# not sure what next



## hensl82 (22/8/14)

Hi. I got a.couple of boxes of stanthorpe apple's and made 22l of juice and added a sachet of s04 with 25g of yeast nutrient. I did this last Friday night. The specific gravity at that stage was 1.50 (or 1.05, whichever is closer to the 1.00). I have made cider from the blackrock can before but I back sweetened before bottling. I'm really not sure of the process when using fresh juice. The bubbling seems to have stopped this.morning so I don't thnk I have a lot of time to figure it out. Do I just bottle it the same way or am I meant to strain it? Your help would be appreciated on this one.


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## manticle (22/8/14)

Same way but check gravity. Make sure it's stable and within a couple of points of expected gravity before bottling.

Sweetening how?


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## Grott (22/8/14)

Welcome hens182,


> Same way but check gravity. Make sure it's stable and within a couple of points of expected gravity before bottling.
> 
> Seetening how?


Agree. Seven days in the fermenter seems a bit quick to be bottling, ciders tend to ferment slowly. Just make sure the FG is stable over a couple of days. I wouldn't strain personally, "cloudy" is ok.

Cheers


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## manticle (22/8/14)

Never rely on bubbles as an indication fermentation is complete.


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## hensl82 (22/8/14)

Thanks for the responses so far. I've read of others putting the newly fermented mix into amother fermenting barrel. Should I do this or just put it into bottles? Excuse my ignorance but I really want to get this right. Why put it into another barrel before bottling. What benefit is it?


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## hensl82 (22/8/14)

P.s. the side info should read VERY amateur brewer. My poor husband has had to drink the 'brew' I've so far made. Poor man!


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## manticle (22/8/14)

Can help clarify and allow some maturation time away from dead yeast cells. However if you can keep the brew reasonably free from excess oxygen and keep it cold for an extra week or so, you can get a similar effect.


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## TimT (22/8/14)

Hens, good luck! The cider from fresh-pressed apples is the best!

I've made a few bunches of cider now, mostly from windfall apples. Personally I don't bother backsweetening. I give the cider a few weeks to ferment fully out. Then bottle. Then I leave for several months. At the end of that period, it settles out into a beautiful wine. It tastes quite dry, but some flavour remains from the apples, and they will give it distinctive cidery and apply smells as well. You just have to be patient with it.

There are other ways, of course. Some will carbonate their cider (pump CO2 through it, or add sugar) to give it a fizz when it comes out of the bottles, and others who will backsweeten as you are planning to do (you need a sugar not fermentable by yeast: lactose, or aspartame, or similar - do a search of this site or a google search of 'non-fermentable sugars', you'll find a list). Whatever you do, you'll have a lot of fun along the way and at the end you'll have a satisfying drink!


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## hensl82 (26/8/14)

So it is 13 days later and I just checked the specific gravity and it is at 1.00 but that is checking it by taking a sample from the tap. As you can see there is a lot of sludge at the bottom. What do I do about this and as Tim T has said, how do I just bottle it? It is not sweet at all but am not sure if it should be at this stage???


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## Tb1978 (26/8/14)

I did similar not long ago, small 5 litre batch. I left in the fermenter for about 6 weeks by which time most if the yeast had dropped to the bottom. Then used an easy siphon to extract into bottles. Tasted while bottling and was very dry but left sit in the fridge fir the past 4-5 weeks, opened one last night and the flavour is starting to come back, I plan to open 1 every month until they are gone to see how the flavour improves over time.. I did an apple and pear and apple and berry. Just a small batch of each to see how the recipe goes before I jump to a keg size brew.. 

In the short term to drink I did a mangrove jacks pouch, the apple one.. Was ready to drink in about 3-4 weeks (kegged)


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## hensl82 (26/8/14)

When you left it for that long, did the specific gravity continue to drop? I am worried that it may drop and the alcohol content will get higher, and the flavour less tasty.


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## TimT (27/8/14)

Be patient. The rule of thumb I've seen mentioned here is that the cider (or beer, or wine, or whatever is being brewed) has stopped fermenting if the gravity is the same over two successive readings on two successive days. I believe cider gravity can drop down lower than 1.000, so another test may be in order.

As for flavour: that will come with time.Let your cider age. The apple juice you got from the Stanthorpe apples is probably much more complex than store-bought apple juice (which tends to come from apples selected simply for sweetness). So if you let it age a bit some of those complex flavours - tannins, malic acids, and esters created by the yeast - will become more prominent.

You can get the cider out by using a syphon, or a tap (if your fermentation vessel has one), or.... tipping it out and filtering out the solids through a cheesecloth.


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## Mutaneer (27/8/14)

I've had ciders (pure fresh juice) take 3 weeks to finish.

if you bottle and there's sugar left, you risk bottle bombs if you're carbonating the cider.

I like to rack mine off into a clean fermenter for another week or two to help it clear further before bottling
I just transfer using the tap on the bottom of the fermenter, some small amounts of the yeast is ok to go into bottles/ racking (and also required for carbonation)
it'll clear and settle into a cake in teh bottom of the bottle anyway

the longer you leave them in the bottle at room/ cellar temp the better the flavour will be, the bubbles will also be finer, and the clearer the drink will be.


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## Tb1978 (27/8/14)

No they both ended up around 1.00...


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