal batch as a tester just sitting there I am VERY thirsty! I racked all of my first batch Saturday and it did make a big diff as far as clearing up and it has slowed down to maybe 3-4 bubbles a min...let me know if my steps r in order to make a carbonated semi-sweet delightful cider ! Thanks again
Brewkowski
Well-Known Member
Seems like you have a good process lined up, I've never pasteurized but from the other threads on here it seems right, but maybe give it more than 2-3 days to carb (depending on the level you want)
