New cider maker!

[daniellefrost]

Prost!
Here in Golden CO we are having an exceptional apple season, and my neighbors trees are literally breaking under the weight of plump enormous apples! I cut up and juiced a wheel-barrel full last night, juiced in my champion, and funneled into a neighbors carboy he had left from wine making. I got a champagne yeast and an airlock from my local homebrew store, and oxogen cleaning agents that I sanitized all of my equipment with.

I was feeling quite pleased with myself for being so industrious until my husband rolled over after we went to bed and remarked, "so now what?" My research had only carried me this far, I am not really even sure how to get the cider out of the carboy once it is done! Do I bottle? Do I throw a party and make sure it is all consumed in one fell swoop?

Any advice would be surely appreciated. It sounds like I want to leave it in the carboy until the yeast is done doing it's thing right? If I bottle, do I bottle condition like beer?

As a matter of note, I think we overfilled the carboy, we had overflow in the middle of the night, but the airlock seems to still be working after I cleaned out the top part, and the yeast is rolling along, is this a problem? Am I still ok?

In over my head!

Danielle

 

[Sewer_Urchen]

Well, you're probably ok; though you missed a step if I read everything properly. Once you juiced the cider you should have added a campden tablet in order to kill off the wild yeast that grows on the apples and left that for a day or two before pitching your champagne yeast. It's likely that the champagne yeast is currently competing with the wild yeast and it's also likely if it's fermenting this quick that the champagne yeast lost the battle. This is not necessarilly bad, but it's harder to predict the results. People ferment with wild yeast all the time, it's how our for-fathers did it...but...the reason we use wine yeast is it's outcome is more predictable, we know the flavors and alcohols it will produce because it's been cultured and tried and true.
The wild yeast may create a verry drinkable cider, but it also might make a verry acidic, barely drinkable substance that's better to clean your floors with.

My other concern is your sanitizer. Oxygen clensers are just that, clensers, not sanitizers. Did the person working at the brew store tell you that it would sanitize? If they did, than I'd trust them to know what they were talking about. But if you just went in and picked it out yourself, I'd double check the product to make sure its Steralizes and not just cleans

My suggestion, this go around, is to let it ferment out (let it go 4-6 weeks, this will help it clear a little too), then just bottle it and let it sit for a while. It will be a still cider, not sparkling, I think that's a good place to start, and if you like it, then you can start diving into sparkling ciders and such. If, after 5 weeks, you take a sample (with a steralized dipping tube) and drink it and it tastes like turpintine, you can bottle it and leave it for a year to condition and it will probably mellow a lot. I find cider out of the primarry fermenter can often be so acidy it's barely drinkable, but with bottle conditioning it turnes into a very fine beverage.
I knew an old man in Vermont that let it sit in the jug till March, then threw the party where everybody drank it. But just understand it's going to probably take a while for the acidity to mellow.

Only time will tell, don't give up on it.

 

[LeBreton]

It's not to late to add sulfites either. That being said, if you don't use sulfites then a champagne yeast is a good choice as they are very aggressive and will out-compete most wild yeasts.

 

[daniellefrost]

Thanks! I did use a cleanser that the homebrew shop guy picked out for me for that purpose, and the champagne yeast he recommended given that I was using apples and not juice. I guess my comment about it being a oxogen cleanser, referred more to the fact that I was interested in an enzyme I had been hearing about so that I could poor off the cleaning agent into my garden, but they did not carry that one. This was fine, wanted it to be clean, and it was. I did a little more research yesterday and realized that one of my mistakes was that I was not aware I needed to put water in the air lock! Duh! Makes so much sense, just never picked that up for whatever reason in my internet search. So I think that was the cause of my overflow. I took out the stopper and the old airlock, cleaned everything really well, and replaced it with a properly filled one and it is bubbling away. Very pleased. I have read that after this first fermentation I should rack it at let it mellow, rack it again to make sure it is clear, and the bottle. What do you think? Should I add sugar before I bottle? I have read 3/4 cup brown sugar dissolved in water per gallon of cider before bottling.

Thanks everyone!

 

[roadymi]

I have read that after this first fermentation I should rack it at let it mellow, rack it again to make sure it is clear, and the bottle. What do you think? Should I add sugar before I bottle? I have read 3/4 cup brown sugar dissolved in water per gallon of cider before bottling.

Thanks everyone!

When you add sugar post fermentation everything gets a bit trickier.

How much depends on your objective and taste preferences.

Are you wanting to just make it sweeter or to carbonate?

For backsweetening (adding sweetness post fermentation) I prefer to use apple juice concentrate over any kind of sugar. Helps add back some apple flavor. I like around 3 containers of frozen AJC / 5 gallon batch for a dry cider. Gets me to around 1.015 usually if I remember correctly. Add a little at a time and taste sample and check SG so you can document what level of sweetness you prefer. Easiest to use a small sample, say a pint than you can step up the additives to a full batch size.

If you are bottling with wine bottles you will need to keep the cider still (non-carbonated) so you need to use sulphite and sorbate to kill yeast before backsweetening.

To carbonate there are 2 main methods......dry & carbonated and sweet and carbonated.

Dry is fairly easy add 1/2 to 3/4 cup priming sugar / 5 gallon batch. Bottle, wait for bubbles and enjoy. You need to use beer bottles or caged champagne bottles.

Sweet gets trickier. DO NOT SULPHITE AND SORBATE!!!! Backsweeten to taste then add the priming sugar as above. Beer bottles are the easiest. When bottling fill a plastic soda bottle (This is your test bottle, when it gets rock hard it is time to pasteurize. Check once daily minimum) Read the sticky at top of forum for pasteurizing advice.

 

[Sewer_Urchen]

+1 to the above post. If I were you I'd stick with dry sparkling or dry OR sweet still cider. Sweet sparkling, is as mentioned, tricky, and since this is your first go around I might save that for another day.

If you don't want to sparkle all of it, but want to try some sparkling and some still...I add a 1/2 teaspoon of white sugar to each beer bottle or a heaping teaspoon to a champagne bottle, that way you can sparkle some, but try some still and see this year which you like better, so next year you can make which ever one you liked best. Champagne yeast will easilly ferment regular white table sugar.

 

[HAREEBROWNBEEST]

Prost!
Here in Golden CO we are having an exceptional apple season, and my neighbors trees are literally breaking under the weight of plump enormous apples! I cut up and juiced a wheel-barrel full last night, juiced in my champion, and funneled into a neighbors carboy he had left from wine making. I got a champagne yeast and an airlock from my local homebrew store, and oxogen cleaning agents that I sanitized all of my equipment with.

I was feeling quite pleased with myself for being so industrious until my husband rolled over after we went to bed and remarked, "so now what?" My research had only carried me this far, I am not really even sure how to get the cider out of the carboy once it is done! Do I bottle? Do I throw a party and make sure it is all consumed in one fell swoop?

Any advice would be surely appreciated. It sounds like I want to leave it in the carboy until the yeast is done doing it's thing right? If I bottle, do I bottle condition like beer?

As a matter of note, I think we overfilled the carboy, we had overflow in the middle of the night, but the airlock seems to still be working after I cleaned out the top part, and the yeast is rolling along, is this a problem? Am I still ok?

In over my head!

Danielle

Check out this over flowing airlock. Nice.

 

[Pratzie]

Looks like ur pushing out raspberry sorbet! I love it!

Congrats on entering the world of brewing btw. I started in May/June of this year and have 4 batches of beer under my belt and last week I took my first step into a hard cider recipe. Its bubbling away in my basement as we speak and I can't wait to see the final product.

Oh and one more thing, I recommend a big party for everyone to enjoy, thats how I plan on doing it. Halloween party so im sure its all gonna go!