Critique my first attempt - Cider/Honey Wine

[SmashedPumpkins]

I'm a fan of ciders and for my first brew attempt I went with a cider. How did I do? What would you have done differently?

Ingredients: (See 1st picture)

• 1 gallon glass carboy + airlock
• 1 gallon of TreeTop Fresh Pressed Honeycrisp Apple Juice
• 2 lbs of honey (grocery store didn't have dextrose)
• 1 packet of champagne yeast
• 2 sticks of cinnamon

Setup Primary:

• Boiled water to sanitize carboy and airlock
• Used water for the airlock
• Activated yeast with warm tap water (Realized later that might open to infection. Do you use boiled water?)
• Added most of the juice, honey, cinnamon sticks, and yeast
• Fermented for 5 weeks. I was out of town and got a little sidetracked.
• The first week the temperature started at 72 degrees then dropped to about 65. The next four weeks sat at about 60 degrees.

Setup Secondary: (yesterday)

• Added Starsan to 1 gallon of distilled water then poured into a bowl. Used this to sanitize everything.
• Siphoned primary to the same 1 gallon water jug
• Cleaned and sanitized the carboy
• Poured cider back into the carboy
• Added some vanilla extract and dried cranberries as well as a dab of honey
• Used vodka in the airlock this time

Notes:

• By the 5th week of primary I wasn't seeing any activity and saw plenty of settled yeast.
• The cider was not very clear. In fact I was struggling to see the black end of the siphon tube.
• I didn't buy a hydrometer.
• I probably left too much cider in the carboy when siphoning.
• I sampled the cider and the alcohol taste was strong. The affect was as well. Perhaps closer to a wine?
• It was little sweet and sour but I liked it. There was a yeast flavor also.
• After adding the airlock for the secondary it immediately began fermenting again with bubbles every few seconds.
• There does not appear to be any bubbling today. (One day after moving to secondary) Is this normal or is it too cold at 60 degrees?
• The plan is to wait a few weeks to a month before likely storing it for consumption in the carboy. No plan to bottle it.

Images:

• https://i.imgur.com/uXpAjHk.jpg
  
• https://i.imgur.com/cj5pxDT.jpg

 

[nDub]

Looks good to me! Almost exactly how I make small batch ciders.

Bubbles in secondary don't necessarily indicate fermentation. Sometimes CO2 can come out of suspension particularly after disturbing it. But with the added honey and champagne yeast it'll probably ferment some more.

Did you top off the secondary carboy? You don't want any airspace (generally) after transfer. I usually just top it off with more apple juice.

Also in my experience champagne yeast is finicky and likes nutrients. So you might add that to your primary in the future. Also it'll taste like alcohol (hot) for about 6 months (in my experience) before the apple comes back through.

You might try beer yeast next time, like S04 or S05. It'll leave some body in your cider too.

Let us know how it turns out! Good luck and Welcome to HBT!

 

[SmashedPumpkins]

Looks good to me! Almost exactly how I make small batch ciders.

Bubbles in secondary don't necessarily indicate fermentation. Sometimes CO2 can come out of suspension particularly after disturbing it. But with the added honey and champagne yeast it'll probably ferment some more.

Did you top off the secondary carboy? You don't want any airspace (generally) after transfer. I usually just top it off with more apple juice.

Also in my experience champagne yeast is finicky and likes nutrients. So you might add that to your primary in the future. Also it'll taste like alcohol (hot) for about 6 months (in my experience) before the apple comes back through.

You might try beer yeast next time, like S04 or S05. It'll leave some body in your cider too.

Let us know how it turns out! Good luck and Welcome to HBT!

Thanks. I didn't top off the secondary carboy. This is why I added a dab of honey to hopefully produce some more CO2. Will this be ineffective? Maybe I should just top it off instead. And thanks for the yeast advice!

 

[Maylar]

It's called a "cyser". 2 lb of honey in a gallon of cider will put you in the 15% potential alcohol range, a wine yeast was a good choice. You really should get a hydrometer.

 

[ten80]

Perhaps try a more flavorful wine yeast such as D47 or 71B and ferment starting cooler in the ~55F range, ramping up (or moving to a warmer room) as the gravity approaches 1.020 to encourage the fermentation to finish. Both of the yeasts I mention have pretty low nutrient requirements but I'd add some Fermaid-O if you want them to finish fermenting within two months. Nothing wrong with going cold and slow with cyser fermentations to avoid blowing off the apple flavor.

Other than that, perhaps keep a little juice in reserve (freeze it) for topping off the second carboy or use some boiled glass marbles to make up the volume difference. You can also add fining agents after racking to help clear the cider faster, though champagne yeast usually settles pretty quickly at temperatures below 40F.