Kind of looking to do a little cider experimentation... never brewed anything before. So, I guess I'm just looking for what to expect here and maybe get a few questions answered. Feel free to tell me my ideas are terrible, I won't get butthurt 
This is my first attempt, and I'm looking to do it as easy as possible and as quick as possible, just to get an idea of what does what. Looking for a high alcohol, sweetened, carbonated hard cider. So, here goes.
Bought a gallon of apple juice (no preservatives in there). Poured it into my 1 gallon carboy and added 1 pound of light brown sugar. Pitched half a packet of Redstar Pasteur Champagne yeast, and airlocked it. This was 20 minutes ago.
http://i.imgur.com/J6zHqBo.jpg
No idea of starting gravity, but I am assuming that yeast will ferment it completely? Internet info says it can handle up to 15%abv or so. I plan to back sweeten with stevia (not sure how much yet) and then recarbonate in the bottle by dropping a half of a sugar cube in each bottle after its filled and cap it immediately.
I guess my questions are:
-How long do I let it ferment? No intentions of racking off and doing a secondary. Trying to keep it simple...carboy to bottles.
-Anyone ever backsweeten with stevia before? How does it taste? Good idea/bad idea?
-What do you think about recarbonating in the bottle with half a sugar cube each? too much? Am I looking at bottle bomb potential here (or will it possibly still be flat?)
-Any guesses as to what the final ABV will be?
Cheers!
Shawn
This is my first attempt, and I'm looking to do it as easy as possible and as quick as possible, just to get an idea of what does what. Looking for a high alcohol, sweetened, carbonated hard cider. So, here goes.Bought a gallon of apple juice (no preservatives in there). Poured it into my 1 gallon carboy and added 1 pound of light brown sugar. Pitched half a packet of Redstar Pasteur Champagne yeast, and airlocked it. This was 20 minutes ago.
http://i.imgur.com/J6zHqBo.jpg
No idea of starting gravity, but I am assuming that yeast will ferment it completely? Internet info says it can handle up to 15%abv or so. I plan to back sweeten with stevia (not sure how much yet) and then recarbonate in the bottle by dropping a half of a sugar cube in each bottle after its filled and cap it immediately.
I guess my questions are:
-How long do I let it ferment? No intentions of racking off and doing a secondary. Trying to keep it simple...carboy to bottles.
-Anyone ever backsweeten with stevia before? How does it taste? Good idea/bad idea?
-What do you think about recarbonating in the bottle with half a sugar cube each? too much? Am I looking at bottle bomb potential here (or will it possibly still be flat?)
-Any guesses as to what the final ABV will be?
Cheers!
Shawn
