I'm a hard cider brewing virgin. I started 1 gal about 2 weeks ago with apple juice without preservatives, about 1/2 cup of brown sugar, 3 cinnamon sticks, whole cloves, nutmeg & ginger and of course Champaign yeast. It was rocking and rolling and now has pretty much stalled out. I'm looking for a apple pie flavoring but not too sweet. I was going to rack it to another carboy and add apple juice concentrate but I don't know how much to add or how long to let it go, etc. I don't want an overly sweet cider but I do want a flavorful cider, I also want it carbonated not still. Please help me. Remember, I'm not even sure of all the terms/lingo so as easy instructions as possible.
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Welcome! Bear with this long winded explanation, but to give you a guide, the fundamental steps you need to go through are...
Do you know what your starting specific gravity was? The apple juice was probably around 1.050 and adding the brown sugar might have increased it to around 1.070 which would give you close to 10% alcohol, but any sweetness from the sugar will be gone because it will have been converted to alcohol. Get a hydrometer and find out what your specific gravity is now that it has "finished". It really needs to be around 1.000, although some yeasts (not champagne) like SO4 can finish at 1.003 which leaves a little sweetness. Unfortunately robust champagne yeast has a tendency to "blow off" the apple flavour although the nutmeg and a bit of caramel from the brown sugar etc might still be evident. Also, fermenting down to 1.000 will chew up all the sugar (both the natural sugar in the applejuice and the added brown sugar) which tends to leave a fairly tart cider.
For carbonation, you probably want about 2.5 volumes of CO2 which means that you will need to ferment about five gravity points of sugar to get this (i.e. you need to raise your finished SG by 0.005 by adding sugar or AJC, then let it ferment in the sealed bottle. There should be enough live yeast left in the cider for this to happen). However this will leave you with the flavour profile that you have now, perhaps with a bit of apple from the AJC. If you don't have a hydrometer the a rough "rule of thumb" is to add about 10 grams of sugar per litre (a bit less than a teaspoon per 12 fl oz bottle).
If you want extra sweetness, then it becomes a little more tricky. You need to add more sugar or AJC which you want to remain unfermented. So, add this to get the flavour right then add the 0.005 worth for carbonation.
You will have to stop fermentation before this extra "sweetness" is eaten up by the yeast and converted to alcohol. i.e. heat pasteurise the cider to stop further fermentation at the right time. If you know the rate of fermentation (this is where hydrometer readings over time are essential) you can guesstimate when to pasteurise. Otherwise you need to do something clever like filling a plastic bottle, sealing it, and doing the "squeeze test", i.e when it is hard like a soda bottle you probably have enough carbonation and this is when to heat pasteurise. Unfortunately this approach only tells you when you have enough carbonation, not when you have too much. Or you can go really clever and fit a pressure gauge to a bottle and ferment when the pressure is 2.5 bar or around 45 psi (one atmosphere is about 15 psi at room temperature).
Have a read of my post of 25 September which goes into a lot of detail about heat pasteurisation methods or simply follow Pappers sticky on the subject which is at the top of the forum. Basically, heat pasteurising at not more than 70C (160F) will keep the bottle pressure to a reasonably safe level (when the bottle cools down, the pressure inside returns to "normal"). But always take precautions against "bottle bombs" i.e. gloves, glasses, etc.
Hopefully I haven't used too much lingo or gone into too much detail or been too complicated. Much of the available information is in metric measures but I have also included the imperial equivalents. If you plan to continue down the cider path, consider spending a few dollars on both Claude Jolicoeur's (The New Cidermaker's Handbook) and Andrew Lea's (Craft Cider Making) books.
We have all gone down this trial and error path, going from making rubbish to making excellent sweet carbonated cider with plenty of flavour. Have fun along the way!
Do you know what your starting specific gravity was? The apple juice was probably around 1.050 and adding the brown sugar might have increased it to around 1.070 which would give you close to 10% alcohol, but any sweetness from the sugar will be gone because it will have been converted to alcohol. Get a hydrometer and find out what your specific gravity is now that it has "finished". It really needs to be around 1.000, although some yeasts (not champagne) like SO4 can finish at 1.003 which leaves a little sweetness. Unfortunately robust champagne yeast has a tendency to "blow off" the apple flavour although the nutmeg and a bit of caramel from the brown sugar etc might still be evident. Also, fermenting down to 1.000 will chew up all the sugar (both the natural sugar in the applejuice and the added brown sugar) which tends to leave a fairly tart cider.
For carbonation, you probably want about 2.5 volumes of CO2 which means that you will need to ferment about five gravity points of sugar to get this (i.e. you need to raise your finished SG by 0.005 by adding sugar or AJC, then let it ferment in the sealed bottle. There should be enough live yeast left in the cider for this to happen). However this will leave you with the flavour profile that you have now, perhaps with a bit of apple from the AJC. If you don't have a hydrometer the a rough "rule of thumb" is to add about 10 grams of sugar per litre (a bit less than a teaspoon per 12 fl oz bottle).
If you want extra sweetness, then it becomes a little more tricky. You need to add more sugar or AJC which you want to remain unfermented. So, add this to get the flavour right then add the 0.005 worth for carbonation.
You will have to stop fermentation before this extra "sweetness" is eaten up by the yeast and converted to alcohol. i.e. heat pasteurise the cider to stop further fermentation at the right time. If you know the rate of fermentation (this is where hydrometer readings over time are essential) you can guesstimate when to pasteurise. Otherwise you need to do something clever like filling a plastic bottle, sealing it, and doing the "squeeze test", i.e when it is hard like a soda bottle you probably have enough carbonation and this is when to heat pasteurise. Unfortunately this approach only tells you when you have enough carbonation, not when you have too much. Or you can go really clever and fit a pressure gauge to a bottle and ferment when the pressure is 2.5 bar or around 45 psi (one atmosphere is about 15 psi at room temperature).
Have a read of my post of 25 September which goes into a lot of detail about heat pasteurisation methods or simply follow Pappers sticky on the subject which is at the top of the forum. Basically, heat pasteurising at not more than 70C (160F) will keep the bottle pressure to a reasonably safe level (when the bottle cools down, the pressure inside returns to "normal"). But always take precautions against "bottle bombs" i.e. gloves, glasses, etc.
Hopefully I haven't used too much lingo or gone into too much detail or been too complicated. Much of the available information is in metric measures but I have also included the imperial equivalents. If you plan to continue down the cider path, consider spending a few dollars on both Claude Jolicoeur's (The New Cidermaker's Handbook) and Andrew Lea's (Craft Cider Making) books.
We have all gone down this trial and error path, going from making rubbish to making excellent sweet carbonated cider with plenty of flavour. Have fun along the way!
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Unless you can force carbonate your cider (i.e. kegging) you aren't going to be able to have a sweet cider that is carbonated. Carbonating in the bottle requires the yeast to eat the sugar and produce carbon dioxide. This will eat up sugars you put in there for sweetening (including apple juice concentrate) it unless you use something like stevia or xylitol or some other sweetener yeast can't eat.
If you are going to keg the cider you can prevent further fermentation by adding sulfite and sorbate. This will stabilize it and stop the yeast from eating sugar. You could also heat pasteurize.
If you are going to keg the cider you can prevent further fermentation by adding sulfite and sorbate. This will stabilize it and stop the yeast from eating sugar. You could also heat pasteurize.
