Cider Recipe Concerns

Hey everyone!

Haven't posted on the forums in awhile, but I recently made a cider that I hated, and decided to give it another try. Here's what I did.

I bought 6 gallons of unpasteurized cider from a local farm.

I made a starter with some D-47.

A day after my starter was bubbling away, I poured 5 gallons of the cider into my primary the SG was 1.052, so I mixed in enough Dextrose to bring it to 1.090 exactly, and popped in 5 campden tablets, two days later (4/18/2013) I pitched my starter, along with 2 tbsp energizer and 2 tbsp nutrient, mixed, and put the airlock on.

I am planning on bottle carbing later.

Any problems I should be concerned about?

P.S. I cleaned and sanitized as necessary.

Sounds good for a dry cider, it depends on the apples used in the juice. That's where your flavor differences are going to come from. Just be patient, I'd rack it to secondary and bulk age it for a couple months before I bottled with something like this.

Bubbling activity has slowed down. So I took a quick SG reading - 1.030. From what I know about making mead, this is the ideal time to rack to secondary, but I'm really unsure about it.

Maybe I should wait a few more weeks for it to drop down a few more?

1.030 is too early to rack IMO, the lees will not have settled compactly yet since the ferment is still active meaning the loss of liquid will be greater and you'll just have to rack again once finished anyways. Wait until the gravity drops to within a few points of being finished and then rack. Less work, more cider.

It's been a few months, left the cider alone until today... It's still at 1.030, and is starting to clear.

I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong at this point...

Lalvin D-47 has an average alcohol tolerance up to 14%, according to their data sheet. a 60 point drop would put you in the 8% range. So the yeast should still be active, unless adding the campden hurt them. Just a note, I never use campden. Any commercial yeast will overpower any wild yeast as long as you add it early on.

Seems to me the yeast nutrient should be 1 tsp per gallon, and the yeast energizer should be 1/2 tsp per gallon. At least that's what the bottles I have say.

What temperature is the cider currently at? According to the data sheet, optimal fermentation temperature is 15 to 20°C (59 to 68°F).

Duly noted and appreciated UpstateMike.

My brew is reading 68 degrees at the moment. I don't have a temperature regulation system set up yet, but I'm almost there.

According to my temp logs it has not varied more than 2 degrees from that temperature since I put it all together.