first try at cider.

I've been brewing beer for sometime,but would like to make a cider. I have an old Mr.Beer 2 gal. fermenter with an airlock in it. If I put 2 gallons of a store-bought apple juice w/o preservatives in it,and 1 cup table sugar,along with say a Saf-04 yeast,do you think that it will be a decent cider? Also, I don't use a hydro to test og./fg. etc. How long (safely) will it usually take to ferment out? Also I plan to bottle in 16 0z PET bottles.I usually use 2 Domino Dots to carb beer.Do you think that using 1 dot for the cider would be better? I'm taking a big step here fellow Cideristas.Help a fellow out.TIA for the advice...............Randolf

Yes, that would work out great, however would you not consider adding more than a cup of sugar maybe 2?

Adding a cup of table sugar per gallon would be more like apple wine than apple cider. But if thats what you are looking for, then add more. You can add sugar at any time during fermentation.

I think your recipe sounds great for a first batch. (1/2 cup sugar per gallon) Depending on your temperature, it's possible it could take a month for S-04 to ferment dry. On the other hand if you are fermenting near 70ºF, it could be completed in a week. There's no true way to know if it's done without a hydrometer reading. If you taste it in two weeks and it's still sweet, then be careful bottling it. Once they carb up, put them in the fridge and consume them as quickly as you can.

I added sugar to my first 5 or 10 brews until I realized that I did not like to have to aged it that long and I found a much better flavor in just fermenting the juice by itself without sugar....
IMO

BadgerBrigade said:

I added sugar to my first 5 or 10 brews until I realized that I did not like to have to aged it that long and I found a much better flavor in just fermenting the juice by itself without sugar....
IMO

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How long did you age it for?

Maverick22 said:

How long did you age it for?

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3 months in Secondary... When you add sugar you need to wait months and months and months for it to calm down

Monday I dumped a gallon of AJ and 24 oz of berry juice into a 6 liter fermenter.Tuesday morning,there was no sign of anything.Tuesday night,it was going full force in the airlock /w krausen up the ass.Weds. morning it was up in the airlock,so I cleaned the airlock out and re-filled it after sanitizing it.Well it puked over again,so I quickly sanitized a 3 gallon fermenter and racked it off into that.Now I have plenty of headspace.Hope it still works out.Wish me luck.....Randolf.

Randolf said:

Monday I dumped a gallon of AJ and 24 oz of berry juice into a 6 liter fermenter.Tuesday morning,there was no sign of anything.Tuesday night,it was going full force in the airlock /w krausen up the ass.Weds. morning it was up in the airlock,so I cleaned the airlock out and re-filled it after sanitizing it.Well it puked over again,so I quickly sanitized a 3 gallon fermenter and racked it off into that.Now I have plenty of headspace.Hope it still works out.Wish me luck.....Randolf.

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It will be fine
Rig a blowoff next time.

well,my cider took off again in the larger fermenter.I'm figuring that if I wait until it stops bubbling and wait for another week,I should be good to rack it into a 5 liter mini-keg and stash it in my little fridge.That should stop the fermenting right? Being cold in the fridge. I hope so.I can then tap it and enjoy. Any ideas or info on my plan will be greatly needed.TIA...Randolf