Racking and 14%

[berriesandmead]

Hi! New to this - I juiced a ton of apples last Sunday, heat sterilized a gallon of juice last Monday, and set up the primary fermentation with a 14% yeast. It's starting to slow down but still going a tad. The issues: there is a ton of sediment, about 1/3 of the carboy. Is this normal? I'll be using an auto siphon - can I also strain the remainder through something when racking? Also, I didn't do an initial gravity reading, but am looking to sweeten it until it reaches 14% so I can get it past dry when bottling. Should I just rack it a few times, and add some brown sugar each time until it stops fermenting?

 

[ncguire]

I suppose you could keep adding brown sugar, but using it to bump it to 14% doesn't sound like it would taste great to me. I've never made a cider like the way you are trying to do it, but if it were me, I'd add frozen apple juice concentrate instead of sugar to bump up the acid and flavor. Boiling the juice to sterilize it sets the pectin and may make it difficult to clear. Racking will help it clear some, but given enough time (a month or two), it has always cleared on its own for me, even if it was previously heat sterilized. You can use pectic enzyme to help it clear faster but I believe it works best when you add it at the beginning of fermentation. Also, I'd be careful when bottling with all that sugar. Take enough gravity readings to make sure it is truly done so you don't end up with bottle bombs, regardless of what % the yeast is supposed to reach.