First time tips and questions!

[djsban]

Hi

Me and my brother decided that this was the year to take advantage of our parents excess apples and try to brew up some Christmas cider! So on the 10th September we hired a press/crusher and made up 5 gallons of apple juice!

We added some Campden Tablets to kill of the natural yeast

Then after 2 days we added some Pectolase to clear it

The hydrometer reading at this point was 1.050 so following day we added the champagne yeast and yeast nutrient

The bubbles started and carried on for about a week and then slowed to a complete stop! Since then we've siphoned it off to a new FV and left.

We've had a cheeky taste and notice that it's still pretty bitter and doesn't really taste all that alcoholic!!

Wondering if anyone had tips on increasing the alcohol taste, further clearing it and/or sweetening it without ruining the taste. Or any other advice for that matter!!

Any help appreciated!!

 

[Jacob_Marley]

What is the hydrometer reading now?

 

[TimsfamousCider]

1.050 will create a maximum of ~6.5% alcohol. you can take a new reading to find out exactly where you ended up. Probably you are around 1.000 or just a bit under. Some people add sugar for the primary fermentation to increase the alcohol content. Usually to somewhere between 1.065 and 1.070 which will get you closer to ~9%

To increase the alcohol content your only option is to add more sugar. If you do this, you will basically restart your primary fermentation. The only problem is that it will be difficult to figure out how much to add and what your final alcohol will be. I would say don't add more than 1.5 cups per gallon and you may get closer to ~10% but agin it will be a bit of flying by the seat of your pants Kind of thing that will difficult to duplicate I you like it.

A lot of people do back-sweeten cider to make it sweeter. Just before bottling. How much is debatable but I like a sweeter cider and have been playing with sweetening to around 1.025. But the you have problems with possibly creating bottle bombs. Be sure to read the sticky on bottle postulation if you plan to bottle it.

If you wait a week or so in the secondary the cider will clear on it's own. Just wait it out.

I think everything is going normally.