First Cider Attempt....here goes nothin

[Twtr25]

Well on Sunday I whipped up my first batch of cider and now I'm just trying to patiently wait for it to ferment.

Looking here on the forums, I found a lot of good ideas about what kinds of ingredients to use and such, but I wanted to keep my first one pretty basic. That way, if I screw it up, I won't be as disappointed.

I can't remember if the recipe I used is off of this site or not, but I didn't necessarily follow it to a T. Originally it called for champagne yeast, but I used a sweet mead yeast instead (lbs recommended). Basically I just used no sugar added apple juice, a couple cans of juice concentrate, sugar, water, and some honey. LBS said I could add honey to it in order to increase the alcohol content...which is what I'm going for, a good tasting, high abv cider (hopefully that's what I get. According to the information they gave me, it's possible my cider could be up around 10% abv hahaha!

Is there an average FG that ciders usually finish at? They said average is around .990. If that's true, then based on my OG of 1.074, my cider will end up being about 11%....WOW.

Let me know what you all think!

 

[AndrewTodd]

My cider using that same yeast ended up at 10.36%. My SG was 1.080 ended at 1.001. She's potent. I had enough sugar that it reached the tolerance of the yeast before it could eat all the sugar. It was sweet when I racked on to some cranberries. I should be racking to 1 gal jugs for ageing this weekend.

 

[bottlebomber]

I certainly wouldn't say .990 is an average, as in half of people may get .980 and half get 1.00. I would say you can expect 1.00, and it will likely drop to .995 and MAYBE get as low as .990

 

[Twtr25]

My cider using that same yeast ended up at 10.36%. My SG was 1.080 ended at 1.001. She's potent. I had enough sugar that it reached the tolerance of the yeast before it could eat all the sugar. It was sweet when I racked on to some cranberries. I should be racking to 1 gal jugs for ageing this weekend.

How long has your cider been fermenting? After checking my batch less than 48 hours later, it had already gone from 1.070 to 1.060. So I'm wondering how long it will take to get down to about 1.000 or slightly lower.

 

[AndrewTodd]

How long has your cider been fermenting? After checking my batch less than 48 hours later, it had already gone from 1.070 to 1.060. So I'm wondering how long it will take to get down to about 1.000 or slightly lower.

4 weeks @ 72 deg. Perked a day or so in the secondary and the cranberries and was done. At that point it was at or darn near 11% ABV so it couldn't have fermented much more. I'll rack again this weekend and taste it again. Age for as long as I can stand to wait.