Cider noob questions

[_bygolly]

Hi there. I'm new to both home brewing and this app. Just had some questions for my first simple brew I will be starting next week. I am using the recipe from ciderup.com, it was the one YouTube video that didn't have home brew snobs commenting about how he was doing something wrong.
Anyway, I got some champagne yeast but I heard this will make it come out pretty dry, and possibly taste like wine which I wanted more of a sweet taste. Is there a way to sweeten it after fermentation? And how will this effect it?
Second question is when I am at a point where I want to bottle it how can I do so without making "glass bombs"?
Any help would be much appreciated, thanks!

 

[sfgoat]

After fermentation completes and you are ready to bottle/keg, just add half a teaspoon per gallon of potassium sorbate to keep fermentation from starting up again and then sweeten to taste. You can use various things to sweeten (different sugars, more juice, etc.).

 

[_bygolly]

Thank ya kindly!!

 

[insanim8er]

But you want to make sure there is as little yeast as possible when you rack onto the sorbate. Since potassium sorbate only inhibits the growth of yeast. It doesn't kill them. If you have a lot of viable yeast, the sorbate will only slow down the growth, but they will still continue to grow and ferment. I also recommend using an ale yeast like Nottingham

 

[Daforino]

I always filter then finish my ciders with campden tablets 1/gal and 3cans frozen juice to 5gal batch, seems to work for me.

 

[_bygolly]

I'm usin a 1 gallon Carboy can I just dump the half teaspoon of sorbate in there add sugar/sweetener and then distribute into the bottles?

 

[bernardsmith]

One way to help ensure that there is very little active yeast to create bottle bombs is to allow your cider to age. If you rack every couple of months then you are in fact removing more and more of the remaining active yeast colony. So, while you can certainly drink cider after a few weeks of fermentation, after 6 months or even a year aging the cider tastes incredibly superior and when you add sorbate and K-meta you don't have many active yeast cells to inhibit so you can sweeten the cider all you want.

 

[insanim8er]

I'm usin a 1 gallon Carboy can I just dump the half teaspoon of sorbate in there add sugar/sweetener and then distribute into the bottles?

I would let it finish fermenting. I'd close the lid and throw it into the fridge for a few days to settle the yeast out.

I'd dissolve the potassium sorbate in hot water (1/4 cup maybe) then add it to a clean bottle and rack the cider on it (avoiding transfering the yeast at the bottom) then you can add juice concentrate into it until it taste right (thaw those frozen cans you get in the freezer section) once you know how much to use, next time add that amount with the sorbate and transfer (rack) onto it.

If you use sugar, dissolve it first.

I let my cider age a long time like mentioned above. But you can move the process along if you cold crash (or even use gelatin) using this method: http://www.bertusbrewery.com/2012/06/how-to-clear-your-beer-with-gelatin.html

 

[_bygolly]

Yeah I plan on letting it do it's thing for about 5 or 6 weeks this time. This will be my first batch so I'm doing this to get a feel for it, after this one I can start aging it longer and whatnot. I wanna get to the point where I make it from scratch as much as I can, but this is just kind of a practice brew

 

[_bygolly]

And dumb question, what do you mean by dissolving the sugar

 

[insanim8er]

Dissolve it in hot water. Don't just dump granular sugar in the cider.

 

[_bygolly]

Gotcha. And another dumb question, when you say racking I assume you mean siphoning it through a tube to another container, can I just pour it instead?

 

[sfgoat]

Gotcha. And another dumb question, when you say racking I assume you mean siphoning it through a tube to another container, can I just pour it instead?

That is correct.

 

[insanim8er]

Gotcha. And another dumb question, when you say racking I assume you mean siphoning it through a tube to another container, can I just pour it instead?

If you pour, you'll dump the yeast in with it, so get a racking cain or auto siphon.

 

[sfgoat]

Double post

 

[MindenMan]

If the cider you drink today is okay, then 3 months from now, it will probably be amazing. I made some apple jack last September, and I intentionally left some sugar in it, and then I bottled it and stashed it away. I recently found one of the flasks, (there were two) and poured a sample for my wife and I to taste. There are no words to describe how amazingly smooth and bright the apple flavor was. I am fairly sure when I racked it away last year, it was alcohol "hot" and only slightly apple-ish. Yes, you know that there is alcohol in it, but it just isn't overpowering like it was almost a year ago. I have since done a few flavor experiments, and apple-apple is my first choice, apple-cranberry is my second, and I am not sure if I even like the apple-white grape combo. It is like drinking the "W" 's company grape jelly, and when I was a kid, I loved grape jelly, and today, well I really can't say. I also like apple-apricot.

Wal-Mart has canned apricots available very inexpensively. Their flavor was great when added to apricot ale recipe. If you have not tried apples and apricots together, you are in for a treat. As I sit here I am formulating in my head a batch of apricot-apple cider possibilities. If I have an epiphany between now and then, I'll post it.

 

[_bygolly]

Cool man let me know how it goes, I have never tried the combination before