Well it has been three weeks and a day. The bubble comes about every 45 seconds now. I finally had a chance to rack it. The temp of the cider was 65 and then I took the hydrometer reading. Wow in that three weeks that English Cider yeast burned through the natural sugar and the 2 pounds of Turbinado sugar I put in. so from 1.053/4 it dropped to 0.998. It has a little apple taste and strong. It currently sits between 7.2 and 7.4% ABV.
Dave as you said I should have racked it sooner to try and keep some of the sweetness. It is bubbling a little more after racking, but assume it will calm down again.
If I let it go to no bubbles will it continue to get dryer and dryer?
Any other suggestion on what to do now?
Thanks
Bryan
It will ferment all the way down to 0.992-0.994 if you don’t kill the yeast off right now. I would add gelatin right now, today, which will get rid of most of the yeast in a very short time and improve clarity, then after 24 hours with the gelatin, rack it again and add sorbate and sulfite in accordance with manufacturer’s instructions to further kill off the remaining yeast. Also keep it cold as you can in the refrigerator, 32-40 F. It’s already too late to retain natural sweetness, but you can prevent it from fermenting further with these techniques, and then can backsweeten later on. I would leave it cold for at least a week or two before backsweetening, then leave it for another week or two (longer is always better) before bottling to make sure fermentation doesn’t take off again, and if it does you might need to keep racking and add more sorbate and sulfite to arrest fermentation.
It will taste great regardless, but at this stage it is already very dry and tart. It will take some more time to get sweetness back in there without exploding your bottles. If you keg the cider, then the timeframes can all be sped up since you won’t have to worry about explosions. Good luck.
Dave,
I have Campden tablets and the unflavored gelatin. After racking it the first time the cider is very clear currently. Which would be better to use? Or both? How does the gelatin work? What does it do? I saw in another post you made that you heat some water, dissolve the gelatin and then pour it in. Then you mix it well? Will stuff start to fall to the bottom again? Don’t have a refrigerator I can pit the carboy in. I assume it will stay around 65 where I have it sitting. Let me know what you think.
Thanks for all the help.
Bryan
If the cider is already clear then the gelatin won’t do anything for you. It removes yeast. If there was a lot of yeast still working then it would be in suspension clouding up the cider. If not cloudy then your fermentation might already be done. So skip that and just add your Campden and sorbate to kill off the remaining yeast.
Grrrrr. I added the Campden tablets this morning, then noticed that you mentioned adding sorbate as well. Will it be a problem adding the sorbate 36 or so hours after the Campden? Didn’t know I had to have it until after my brew shop had closed for the day. Let me know. Thanks.
Bryan
You’ll be fine. It’s optional but helps to kill what the Campden doesn’t.
Don’t mean to contradict you Dave, but neither one kills the yeast - except in very high concentrations. The sulfite stuns the yeast, makes it “sick” so it won’t ferment efficiently and makes it more vulnerable to the sorbate. The sorbate prevents the yeast from budding so you won’t get new cells growing and starting the fermentation again.
36 hours delay is OK, but if you go much longer you should think about adding a bit more sulfite.
