Home brand apple juice cider help

[jglo9407]

Hey everyone,

So I've got two batches of cider in 5 litre demijohn currently fermenting, one started on the 31/01/13 and the other on the 1/02/13

The original is just apple juice and a teaspoon of champagne yeast and it has already seemed to stop bubbling out the top - is it possible that the fermenting stage is already finished after a week? There is no added sugar, only what was in the juice.

And is there a good method for getting a sample out of the demijohn to test in the hydrameter, as the demijohn has no tap at the bottom.

The first cider started with a reading of 1.042


Cheers, Joe

 

[Phoney]

It's entirely possible that it has finished fermenting, and it heavily depends on what temperature you kept it at for the past week. The only way to tell is with the hydrometer. As for getting it out for a sample, how were you planning on getting it out for bottling etc when you embarked on this mission?

 

[jglo9407]

Siphon most likely to get it to the bottle and that was the plan with the hydrometer too, just thought I'd check just In case there was a magical way to do it that was easier!

And is there any problem with taking the airlock and bung out?

As with temperature ... I can't really say, it's been in my cellar, which is reasonable cool but its been hot recently so it would probably fluctuate a little bit from day to night

 

[JDW81]

Sanitise your hydrometer, take out bung and airlock and drop your hydrometer in. Easy as.

 

[kahlerisms]

I've not finished my first cider yet, but mine was a 100% store-juice job with S04 - it's at day 20 and /still going/.

Ignore bubbles, trust your grav readings.

 

[jglo9407]

Sanitized the hydrometer, but disaster struck! The demijohn was too shallow for the hydrometer, so the weight just sat at the bottom!

So I very carefully poured out some of the liquid into the hydrometer measurer and it was at 0.988 - so when I put the bung and the airlock back on, it did start bubbling a little bit, but I would assume that was just because of me pouring and tilting the demijohn???


So I naturally tasted it, and it was certainly alcoholic and I'm not sure if I'd want it any more alcoholic then what it is at now, so what should I do?

 

[danielrose]

The easy way to get a sample out of the demijohn is to use a wine thief to draw some off, which you then put into a sample tube.

http://www.ibrew.com.au/products/pipette-wine-thief-plastic

Google wine thief and you'll find them at many brew suppliers