Brown sugar

[SvenTheBererk]

Hey all just wanted to see if you think it would be wise to leave out the brown sugar or not,its my first attempt at cider.
And also its been fermenting now for about 2days.
Also how do i edit my username its ment to be "SvenTheBerserk"
Thanks all.
HARD APPLE HONEY CIDER

16 LITRES: "JUICE STOP" APPLE JUICE

2 LITRES: "BERRI AUSTRALIAN FRESH" APPLE+STRAWBERRY JUICE

2 KILLO'S: HONEY (FROM "TIP TOP")

1 PACKET: CHAMPANE YEAST

2 KILLO'S: BROWN SUGAR

Glass Carboy fermenter 5 gallon
Cleaned everything poured 14ltrs juice into carboy.

Heated 2ltrs juice with honey 2kg until honey dissolved
then let it cool to correct temp for yeast and added yeast
then added the mix to carboy after letting it sit for about 15min.

Wrapped carboy with electric blanket holding temp at about 26-28c

Forgot to add brown sugar so might dissolve it with some heated juice
and add to settling bucket before bottling.

[drsmurto]

Leave out the sugar, apple juice has an SG of 1.046-48 and will ferment down with he champagne yeast to 1.000 giving you an ABV of >6%. The sugar will give you rocket fuel and will undoubtedly taste as such.

[KEG]

best to add the yeast to the carboy rather than the syrup you made, for best rehydration.

[SvenTheBererk]

Thanks for advice i feel more confident now
Here's how it looks so far http://hippyval.gallery.netspace.net.au/album02

[earle]

Doc, you've done a few ciders (I think). What do you reckon, with juice and honey being mostly fermentable will it end up reasonably dry?

[drsmurto]

Yes, mine ending up quite dry and got dryer as the keg slowly emptied. I used the wyeast cider (4766 from memory) altho i have used champers yeast before and that was even drier. If you keg you have the option of 'stopping' the ferment early and kegging it. Was discussing this with Kev recently. I reckon if you stopped at 1.020 you will notice a significant difference. Honey tends to dry beers out but since apple juice is also mostly simple sugars its not going to have such a big impact. ie. it wont lower FG by vast amounts like it can beer compared to using malt.

My ciders tend to be apple juice only. As i said, there are enough fermentables to give you a 5+% cider and i see know reason to go higher than this unless you want to feel the extra alcohol as you drink and after. I have on occasion added similar extras as i do with my ginger beers but the best one to date was just apple juice. I might try Kevs suggestion of strawberries in secondary for something different. I have tried apple and pear juice but it didnt quite turn out to be the combo pf cider and perry that i had hoped but that was using an ale yeast.

[SvenTheBererk]

Checked it today and the froth on top is turning white http://hippyval.gallery.netspace.net.au/album02/DSC00142
is this normal? follow link for pics

[drsmurto]

Thats fine mate, most of us have plastic fermenters and cant get as good a look at fermentation as you.

[SvenTheBererk]

Hey all 2 more new pics showing progress http://hippyval.gallery.netspace.net.au/album02/DSC00143_001
Smells great sofar,seems to be slowing down a bit...burps every 3 or so seconds.
Was thinking of bottling in plastic lemonade bottles a little early to keep some fizz and keep it a little sweet.
What do you think?

[rwh]

Was thinking of bottling in plastic lemonade bottles a little early to keep some fizz and keep it a little sweet.
What do you think?

I think you should be careful. Bottling before completion is inexact at best, and explosive at worst. The only way to keep sweetness will be by interfering with fermentation somehow, either by using campden tablets or by chilling. If you want carbonation, I reckon you'll get more consistent results if you just ferment to completion and then use priming sugar.

[SvenTheBererk]

Ok...i have bottles of varying sizes what would be the best way to prime?
I have looked on the net but cant seem to find any solid info thats not too vague,
I was thinking brown sugar or Dex heated with a bit of water then add that to the cider just before bottling...then let bottles sit overnight?
...or a few nights.....then chill?
Sorry for for what might be dumb questions..... but nothing i look at on the net seems to answer clear enough for me.

[KEG]

use this:

http://www.geocities.com/lesjudith/Alco ... lator.html

aim for about 2.5 volumes of CO2.

this will tell you how much sugar (of whatever type you choose) you should use for bulk priming. do you have a spare container/fermenter to bulk prime in?

by the way, if you're using brown sugar, i'd add about 5% more than the recommendation for sucrose.

[rwh]

Ok...i have bottles of varying sizes what would be the best way to prime?

If you have various sized bottles, the easiest way is to Bulk prime.

1. determine how much priming sugar you want for the whole batch
2. boil this sugar in about a cup of water
3. add to a sanitised fermenter
4. rack onto it
5. leave for a few minutes
6. bottle as usual

By racking onto the sugar, the swirling motion will stir in the sugar into the beverage, and by waiting a few minutes, diffusion will finish the job.

[SvenTheBererk]

Thank you all so much for advice....ill have more pics and updates soon if ya like.?

[SvenTheBererk]

Hey all got some new pics 1 week old now i feel like a father lol http://hippyval.gallery.netspace.net.au/album02?page=2
It's burping bout every 8-10 seconds now im so proud lol.

[SvenTheBererk]

Hey all

Im thinking of racking to the secondry tonight and and bulk prime..what do you think?
Or is it too early?
Here's some new picshttp://hippyval.gallery.netspace.net.au/album02?page=3

[KEG]

wait til you've got 2 or 3 days of non-changing SG readings with your hydrometer.

[SvenTheBererk]

Hey all

Umm i think i stuffed up
I racked and back sweetend for couple of days then bottled
Left the bottles a few days longer to carb up,plastic bottles got very tight very quick.....no explosions.
Then i placed the bottles in the chest freezer turned up to its warmest setting.......but all the bottles froze
I did put 2 big bottles in the fridge...all i had room for.

So any words of wisdom? i feel stupid

[Kevnlis]

My chesty holds -15C even at the warmest setting

When you say "back sweetened" do you mean bulk primed? Did you add sugar to secondary and then prime the bottles as well?

[SvenTheBererk]

Bulk primed is what i meant sorry i have the freezer turned off atm only one bottle burst
added to secondry... plastic bottles got verry verry tight in two days