I've never made a cider

[rhino777]

It's gonna be tough to hit the sweetness you want if you have to bottle it. I'd say your best chance is to try to manage the yeast very carefully. Either pick a lower attenuating yeast, or maybe hold off on any nutrient additions in the hope that it finishes high.

The other option is to sweeten to taste in the bottling bucket then keep the bottles cold and don't let them ferment. Or you could try heat pasteurizing the bottles to kill any yeast in suspension. Either way, it would be uncarb'd cider.

....or you could use an unfermentable sweetener like Stevia.

[Test_Engineer]

It's gonna be tough to hit the sweetness you want if you have to bottle it. I'd say your best chance is to try to manage the yeast very carefully. Either pick a lower attenuating yeast, or maybe hold off on any nutrient additions in the hope that it finishes high.

The other option is to sweeten to taste in the bottling bucket then keep the bottles cold and don't let them ferment. Or you could try heat pasteurizing the bottles to kill any yeast in suspension. Either way, it would be uncarb'd cider.

....or you could use an unfermentable sweetener like Stevia.

Yeah, I was think either Splenda or Stevia (consumer branding is called Truvia), as both are available at my grocery store. I might do a half dry, and then do half the batch with a sweetner.

[Test_Engineer]

So how long should I let the cyser with the sweet mead yeast go before racking onto the black raspberrys? The fermentation is starting to slow a little bit, so it's time to start thinking about the secondary fruit addition. I don't want the yeast to stall out and just sit there on the fruit. Right now the airlock has slowed to about a bubble every 4 seconds instead of every 1 second. I know it's not time yet, but anyone got a clue on about what timing I should do this? I was thinking of waiting until the bubles were in the 10-20 second range before racking onto the fruit in a secondary. That way I know a good majority of the primary/really active fermentation is done, and there should still be an active crop of yeast to ferment the raspberry sugars.

[Madtown Brew]

I'd probably wait until activity has virtually stopped. If you put honey in it then that may be awhile.

It wouldn't hurt anything to put the fruit in earlier, but you run the risk of blowing off more of the aromatics than if you had added it at the very end.

[Test_Engineer]

I'd probably wait until activity has virtually stopped. If you put honey in it then that may be awhile.

It wouldn't hurt anything to put the fruit in earlier, but you run the risk of blowing off more of the aromatics than if you had added it at the very end.

Yeah, I don't want to loose the raspberry out of the airlock, but I still want viable yeast to ferment the sugars.

[Test_Engineer]

Racking Day today!

5 Gal Cider with English cider yeast
OG: 1.060
CG(current Gravity): 1.000
Taste: Smells a little rough. Slight sulfur smell. Taste has a decent apple character. You can taste the alcohol a bit, and it does leave a hot alcohol burn. It's young yet, but taste was very drinkable. Should mellow out after it sits in the secondary for a month or so.


Cyser; 5 gal cider 1 lb dark brown sugar, 1 lb orange blossom honey, Sweet Mead yeast
OG: 1.070
CG: 0.998
Racked onto 2.25 lbs of Black Raspberries
Taste (before fruit): VERY smooth, No Alcohol burn or taste! yeast flavor makes it taste like an apfelwine! Yeast taste is sort of a Riesling/chardonnay taste. This should be pretty good as is.

I'm a bit concerned about the black raspberries. They are a little on the bitter side. I think I'll rack this off the fruit in about 3 weeks into a tertiary.


So far my first cider(s) are going good! I think this will be a tradition from now on. Gotta do something with them useless 5 gallon carboys!

[Stem]

Has anyone tried using Malic Acid to your Apple Juice to lower the PH before fermenting?
Apparently the PH should be about 3.9 - 4.0 and Malic acid - which is the main acid in Apples, will lower it to the right PH to get that not too sweet flavour.

[Test_Engineer]

Still in the secondary. I guess being lazy is good for cider making, as the longer it bulk ages, the better the flavor.

I found 4 cases of champagne bottles at my LHBS for a resonable price.

Cyser on the left, and cider on the right:


The guy at the LHBS had a good idea if I make these sparkling ciders, he suggested to just use table sugar for priming, since it will add an apple ester flavor from the table sugar. Easy and benificial!

Now it is a matter of how long before bottling, and what to do with carbination levels and if I want to add some artificial sweetners. I might end up breaking these 2 up into 4 batches to see what combinations I like best.

I might add the entire batch to the bottling bucket, bottle half of it, then add some artificial sweatner to taste and then procede to bottle the rest.