First Time Cider Guy

[BrewforYou86]

So I am a newbie to brewing. I love it. I did it a few times a few years ago and I started again about a month ago and have already brewed 3 different beers and a cider.

I have never done cider before and just bottled it today after fermentation for 2 weeks. The cider is extremely cloudy and lost a good chunk of its sweetness. It taste just like a dry white wine. I am curious if this is normal also if it will begin to carbonate. I did prime it but not sure how the actual carbonation prices works. Any help would be great. Thanks.

 

[Subdivisions]

Dry white wine taste is normal. What kind of yeast did you use?? Wine yeast generally takes a month or more to clear out. You should wait for it to clear before bottling. Did you happen to take a gravity reading before bottling?? Put those bottles someplace safe in case of bottle bombs

 

[dkwolf]

I have never done cider before and just bottled it today after fermentation for 2 weeks.

OG/FG readings? Had the FG stabilized, or was it still dropping. Stable FG = reading the same on your hydrometer a couple days apart.

The cider is extremely cloudy and lost a good chunk of its sweetness. It taste just like a dry white wine. I am curious if this is normal also if it will begin to carbonate.

"Extremely cloudy" is kind of subjective; but it sounds to me like it maybe could have used a little more time in the fermenter to settle out. It might clear a bit in the bottle - until you stir up the sediment on the bottom. The loss of sweetness/dry white wine taste is normal - the yeast (what yeast did you use?) was able to completely (or nearly completely) ferment all of the sugars in the cider. It will remain this way unless you backsweetened the cider.

I did prime it but not sure how the actual carbonation prices works. Any help would be great. Thanks.

Uh, no offense, but this is the kind of thing you need to understand before you brew your first batch. During the primary fermentation, yeast consume the dissolved sugars in your wort or cider. The byproducts of this are CO2 gas and alcohol. The alcohol goes into solution in your wort/cider, and the CO2 bubbles out through your airlock. Once the fermentation is complete, you prime the wort by adding a *measured* amount of sugar into the wort, and the yeast take off again, consuming the sugar and releasing their byproducts. Except this time, the CO2 cannot escape the capped bottle, so pressure builds inside the bottle, and the CO2 gradually goes into solution in the beer/cider, creating what we know as carbonation.

Given what you've told us, I'd probably pick up a large rubbermade tote or two to put your bottles in, just in case one decides to go BOOM. (Bottling before fermentation is complete, or adding too much priming sugar = bottle bomb)