First attempt beginner help

[tomplum]

Hi I'm new to home brewing and bought a starter kit with demijohns & bottles. I used a magnum strawberry cider kit and followed the instructions.
I rushed into things with been too eager and added the second sweetener into my vessel after 7 day fermentation then stirred and left the cider 3hours I've then bottled it and obviously it's lots of sediment in the bottles and murky looking colour.. Have I completely ruined it or will the sediment settle in these bottles?? Thanks for any help

 

[Cider123]

There are a lot of unknowns here. It depends on if fermentation had ended after the 7 days. I'm guessing you didn't take a sp gravity reading? Did the cider taste sweet before adding the second sweetener?
Not knowing the kit, was this "second sweetner" a sugar to carbonate your cider in the bottles or was it a non-fermenting sweetener to add sweetness to the cider?

You want to be careful because if your cider is bottled but had not finished fermenting, you could get what we call "bottle bombs". I would crack open a bottle every 2-3 days to make sure they are not getting over-carbonated. If you start seeing bottles that start foaming all over the place once you open them, then I would uncap your bottles to avoid explosions. It would be a loss for the batch, but live and learn. If it still tasted good then you could have a cider party that day.

Sediment is less of a concern. You'll always have some sediment in your bottles. It takes some skill to get cider as clear as a commercial brand. Most will settle to the bottom.

For the next time, you want to take a specific gravity reading before you start fermenting, then let it ferment for a few weeks before checking the gravity again. You know you are done when your gravity is the same for 3-4 days. The kit should give you an idea of what the final gravity should be. Once fermentation is done, then you can add a non-fermentable sugar to "back sweeten" if you want and bottle.
I've been there and done that.

 

[tomplum]

Hi it was a second sweetener to add to the cider then I added sugar to the bottles to carbonate them. No I didn't take sp reading but it was about 8 days and fermenting had appeared to have finished as there was no longer any airlock activity or bubbles in the actual cider.. The sediment seems to be slowly working its way to the bottom of the bottles and slight bubbles in the bottles is this the secondary fermentation also bottles have gone hard. Thanks

 

[Cider123]

I would still keep an eye on those bottles. Airlock activity is not a good indicator of fermentation. The process can and will continue for a bit with no bubbling through the airlock. It doesn't take much fermentation in the bottles to produce an over carbed situation, especially when you've added carbing sugar on top of that.
Sp gravity checks are the only way to be sure. Good luck.

 

[tomplum]

Hi I've checked the bottles today and opened one the pressure wasn't too bad only light foam coming out I tasted it and its very dry which is meant to be sweet strawberry. Is there any way of sweetening back up before drinking?

 

[ctbrewguy]

Kill the yeast with sorbate and add sugar or some sort of extract.

 

[tomplum]

And what does sorbate do?

 

[ctbrewguy]

"Kill the yeast with sorbate" If you add fermentable sugars while yeast is still active you will still have a dry cider because all the sugars will ferment out. If you kill the yeast, the sugar will sweeten the cider. Granted if you kill the yeast your only option for carbing will be forced and can't be done in a bottle. If you want a flat cider that is the best option.

 

[tomplum]

Thanks it's more or less fully carbonated now so I have strawberry extract to hand mabye a few drops of that per bottle will take some of the dryness away. I'm new to all this so it's trial and error