newbie Hooked!

[becon776]

hello to all!,
well it seems that i have succesfully added another addiction to put alongside boating and reef tanks... brewing.

My old roomate brewed and I had some minimal involvement.. but when the final cider was up and I was feeling way to happy after only a second pint I made the decision to get into this game.
so... (again I'm new at this so equip and technique are reflected in this)
mid october:
four plastic water carboys borrowed from work. topped with airlocks
bleach sanitize everything (i know next time to use starsan) rinse rinse rinse.
cider mill... fresh ten gallons of cider
red star champagne yeast.
bubbles stopped

holloween:
siphon out 1 gallon from each warm (low temp) on stove mix in one full bag white sugar and one full bag of brown sugar.
let cool and funnel back into car boys onto original lees bubbling again.

november 5th:
no more bubbles for 3 days Rack into spare carboys.
taste is dry and bitter very little apple flavor.
Dunno what sg is or anything but i kept enough aside during rack to fill the 1.5 gallon coors keg (btw these things are AWESOME and worthy of their own thread) and definately wound up a little innebriated after a few.

now.... I would like to bottle in champagne bottles, and be able to give as gift for christmas.

I want to sweeten up and maybe put some apple flavor back in somehow.
i know you can use apple juice concetrate, xylitol, and the little bottle of organic apple flavor.
I just don't know how much to add or what the best plan is? someone please tell me how to proceed from here.

 

[becon776]

i def want to avoid a bed of yeast of the bottom of my yeast bottles.

 

[Fletch78]

If you want it carbonated, then you can't get around yeast sediment with standard homebrew techniques. You have to accept that first and foremost.

 

[Fletch78]

How much to add depends on the sugar content of your sweetener, how much you are bottling, and ultimately what your hydrometer reading is right before bottling, carbed or flat apple wine, and also your own personal taste. There is no answer to your question with the info you have provided.

 

[becon776]

I just cleaned out the carboy from the primary... and whoa that stuff smelled like pure alcohol! Hana ok im just pumped that I finally tried this and it worked! O.k. so I was told fat specific gravity doesn't mean anyting. Unless you measure it at the start and end. So like an idiot I beleived the guy. I was thinkin of sweetening with xylitol now and then adding apple juice concentrate immediately before bottling in champ bottles. Each carboy has about 4 gallons after the rack and my test sample lol. Just don't want to go too sweet don't want it like woodchuck. I know there will be a small amount of yeast in the bottle but don't want to have a pile from adding too much concentrate.

 

[Fletch78]

That's not true. It can't tell you alcohol content without beginning and end, but it can still tell you where it sits on sugar content, and how much to add (if any) for priming.

I don't know what xylitol is. Can you explain it to me?

How much is a "full bag" of brown sugar?

 

[becon776]

Xylatol is alcohol sugar it is not fermentable so adds sweetness without the possibility of restartig fermentation. http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d.html/ref=redir_mdp_mobile/180-8369096-9819024?a=B000ORXYYS
You can get it at any grocery
I added one pound brown one pound white sugar its really dry and strong

 

[becon776]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xylitol?wasRedirected=true

 

[Fletch78]

Then add enough xylatol to a measured sample until you get the desired sweetness. Then calculate how much you added to your ... let's say 8 oz sample.... and multiply it to sweeten the rest of your batch. I do this with Splenda.

Then use 1 oz per gallon of regular white sugar, dissolved in boiled water and stirred into the cider. This will allow the bottles to carbonate.

However, you need to know what the sugar content of your cider is first. Even though it may taste really dry and pungent, there could very well be a good bit of sugar in there, more than enough to make your bottles explode. You need a hydrometer if you want to play the sweet-carbonated-cider game. Or a pressure gauge and ghillie suit.

 

[oldmate]

Also read up on bottle pasteurisation stickied at the top of the forum.

 

[becon776]

whoa love that pateurization thread. awesome. it's funny, I have to use a hygrometer constantly to make salt water (always shoot for 1.023 - 1.026). but that was a poor way. Once i got serious i invested in a refractometer. wonder if I could use for this application?
http://www.google.com/products/cata...log_result&ct=image&resnum=4&ved=0CFUQ8gIwAw#

 

[becon776]

whoa love that pateurization thread. awesome. it's funny, I have to use a hygrometer constantly to make salt water (always shoot for 1.023 - 1.026). but that was a poor way. Once i got serious i invested in a refractometer. wonder if I could use for this application?
http://www.google.com/products/cata...log_result&ct=image&resnum=4&ved=0CFUQ8gIwAw#