Is this normal?

[Bluespark]

I started a batch of Cranapple cider. I didn't have a hydrometer at the time. This is the recipe:

4 gallons pasteurized fresh pressed apple juice
3 lb local honey
1 gallon cranberry juice( mixture of one store bought container with added sugar and some I pressed myself from fresh berries)
2 containers frozen concentrated cranberry juice( no preservatives, did have added sugar)
One pack ale yeast( can't remember the exact type, bought at a local brew store, came from Australia)

It started on the 15th of November. 2 weeks in it looked done, so I tasted. It was very dry and tart. My goal was semi sweet, so I added 4 cups of sugar. It started up again like mad. Last week I sampled again: quite dry. Hydrometer reads 1.000. Back sweetened again, up to 1.020. It has been bubbling away every 5 seconds ever since.
I don't know how it's possible for an ale yeast that's supposed to max out at 8% to take this long and eat this much sugar! It's gone through several cups of sugar, 4 gallons of apple cider, one gallon of cranberry juice, 2 cans of sweetened cranberry cocktail and 3lb of honey. Gravity at present is getting close to 1.000 again.

 

[oldstyle69]

that happend to me on an ale i did a couple years ago. turned out to be the temp i was fermenting at.

 

[Bluespark]

Currently 66 degrees

 

[Bluespark]

This didn't want to quit. Two weeks ago I racked, then it started clearing and dropping more sediment. I bottled with some sugar on jan 2, waiting for it to finish carbonating.

 

[Unferth]

In the future, if you want a sweetened sparkling cider, you should follow the sticky for stove top pasteurization at the top.

Basically, you ferment dry, backsweeten to taste, then prime, bottle, then wait till it's at the right carbonation, then heat it to kill off the yeast. sweet sparkling cider--tada!

you can also sweeten with splenda or another non-fermentable sugar then add your priming sugar. priming sugar ferments, making pretty bubbles, splenda doesn't, making sweet cider--tada!

Good luck with your cider. I bet with all those additions, its pretty hot, right? might give it some time to mellow. a 9% cider can be spectacular if given time to age.

 

[bigego236]

I just had the same thing happen with a batch I used ale yeast with, but I put it outside for a few days. Temps were around mid fifties during the day and high forties at night. It didn't stop the yeast but sloooowwwed it way down. Enough for it to only drop a hair and let it clear up enough for me to bottle the other day.

 

[Bluespark]

I'm already familiar with stove top pasteurization, which is where these will be headed once pasteurized.
Still haven't found an unfermentable sweetener I don't hate.
It's a touch hot, but not bad. Once sweetened it goes down way too easy for something with this high an alcohol content.


It's got a definate red hue, clearing up nicely, great flavour. Don't think I'll ever use anything but an ale yeast for cider.

 

[Bluespark]

Sorry, headed once carbonated.