Hooray

[muddy90]

We bottled our first batch last night, 30L of cider.
We had 2 lots on the go & this was the one with chemicals (the other is totally natural, just juice & is still fermenting) so I added 1 camden per gal & 6 teaspoons of ferm stopper, in case it needed sweetning.
The og was reading 1000ish so I think it's about 5% or just over.
We bottled (old wine bottles) 19 as is (quite dry but very pallatable) & then added some disolved sugar to taste & bottled the last 18.
I'm very happy :party: my worst fear was it being too acidic & it isn't at all. I just hope the sweetened ones don't explode now! :rofl:
Can't wait to do the natural one now. :pray:
We've also been offered anouther 4 trees of apples so I'm hoping to get a booking at the mill to make a late stronger batch 7%+ :grin:

 

[graysalchemy]

Well done with you first brew and welcome to the forum :thumb: :thumb:

A word of caution you say that you have put them into wine bottles, what did you use to kill off the yeast?

If the yeast wasn't killed off (and campden only stuns yeast) even the ones without suager may continue to ferment over the following months and you will have bottle bombs. I suggest you re bottle them preferably in beer bottles with a crown cap or in plastic pop bottles they are designed for the pressure.

Also cider at 5% is better like beer stored under pressure as you will get a blanket layer of co2 which will stop the cider going off. The alcohol content of 5% is non protection against bacteria etc. Wine doesn't need this because of the much greater alcohol content.

Well done though.

 

[Marrsy86]

Congrats on the brew! Make sure you enjoy it :

 

[muddy90]

A word of caution you say that you have put them into wine bottles, what did you use to kill off the yeast?

Potassium sorbate, fermentation stopper (wine stabiliser). I lied earlier, I added 3 teaspoons into water & added that to the cider.

 

[graysalchemy]

That will have killed it :lol: :lol:

So I take it you don't mind still cider then?

 

[tonyhibbett]

Yes I made same mistake with my first cider, adding sugar to taste without stabilising and putting it into screw top wine bottles, stored on their sides. The amount of sugar added was small so not dangerous, and the bottles opened within a few days received very favourable comments, the cider equivalent of Babycham! However those left longer were brut, cloudy and not so nice. Had I chilled these bottles after a few days, I might have got away with it.
Anyway, the next batch I converted to wine, by adding elderflowers, grape concentrate and honey.

 

[muddy90]

So I take it you don't mind still cider then?

God No, it's the only way to drink propper cider, flat & room temp. :grin:
I really don't get the certain types they serve in pubs & water it down by putting ice in it! :shock:
Don't mind cloudy either. :grin:
I have a bit of a dillema with what to do with my natural brew though. It's chem free so I can't kill off the yeast & I might want to sweeten it. Don't do Aspartain either. How do I pasturise?