1st Hard Cider Brew Starts Tomorrow!

[obie]

1st time brewing hard cider starts tomorrow! Price chopper had a sale on apple juice I could not say no to! I got a packet of dry champagne yeast from my LHBS (Strange Brew in Marlboro). I already have the rest of the supplies from homebrewing beer, so I should be good to go! Its also my first time using one of my wide mouth carboys

 

[Maylar]

Rock & roll. Add enough sugar to bring SG up to 1.050, pitch your yeast and watch the magic.

 

[obie]

Everything is in! OG is about 1.043 before temp correction. Kitchen was about 80F today. Do I have to worry about light and the cider getting "skunked"?

 

[muddywatters]

Yeah, keep it someplace dark or cover it. Black t-shirt works pretty well.


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[obie]

Looked at it this morning and there was A LOT of little bubble activity hitting the surface but nothing was going thru the airlock. Tightened the blue cover a little tighter, and that seemed to do the trick.

 

[obie]

It will be a week on this coming Saturday since I started. Fermenting seemed to have stopped today. FG reading will be saturday morning. Does anybody ever leave their glass hydrometer inside the carboy? Its glass, so there shouldn't be any harm with just leaving it in there??

 

[MindenMan]

Technically..... you can leave the sanitized hydrometer in there, but I wouldn't make a practice of it. The glass is very thin, and very prone to breakage. Small carbonation bubbles will stick to your hydro, and give false readings...
You mean First FG reading, don't you? I would take the hydro out and leave it out to get more accurate readings. Granted you fermented in a warm room, and it is possible it could be done by Saturday, but I wouldn't rush it if I were you. I would wait another 3 days, and then hydro again to be sure. Are going to make still or fizzy cider, and are you thinking about jacking any of it?

 

[blueseamonkey]

I normally let my cider ferment for a full 5 weeks, until it drops nice and clear in the fermenter. You can drink it earlier, but it tastes MUCH better if allowed to ferment longer. You then have the option of back sweetening it if you don't like it dry, carbonating or jacking it. I usually like mine dry and unsweetened, or lightly carbonated and slightly sweet (this second option means pasteurising the bottles when they are carbed up.)

 

[JuiceyJay]

Did you get the rhino farts? I know I sure as hell did using that yeast

 

[obie]

Bottled today! FG was 1.013. I tasted the little bit left on the bottom of the bottling bucket, and it tasted like white wine with a hint of apple.

 

[blueseamonkey]

Hmm... thats quite a high FG for a cider in my experience. Watch those bottles carefully - you might end up with bottle bombs. My ciders usually finish at around 0.991-0.995 depending on whether I use ale yeast or a special cider yeast (Youngs)

I would expect a champagne yeast to be working its way to about the same point too, so if any bottles start to explode, get drinking as fast as you can.