Guess what? A first time cider post

[earache]

Total noob here trying to make his first batch of cider. Need some advice.

Making 3gal of carb'd semi-dry cider. Just juiced 3/4gal worth of organic apples, ~20lb. Added about 1 campden tablet and put juice in fridge. Have on hand 3gal of fresh frozen pasteurized cider from a local farm. In two days I plan to put all the fresh juice in my fermentor and then top off with the fresh frozen. Plan on adding some pectic enzyme, then pitch in my yeast (EC1118). I was planning on following Pappers' method of racking to bottles when the gravity readings get to ~1.012 and pasteurize when the carbonation is right. Sound ok so far?

Ideally I'd like to hit about 7%abv, but I'm a little unsure how to get there. This is where I really need some help. It seems like people add sugar before fermentation to raise the abv, but then I also see people adding sugar after fermentation just before bottling. Trying to understand when to add sugar. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks a bunch.

Eric

 

[NorthWoodsBrew]

Eric,

I'm also new to this. However, it sounds like you need a hydrometer. They come with most start up kits or you can probably buy one for ten to twenty bucks. They allow you to measure the specific gravity of the cider, i.e. the amount of sugar in the juice. Hydrometers come with scales that show you how much sugar you need in your cider in order to get a certain amount of alcohol. For 7% you need around 1.055 specific gravity. This should be measured before adding yeast. You would have to look up a chart to see how much sugar per volume you need in order to raise your specific gravity from the natural level of your cider to the level you want in order to get your 7%. For my first batch I had to go from 1.042 to 1.075. This resulted in me having to add 5.5 lbs of sugar for a six gallon batch. Also, the temperature of your cider will affect how the specific gravity rating reads. This should also be explained with the hydrometer. Once you figure out how much sugar you need and you add it to the cider, wait awhile for the sugar to dissolve, stirring occasionally, and measure specific gravity again. An hour should be sufficient.

As for adding sugar while bottling, this is done to both add sweetness to an otherwise dry cider and to allow fermentation to occur in smaller amounts, giving you some carbonation. It shouldn't affect alcohol level by much. The amount of sugar you would be adding here is minimal.

I hope this helps. I've just gone through the same process and am waiting on primary fermentation to finish.

As for adding

 

[earache]

Thanks NorthWoodsBrew. Your explanation helps clear things up.

Eric

 

[oldmate]

+1 on needing a hydrometer. A hydrometer measures the amount of dissolved sugars in solution, so therefore you would need to measure the cyser prior to fermentation, and then after/mid fermentation to assess how much of that dissolved sugar has been converted to ethanol.

As to adding sugar, the reason you add it before fermentation is to bump up the OG (original gravity) , which means to increase the amount of dissolved sugars in the solution, which allows more sugar to be converted into alcohol, giving a higher ABV. Adding sugar AFTER fermentation is to either backsweeten if you have gone too dry, or to 'prime' the solution for carbonation. This means that if fermentation is complete, it is assumed that all fermentable sugars have been consumed by the yeast, so there is no more production of CO2. Adding a small amount of sugar to the solution prior to bottling allows the yeast to consume this small amount of sugar, producing CO2 within the bottle and thereby dissolving the CO2 into solution as it cannot escape.

To hit about 7% I would aim for a OG of around 1.055 and is very attainable without any sugar addition.

Hope that helps! Sorry for the wall!