Progress Report

First, I need to share the single biggest mistake I've made so far. I did not take an initial reading of the specific gravity of the juice I started with. Without that I'm pretty sure there is no way to tell what the alcohol content of my cider is. It's not that the reading is hard to take nor does it require expensive equipment.  You can buy a hydrometer at your local brew shop for about $10.00. It was simply a newbie mistake.

So, to get you caught up on where my cider is at now, I have three batches. The first pressing I did took two days on Nov. 9 and 10.  On Nov. 11 I put it into a 1 gallon glass jug and treated it with a campden tablet. On Nov. 12 I pitched the yeast. On November 13 I pressed another gallon of juice. For this batch I did not use a campden tablet because I wanted to see what a difference it made. For both gallons I used the champagne yeast I mentioned in a previous post. The third batch was an experimentation with wild yeast. I will post about that separately.

I did not add any sugar to anything. I just wanted pure fermented apple juice.

The following photo is Day 1 of the Untreated gallon.








Here are both the Treated and Untreated batches. On the right is the Treated on Day 3. The other is the Untreated Day 2.

The Treated one started fermenting quicker and seemed to finish quite ahead of the other. I had read that the campden tablets were really not necessary as the store-bought yeast was usually strong enough to overcome the wild yeast that is naturally present. I just wanted to see the difference. You may have noticed the color difference between the two. The Treated one was more orangey and the Untreated more brown.

Here are both batches again.  On the left is the Treated one on Day 4, and on the right is Untreated Day 3. You can see the sediment is greater on the Treated.

A closeup photo on Day 5 for the Untreated (on the right) and Day 6 for the Treated shows a layer of white sediment.  This was Nov. 17.  I tasted it and the untreated batch still tasted a little sweet and appley but I didn't stop fermentation there because I didn't think there'd be much point in drinking it if it didn't have much of a kick :)

Here are the two batches on Nov. 21. On the right is the Treated and on the left the Untreated. I tasted them both and couldn't tell a great deal of difference between the two. They tasted very dry, like wine. I don't know what percent of alcohol it has but it gave me a nice buzz. It sure would have been nice if I had taken that initial reading!

Today is December 1st, 2012 and the yeast seems to be dormant. I know I need to "rack" it off its lees into a second fermentation vessel or bottle it.  This means I carefully siphon it out of the initial fermentation vessel trying to introduce as little extra oxygen as possible and leaving behind all the exhausted yeast particles and sediment in the bottom. I believe you can leave it in the initial fermentation vessel for 3 weeks. If you leave it too long it will take on "off" flavors. I just have a couple days left until that deadline.

Here is Treated on the left on Day 20 and Untreated on Day 19.

So, I am at the point where I need to figure out how to regain that apple flavor and maybe get it carbonated. I joined the HomeBrewTalk forum so I could ask questions and post pictures to get advice. I haven't done that yet but it is a very informative and helpful website.