Beginner cider questions

[jasonson]

Hi all.

I have been reading these forums and searching for help for the last 2 months.
My partner and i have tried so ghetto cider brews using juice bottles from aldi and adding mangrove jacks m02 cider yeast.

Our first attempt, we let the ferment for 5 1/2 days and then capped them and put them into the fridge.

One we tried the following day, the others we drank a week later which were markedly better than the one we drank the day after fridging.
My question is how do I know when the yeast/cider has fermented dry/out. Does that mean leaving it to ferment until the SG is 1.000?

The guy at the home brew shop where i got the M02 yeast told me it should take 10 days to ferment. We noted that the juice was down around 0.999 - 1.001 after just 4 days. Would it be beneficial to leave it ferment longer?

 

[TimT]

Yes, even if the yeast is done eating through the sugar there's still cleaning up to do. And cider always could do with a few weeks to age.

You'll get better results with canned apple juice you get from home brew stores and best results of all from fresh pressed apple juice

 

[troopa]

SG can get bellow 1.000sg with Aldi juice as well, so let it ferment out for at least a week or stable for a couple of days.. unless you are drinking it "still" from the same bottle or a decanted bottle out of the fridge. In which case you can fridge it early to keep a little sweetness. If your bottling it then you will have to leave it till its bone dry otherwise you may/will end up with bottle bombs.

Again as TimT said, A week or 3 with Aldi juice will make a fair difference. Still its not great but its ghetto