Hello everyone,
Long time beer brewer but first time cider maker - as I noted the other day in my brew day thread, I made some cider at the weekend...
Basically I juiced and pasteurised the apples before cooling to pitching temperature and then rehydrated and pitched a pack of Lalvin QA23 I happened to have knocking around... So far all seems fine, airlock bubbling away in the FV so I'll leave it and let it do it's thing until it's done...
I have a few questions though that mainly relate to packaging. I'd appreciate it if anyone who knows what they're doing with cider can check my reasoning here in case of any obvious rookie mistakes:
1. I don't have any kegs so I plan to bottle as I would with beer - so obviously I want to be sure I'm not gonna get any bottle bombs!
2. I believe you can add stuff to cider (Campden tablets???) to halt fermentation and then back sweeten. But my plan is to let it ferment out fully for a dry cider, and then batch prime in a bottling bucket as I would with beer. I would calculate the amount of priming sugar same as I would with beer, aiming for around 2.0vols CO2. Any major issues here?
3. As far as I can tell from Googling, cider tends to ferment to a lower FG than beer, somewhere around 1.000 for cider whereas beer typically ends up around 1.010 - is that right? (and yes I know it varies a bit with beer, and presumably cider too! ) I guess there are simpler sugars than in beer so the yeast just keep on munching away, right? Obviously in practice I will keep checking the gravity until it's stable, it's just so I have some idea of when it's done or nearly-done.
4. I've seen some suggestions that if you're letting it ferment out like this it can take a while, maybe 3 weeks - does that sound about right? I normally leave my beer 2 weeks, sometimes longer so that's not an issue, not like I'm in a rush. And like I say I'll keep checking the gravity until it's stable, but just to have some idea what to expect.
5. I would fully expect my cider will come out cloudy if I do nothing else - again not a major issue, all my beer is cloudy too. But can you/do folks fine their cider with similar stuff as beer? Specifically I'm thinking of gelatine & kieselsol such as "Kwik Clear" or "Clear It" (actually I'm pretty sure these are sold as beer & wine finings anyway and presumably OK in cider too???).
Thanks in advance,
Matt
Long time beer brewer but first time cider maker - as I noted the other day in my brew day thread, I made some cider at the weekend...
Basically I juiced and pasteurised the apples before cooling to pitching temperature and then rehydrated and pitched a pack of Lalvin QA23 I happened to have knocking around... So far all seems fine, airlock bubbling away in the FV so I'll leave it and let it do it's thing until it's done...
I have a few questions though that mainly relate to packaging. I'd appreciate it if anyone who knows what they're doing with cider can check my reasoning here in case of any obvious rookie mistakes:
1. I don't have any kegs so I plan to bottle as I would with beer - so obviously I want to be sure I'm not gonna get any bottle bombs!
2. I believe you can add stuff to cider (Campden tablets???) to halt fermentation and then back sweeten. But my plan is to let it ferment out fully for a dry cider, and then batch prime in a bottling bucket as I would with beer. I would calculate the amount of priming sugar same as I would with beer, aiming for around 2.0vols CO2. Any major issues here?
3. As far as I can tell from Googling, cider tends to ferment to a lower FG than beer, somewhere around 1.000 for cider whereas beer typically ends up around 1.010 - is that right? (and yes I know it varies a bit with beer, and presumably cider too! ) I guess there are simpler sugars than in beer so the yeast just keep on munching away, right? Obviously in practice I will keep checking the gravity until it's stable, it's just so I have some idea of when it's done or nearly-done.
4. I've seen some suggestions that if you're letting it ferment out like this it can take a while, maybe 3 weeks - does that sound about right? I normally leave my beer 2 weeks, sometimes longer so that's not an issue, not like I'm in a rush. And like I say I'll keep checking the gravity until it's stable, but just to have some idea what to expect.
5. I would fully expect my cider will come out cloudy if I do nothing else - again not a major issue, all my beer is cloudy too. But can you/do folks fine their cider with similar stuff as beer? Specifically I'm thinking of gelatine & kieselsol such as "Kwik Clear" or "Clear It" (actually I'm pretty sure these are sold as beer & wine finings anyway and presumably OK in cider too???).
Thanks in advance,
Matt