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damonpeyo wrote: What makes them "draught"??

I always thought it meant "on tap," but obviously there's another definition,

As for me, I'm a mercury Dry man. mmmmmmmm!!

Well, my first cider is in the bottle. Alcohol % ended up at 7.7, a little higher than what I was after, but there you go. Couldn't believe the apples in the stocking were still white and firm after 14 days in the carboy, I thought they'd be a brown sludge. The cider almost had a champagne type taste just before bottling. I made it for the better half but I'm actually looking forward to tasting it myself.

As far as the second fermentation period goes, will it be the same as beer?

Noodles wrote:Well, my first cider is in the bottle. Alcohol % ended up at 7.7, a little higher than what I was after, but there you go. Couldn't believe the apples in the stocking were still white and firm after 14 days in the carboy, I thought they'd be a brown sludge. The cider almost had a champagne type taste just before bottling. I made it for the better half but I'm actually looking forward to tasting it myself.

As far as the second fermentation period goes, will it be the same as beer?

I'm actually looking forward to tasting mine aswell!!

And from what I have read.. You should leave your cider at least 6 weeks because it takes longer to carbonate... (But I know I will taste it earlier!)

Yeh I leave my ciders for 6 weeks, any earlier than that and they will be slightly carbonated but no where near as good as they will be after 6 weeks. I tried my last cider batch last night (3 weeks old) and it wasn't very fizzy.
It's gonna be a real winner though.

Six weeks it is then, should be ready just in time for the warmer months.

My second cider's almost two month old and has only just shown signs of carbonation. Patience is the key!

I put down my cider nearly 2 weeks ago. Does cider take longer to ferment out?? Do i bottle when i get 2 same readings in the same days?

Timmsy wrote:I put down my cider nearly 2 weeks ago. Does cider take longer to ferment out?? Do i bottle when i get 2 same readings in the same days?

Cider's ready to bottle under the same conditions as beer, ie 2 identical SG readings over two days. For some reason it just takes a bit longer to carbonate.

damonpeyo wrote:Looking at receipes above.. looks like most of you talking about sweet ciders?

I am more of Cider Draught drinker... like Cascade's Mercury Draught, the brown label.

What makes them "draught"??

I'd always assumed (perhaps very wrongly) that "draught" cider was just of average sweetness.

I assumed this because Strongbow in bottles comes in sweet, dry and draught. I therefore inferred that sweet was at one end of the spectrum, dry at the other and draught somewhere in the middle.

Traditionally, I guess draught cider, like draught beer, would have been on tap and when they started bottling it the one that tasted most like it was off tap was named "draught".

Oliver