So I've just finished fermenting a DJ of turbo cider. Recipe was, 3 litres AJ + 600 grams of sugar, 1 liter boiled water with 10 teabags and some yeast. Hit 1.000 final gravity this morning and racked to secondary. After taste test I decided to back sweeten with strawberry ribena to make a strawberry cider. Didn't boil ribena first. Now I'm concerned about 2 things, 1 will the yeast live after adding preservative enough to carbonate for me. 2, do I need to add sugar for bottling or just rely on the sugar in ribena? Thanks in advance )
Have I killed my yeast? can I still bottle?
- Thread starter Toredan
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Update: So I dumped in my Ribena (strawberry) to sweeten my TC. After asking the question I chucked in my hydrometer and it read 1.020. This morning it's dropped to 1.010 with some bubbling so the answer was no, I did not kill my yeast. I want to bottle this soon so would it be best letting it ferment down to .990, add splenda and sugar then bottle? or could I bottle at 1.010 and let the rest ferment out in bottle to carb?
Tony1951
Bungling Amateur
Hi Dan.
Glad the yeast survived. Problem is I'm not sure what the sugar content will be in the brew as it now is. So it is possible that if you bottled now, you might have too little or too much residual sugar for proper carbonation. Could burst bottles - don't know...
Also, it won't be sweeter by the time the yeast finishes up the job in the bottle, so if you want it sweeter, you will either have to use something like Splenda which won't ferment, or add a splash of apple or other juice to the glass when you serve it. If you want it carbonated, you'll also have to add sugar to a known amount - 6gm /l is typical I think, but taste differs on how fizzy is best. If you can work out the current sugar content, and know it is OK you could just back sweeten and bottle now. I think there are tables on the Internet giving that kind of info.
Glad the yeast survived. Problem is I'm not sure what the sugar content will be in the brew as it now is. So it is possible that if you bottled now, you might have too little or too much residual sugar for proper carbonation. Could burst bottles - don't know...
Also, it won't be sweeter by the time the yeast finishes up the job in the bottle, so if you want it sweeter, you will either have to use something like Splenda which won't ferment, or add a splash of apple or other juice to the glass when you serve it. If you want it carbonated, you'll also have to add sugar to a known amount - 6gm /l is typical I think, but taste differs on how fizzy is best. If you can work out the current sugar content, and know it is OK you could just back sweeten and bottle now. I think there are tables on the Internet giving that kind of info.
Thanks for the response Tony, is the hydrometer reading not a good measure of the sugar content? Have I made another newbie mistake? :) (s'ok, I make lots.) Am I better off letting it ferment out and then adding splenda+sugar to bottle or just putting it straight into bottles at 1.010 and letting the residual sugar finish fermenting in the bottle to carb?
Tony1951
Bungling Amateur
I'm sure if you know the way to calculate it, you can use the hydrometer reading - I just don't know how to do it.
This calculator will work out the total sugar content. Problem is, you will need to know the specific gravity that the cider stopped at to work out how much it will ferment down to.
If it was definitely fermented out at 1.000, to get about 5g/l to 6g/l it looks like you'd want a sg of 1.002 or 1.0025..... Do the calculation yourself and at your own risk... :)
At 1.010 I'd say it is still too sweet to bottle without making bombs or fire hydrants. My turbo cider went down to .998 SG with cider yeast. Champaign yeast will go down further.
http://www.winebusiness.com/tools/?go=winemaking.calc&cid=43
EDIT: The above is a case of the blind leading the blind... Take with caution. Personally, I'd be inclined if it was me to ferment it right out and then add the usual amount of sugar for carbonation.
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