brewseeker
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- Sep 16, 2012
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That still does not answer my question. I'm nervous that mixing the honey and fermented cider will ruin it. I'm curious I hear how others hVe done it. Thank you
Just wanted to send an update. We used 120lbs of apples from a friend's tree. We basically cut the cores out and used a machine to grind everything up. The machine would spit the peels out the front and let the juice drain below. Once we had enough juice (just under 5 gallons), I filtered it a few times to get the apple sauce out. I heated it up to 160 degrees to kill anything in it. While that was cooling, I carmelized my sugar and juice mixture for about 20 minutes. I had 5x the sugar and juice according to the original recipe. I then mixed that with the rest of the juice in the plastic fermenter. It took overnight for this to cool to 70 degrees. I stirred like crazy for about 15 minutes and then added in my WLP775 (cider yeast), put the lid on, added the airlock, and waited. The first day, we did smell the rhino farts, but it wasn't WAY overpowering. It was just enough to notice. After the first day, the rhino farts were gone. There was basically no smell coming from the airlock. I haven't seen a single bubble in there, but I hadn't checked it really the first day. I was afraid that no fermentation was happening. After 6 days, my original gravity of 1.095 is now about 1.075, so I believe the fermentation is happening. I'll keep this updated as often as I can, I want to stop fermenting when the gravity gets to about 1.030 (~8.7 % ABV). I plan to backsweeten just as the original recipe suggests, then keg and refrigerate. Let me know if anyone has any comments, suggestions, or questions. Any would be appreciated.
As an update, after 15 days total, we're down to 1.048 from our starting gravity of 1.095. It is starting to smell more like hard cider. I haven't really had any airlock activity this entire time. Still planning on stopping the fermentation at 1.030, might be another week or so.
Just tasted at 1.040 and it does seem a bit sweet, kind of thick actually. I liked it, but I can say for sure that 1.040 is too high to stop fermenting.
New to cider making. This will be my first batch. Started two 1 gallon carboys one week ago! All the feedback on this cider is making this a great beginner brew. I attempted it with exceedingly cheap walmart apple juice, so if it even comes decent I'll be excited and use better juice for the next batch. I have two questions about the upcoming rack and bottling -
1)If it's harsh (hot) to my taste should I attempt to go beyond the back sweetening with honey and try and use some apple concentrate to flavor, or should I just have faith in the maturation process?
2) I have some Champagne bottles that I was planning on bottling/carbonating in before using papper's pasteurization method, has anyone used his method with anything over 20oz? I assume a regular corked wine bottle won't hold the pressure? Also if you've carbonated in a larger bottle how long did it take?
Thanks
I have a question about hydrometer reading...
I too am new to fermenting, and have a 5 gallon carboy of this caramel apple cider going, but juiced about 30 pounds of apples prior to that batch, did not have a hydrometer to test at that time.
So, I have 2 gallons of juice, pasteurized it to 165, added 3/4 cup of raw sugar to each gallons worth, waited for it to cool completely and pitched my yeast, the airlocks were vigorous right from the get go (I used champagne yeast), it's the 21st day and the airlocks have been quiet for about a week. I finally got the hydrometer in the mail and when I siphoned some off and tested it the reading was almost none, the whole thing sunk and read at the top line.
Is this normal for this stage? If not, do you see any glaring omissions on my part. It has been kept at a steady 65 degrees, not jostled or messed with. I'd hate to be a dud right out of the gate~
But I was at a wine making class this morning and they said the brix (sugar) is 24-26 at harvest and it's finished at -2 to -3... then you go on to secondary fermentation, is our cider like that?
Thank you in advance for any help or comments.
It would take a very brave soul to try to carb cider on their first outting. Plastic ( unless its a soda bottle) is not made to hold high pressure. I recommend , for your first batch or two at least, get your recipe to where you like it before you worry about carbing. If you are hell bent to kill the yeast , back sweeten and carbing, you can go to an auto parts store and get a tire valve stem, drill a hole in a soda cap and shoot CO2 into it. I do this all the time to try out small batches.
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