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y English Cider has been in primary for three weeks. I got too busy to rack to secondary after 2 weeks once the gravity stabilized (.996). Does my cider need to spend some time in secondary? The gravity can’t get much lower. I have heard that secondary helps remove the harsh aromas from the cider. Will time in the bottle do the same thing? Anyone have some experience?
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I would go ahead and bottle it, especially if you are planning on a still cider.
My cider/ale experiment fermented down to 1.010 after a week and I took a reading last night which was 8 days later and it hadn’t moved any lower so I bottled after 2 weeks in primary.
Thought about transferring to secondary, but saw no need at this point.
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I’ve done about 5-6 ciders. First one I did to secondary but all the rest I fermented for about 2 1/2 weeks then bottled. Couldn’t tell any difference. As long as you store the bottles upright, any haziness should settle out.
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I’m planning on carbonating and I transferred to 2ndary yesterday at the advice of someone from "the other" site. He said that I needed a secondary and maybe even a tertiary to avoid having a chunky cider. Well, my cider came out pretty frickin’ clear. I’ll probably leave it in secondary for a week or so and then bottle.
Now onto question #2. Since it fermented so low (1.050 to .996) has anyone had experience adding artificial sweeteners to add some sweetness back to a cider that’s very dry? Thanks
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the other guy is incorrect about chunky cider (hazy yest, chunky, no). That said I normally do rack to secondary to try to let it clear some. As far as back sweetening. I have done it once...didn’t really like the taste all that much, and decided to not to do it again. Real cider tastes good imho, doesn’t need the sweetness.
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I’m not a home brewer and have not nade cider myself since I was a a kid, but I understand that Sucralose (Splenda) is the preferred sweetener for still ciders in the UK these days and apple juice for sparkling, although that will ferment out in the bottle over time too unless the cider has been heavily filtered before bottling. Many traditional cider makers here make only still cider and often only in barrel so sweetening bottles is not really a big issue issue. An alternative way to make a sweeter cider (for next time) is keeving. Some useful information at these sites
http://www.lambournvalleycider.co.uk/ferment.htm
http://www.cider.org.uk/
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Never done that, but this year I choose to brew up a batch consisting of 1/2 ale and 1/2 apple cider. Point being to see if the malt added body and sweetness to the dry cider, hops were used sparingly just to see as well. That is what was just bottled, but so far I like how it’s tasting. Something to consider if you don’t like a bone dry apple cider.
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