New to cider.

[kingofsweden]

I hope all goes well

I dissolved 6 cups sugar into 4.5 gallons apple juice on my stove added a tablespoon of cinnamon and pitched a small mason jar of wyeast ale yeast that I recovered from an Irish red ale. Seems to be active since there was slight carbonation in the jar.

Couple questions
Vitamin C won't hinder fermentation right?

Should hard cider be carbonated or is it usually sold flat? I've never had hard cider before.

And how long should I let it sit before I bottle?

 

[hunter_le five]

Couple questions
Vitamin C won't hinder fermentation right?

Nope. I use apple juice/cider with vitamin C (most commonly in the form of ascorbic acid) all the time, it won't hurt anything as long as there are no other preservatives/additives in the juice.

I have heard some people claim that it makes the final product more "tart", but I have no opinion on the matter.

Should hard cider be carbonated or is it usually sold flat? I've never had hard cider before.

That's up to your preference. I've bought it and made it both ways. I generally prefer carbonated, but still is nice too.

And how long should I let it sit before I bottle?

At a minimum, when your hydrometer reading stops dropping. I've had some take as little as two weeks, and one that was closer to two months.

Even after fermentation has stopped, you might rack it to a secondary container and let it continue to clarify for a few weeks before bottling. Cider tastes better with some age anyway, so no point in rushing the process, and clear cider is better than cloudy cider (imho).

 

[podz]

I hope all goes well

I dissolved 6 cups sugar into 4.5 gallons apple juice

This is going to be really hard cider; more like apple wine. 6 cups of sugar == 1200 grams. I normally add 750 grams to a 5 gallon batch and that puts me around 9% ABV.

The taste is going to be quite "hot" to begin with and will require aging to mellow out the alcohol and bring back the apple taste. At 9%, I don't need to age my cider at all - I just drink it.

 

[kingofsweden]

I have this app called brewpal and i punched in 1368 grams of sugar (according to the 6 bottles i used of apple juice they sugars they have totaled 168Grams of sugar) for 5 gallons and its only telling me the estimated ABV will be 2.4%

This app has to be a broken pos then if you said itll be really high

 

[podz]

Apple juice has a lot more sugar than that. If you ferment plain old apple juice without adding any sugar, you'll get somewhere around 4.7-5% ABV, depending on the juice.

Don't worry, it will turn out ok but will be quite strong. Just need to age it a bit.

In the future: 5 gallons of apple juice, 750 grams of sugar, 50 grams of DAP, a packet of dry yeast. That's all you need to have a cider of 9% ABV that's finished in one week and tastes quite good right off the bat.

 

[Maylar]

Did you by any chance measure the specific gravity?

 

[number40fan]

Apple juice by itself is in the 1.045 range. I added two pounds of brown sugar and got it up to 1.070. Take a SG reading in a couple of weeks. When it gets down to 1.000 or under, kill the yeast and let it sit and clear up.

 

[bernardsmith]

Apple juice by itself is in the 1.045 range. I added two pounds of brown sugar and got it up to 1.070. Take a SG reading in a couple of weeks. When it gets down to 1.000 or under, kill the yeast and let it sit and clear up.

I agree. 1200 gms of sugar is about 2.5 lb and in 5 gallons that is .5 lb in each gallon Half a pound of sugar in a gallon will increase the gravity by about .020 and If the apple juice without added sugar is 1.045 then adding .020 will bring this up to 1.065 and the potential ABV for such a must is (.065 X 131) = 8.5% -closer to a strong beer but not really a wine

 

[number40fan]

Mine was 3.75 gallons.

 

[ICWiener]

Everyone's going for the strong stuff around here! I guess I make my cider a little differently.

The apple juice I buy is about 1.050-1.052, so I dilute it with water. 4 gal of juice and 1 gal of water per batch, brings the OG down to around 1.044. Yeast pulls it down to 1.000, which brings my ABV to about 5.9% (I like a cider that you can chug on a hot day. Crispin's English dry cider is my favorite, and my target for emulation). I let it sit for about a month or two before kegging, but it never clears, since I use unfiltered juice. I no longer use any chemical additives. I was getting flavors that I didn't like, no matter how light I went on the sorbate...so I stopped. I just keg it, back sweeten it, then drink it!

 

[number40fan]

This is winter drinking juice.

 

[ICWiener]

This is winter drinking juice.

haha...for sure.

I like my cider in a big fat imperial pint. Couple of those at 9% would put me to bed with a quickness.

 

[kingofsweden]

Its been 12 hours and ive not seen any airlock bubbling. infact the water has gone in reverse and into the first section of the S-airlock.

In all of my ales ive done before id see bubbling within an hour of pitching.

 

[podz]

I've never seen airlock within an hour from pitching unless I pitched a large liquid starter.

In any case, if it doesn't start within 48 hours then come back and ask for advice.

 

[hunter_le five]

Agreed, 12 hours is a bit soon to be worrying. Give it a little more time.


Sent from my iPad using Home Brew

 

[kingofsweden]

Its bubbling way too much now. about 2 large bubbles every half second. the water is starting to foam and leave the airlock