New to cider and this forum!

[Ghanna]

Hello everyone,

I have a newb question, I’ve made cider (once) in a gallon jar. I was given a 35l jug and was thinking I’ll give it another go. My questions are:

1. Do I need to fill it all the way to the top?Would it spoil if I only used say; 25l? (I read a large air gap is bad)

2. Add the sugar (for a higher %) right at the start or when I rack? Also same question about level when I rack do I top it up?

this is my plan (correct me if I’m off)

25l of 100% apple juice
1lb sugar (now or later)
2g per gallon Champagne yeast
Rack when SG is 1.00
Let sit for another two weeks
Bottle with a bit of sugar added
Let sit for another couple of weeks
Refrigerate
Drink
Repeat


I think that’s all for now, thanks for any help

 

[Rick Stephens]

Add your sugar before primary fermentation if you want higher ABV.

If you rack it off and age, that is when you limit air and surface area to keep the O2 away. O2 = food for bacterias. Those can be fairly mundane, like turning your cider into vinegar, or can make your cider dangerous. Generally speaking once primary fermentation is done, keep the O2 away by topping your bottle up and using vodka in an airlock. Also, don't aerate by vigorously stirring stuff in after primary fermentation is finished up.

There are some GREAT reading resources on this site, and great books out there. You can read what's written or you can talk people on the forum into typing it all out over time. The information is the same, mostly. Nice to get it in order off the beginner cider making guides. This one is fairly well done. As is the sticky at the top of this forum.

How to sweeten before bottling is an entire huge conversation with using non-fermentable sugars, pasteurizing, chem yeast kills and other ways. There is enough on that subject to keep us going for weeks and weeks.

 

[Ghanna]

Thank you very much! Great advice

 

[bernardsmith]

Hi Ghanna - and welcome. Headroom is not just a potential problem for bacteria but any air in contact with your wine (and cider is a wine, albeit a low alcohol by volume wine) will cause oxidation and oxidation is the same chemical process as rust. With wines, oxidation will tend to turn your cider a brownish color and will create all kinds of off-flavors.
That said, while you want to minimize headspace and while wine makers recommend racking (siphoning) wine when you transfer from the primary vessel to a secondary and from secondary to bottles in order to minimize the cider or wine's contact with air, they also strongly recommend that before bottling you add some K-meta (Campden tablets is one way). K-meta produces sulfur dioxide and this binds with oxygen in the air to inhibit oxidation and increases the shelf life of your cider. (and for the record, yeast naturally and normally produce SO2 but the SO2 you add when you add K-meta at the correct dose adds enough SO2 to increase the shelf life of a wine or cider.. Good luck

 

[Ghanna]

Thank you. I’m looking into corny kegs at the moment