First brew

[smorgan82]

Hello everyone, I'm brand new to the forum and apologize if my questions have already been answered in previous threads.

I've never done any brewing by myself before, assistant brewer, plenty of times. So I basically clean and sanitize and have got that part down. Haha

I picked up a few Mr. Beer kits and used one of the yeast packets in a gallon of unfiltered apple juice almost 4 days ago. The first day my airlock was almost full when I checked it 3 hours after pitching so I installed a blowout tube and left it. Yesterday I replaced the tube with a clean airlock and noticed there wasn't much going on top of the jug and there was tons of sediment in my blow off container There is, however, a steady stream of tiny bubbles in the jug . I'm curious as to how to tell when fermentation is generally over. I have no idea what kind of yeast I pitched. And unfortunately didn't have a hydrometer to test OG. I have since picked up a simple wine kit which included all the nifty little tools to properly prepare ciders and whatnot. Can I still calculate abv without an initial reading? And should I worry if there isn't any sort of head on the juice?

 

[MarkKF]

You can only tell if fermentation is done with a hydrometer. Otherwise it might have slowed or stopped but not be done.

 

[Maylar]

No headspace just means you'll bubble over, as you found out. And you need the OG value to calculate alcohol content.

 

[smorgan82]

Thanks Mark. I know there is still fermentation going on because it's producing small bubbles still. I'll wait until it slows down and check gravity with a hydrometer I bought yesterday. Would the lack of foam on top indicate a slow fermentation?

 

[smorgan82]

Does primary fermentation look the same in both cider and beer? I'm just guessing that I have some slow yeast because there's really no foam on top, but everything has small CO2 bubbles coming to the top. It looks like I filled a jug with cloudy soda. ☺

 

[MarkKF]

I d had some cider with little or no foam. Clear juice and some yeasts produce no foam.

Beer yeasts tend to foam more.

 

[bsn309]

If it blew off into your airlock and container after changing to a tube I'd guess that's where your kraussen (foam) went. If you see bubbles it's still fermenting but maybe not enough to be actively bubbling the airlock. Fermentation can take generally 7-14 days depending on your volume, recipe, and yeast.

 

[smorgan82]

This batch was pitched with a beer yeast, and the juice wasn't clear by any means. It was an unfiltered apple juice with lots of solids in it. All I can do is wait and see. It's just hard because it's my first ever batch of cider and I'm excited about it.

I started three more batches yesterday with the same juice but added some yeast nutrient and red star montrechet, so I'm guessing those puppies will need a lot more time to fully ferment. I took OG reading on those so I can actually gage what the yeast is doing 😆

 

[smorgan82]

Thanks so much for the replies folks!

A little update;

I took some gravity reading today since I wanted to stir my blueberry wine and would have all my testing equipment sterilized. I'm just guessing for the ciders OG (I had plenty of juice from the same production date unfermented) and I'm estimating it's at about 3.2%. That seems about right since I used a beer yeast from a kit that makes a 4% ale. It tastes pretty damn good without any off flavors. ☺ the wine is a hefty 9% after 48 hours and the sample was dang good. I used a montrechet and had a pretty high OG, so I'm expecting that one to be butt kicker when the yeast finishes.

After changing the airlock from a 3 piece to an S bubbler I have a lot more peace of mind. The cider is still bubbling away pretty good. It's tough not to drink the whole gallon right now since it tastes so awesome. Waiting really is the hardest part so far. ☺

 

[Maylar]

Typical juices are 1.050-ish and will get you 6.5% ABV. You have a ways to go yet.

 

[pshankstar]

Typical juices are 1.050-ish and will get you 6.5% ABV. You have a ways to go yet.

I agree with Maylar. Here is a picture of my hydrometer reading of some fresh apple cider from the apple farm near me. It came in at 1.048.

This is my first attempt at making hard cider, so I'm just a newb at this point but thought I would share this.

 

[smorgan82]

Yeah, this juice tested @ 1.071 so on the high side. I'm wondering if the yeast would support fermentation to 6.5%, is that high for an ale yeast?

 

[Maylar]

1.071 is higher than any apple juice I've ever seen. You sure about that? That's a potential for 9.3%. Ale yeasts are good to at least 12%.

 

[smorgan82]

I must have made a mistake then. In fact, I didn't check the temperature of the juce. Doh. Haha

 

[smorgan82]

So here is the result of my first batch. I split it in half a week ago since the gravity was holding steady @ 1.001. The first half I racked with some Falconers Flight hops for 7 days and the 2nd half just left alone. This evening I bottled and this was the leftovers in the bottling bucket. I'm unbelievably happy with the results right now.

I'm even more excited for the 14 more gallons I've already started. ☺😆 I'm officially hooked.

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