Recent content by azsixshooter

Okay, thanks! I will do that.

So please tell me what exactly I did wrong? Are you saying that it is unheard of for a brewer to use an ale pale for the primary ferment? I did not leave my cider in the primary for 6 wks if that is your misunderstanding. It was like 7 days and then I racked to secondary. I kept it in secondary...

Let's see if I can remember correctly.... I started with 5 gallons of fresh unpasteurized cider from local mills, put it in an ale pale with the following: .25 tsp Potassium Metabisulfite 3.75 tsp Acid blend 2.5 tsp Pectic Enzyme 1.25 tsp Wine Tannin I let that sit overnight and then...

Thanks for the replies! I feel a little better now, maybe it is just the live yeast or something. I haven't drank much home brew at all. I guess I should have pasteurized it, I thought I let it ferment all the way out and wasn't necessary. My hydrometer was reading between 10 - 12% alcohol last...

I had nothing but trouble trying to hatch my first batch of hard cider this year. I invested a ton of money, a ton of time and work and got basically nothing in return except a cloudy, tart batch of something that would equate to prison hootch. It gets you buzzed, but destroys your intestines in...

That's really cool, I didn't know they sold gas like that. I can see how that would work. Since I added the apple juice to top it off it's been bubbling a little bit and there are still about 1/4" or so of lees already at the bottom. So I'm planning to rack it again to the ale pail and then...

I was going to add some Angry Orchard "Sinful" to top it up, but I saw that there were sulfites in it. I was thinking I want to be able to sweeten/back-carb with some corn sugar at some point so I didn't want to get the sulfites in there and kill off the yeast. I just topped it with some organic...

Now that I think about it, I could probably just top this little bit off with regular cider or even apple juice since there wouldn't be a whole lot of fuel for the yeast. I was just thinking to use some hard cider to avoid getting more lees in this carboy so it can mellow out for a couple of...

Yooper- you are spot-on! I topped it up with some fresh cider and allowed 2 weeks for it to ferment away. Just tonight I racked it into a clean/sanitized ale-pail and washed/sterilized the carboy. Then I racked it back to the carboy. I checked the sg and it was sitting right at 1.000. I...

I finally got a hold of some dispensible cash so I'm going to hit the cider mill tomorrow for another gallon or 2. I'm going to pour that into a freshly sanitized ale pale, then rack the hard cider I have from my carboy into the ale pale too. Let it ferment however much it wants to in there for...

Thanks! Is there any sure way to tell if it's infected or not? I always tried to be extremely careful and used 1-step to sanitize everything that came into contact with the cider or the vessel it is in.

I started 5 gallons of hard cider this fall using non-pastuerized, no-preservative apple cider from the local cider mills here in Michigan. I used a 5 part cider additive pack 24 hours before I added the yeast. After the yeast got going I opened the ale pale once to add more apple juice...

I'm planning to leave it alone until Saturday night and then take a hydrometer reading and see if it's ready to rack to secondary. Thanks!

Okay, thanks for the reassurance!

This is my first batch ever of hard cider so I'm not quite sure what I should expect. I pitched my Lalvin K1-V1116 Saturday night, airlock was bubbling by Sunday night. Monday I was getting some sulphury odors so I added 5 tsp of yeast nutrients yesterday (to 5 gal of cider). After I added...