First home brew. (Cider)

[sounduser]

Hi all.

I got half a bucket of apples off of someones tree. (Cooking apples)

I juiced them and cooked them up with 3 litres of apple juice from cartons and topped it up with a couple litres of sugar water to make up the gravity.

Started at 1.070 and now is at 0.995

Which make me feel like it pretty much finished fermenting, although there is a slow bubble.

Problem is, its a grim yellow colour.

Should I bottle it now and hope for the best?
(Add a little sugar, leave a few weeks and then fridge)

Or is there anything that can be done to improve it?

Cheers

 

[Vossy1]

Welcome to the forum s :thumb:

Problem is, its a grim yellow colour.

that's about right, like scrumpy, were you expecting/do you want it to be clear ?

 

[sounduser]

I knew it wouldn't be clear like something thats come from a factory. I was hopping for a better colour. Also its so thin.

Maybe I should have ground some of the apple flesh and added it.

 

[dennisking]

Hi and welcome to the forum.

 

[sounduser]

Bottled today.

after reading the forum some more. I think ive gotta sore it for a few months and if its still not great add some black current squash before drinking? :)

 

[oldbloke]

Depends.
Give it the standard 2-weeks-warm if you've put priming sugar in, then out it away for at least 2 weeks, then try a bottle to find out what it's like. It might be great!
If it isn't, put it away for another month, then try another. ...and so on.

 

[sounduser]

Its clearing nicely in the bottles. Maybe should have left it in the bucket.

 

[OnlyFerment]

Its clearing nicely in the bottles. Maybe should have left it in the bucket.

I did a real pressed cider in demi johns and that took about 2 weeks to ferment out but still looked like mud. After a further 2 - 3 weeks it was pretty clear then racked it off and it is still dropping sediment. The plan is to leave it several months to nature rather than a week or 2. I would say you should have LOTS more patience before bottling and then LOTS more patience after bottling to get a top quality result.

On the other hand I have a TC on the go - that has finished fermenting about 7 - 10 days ago and still has a huge amount of yeast in suspension but samples taste really good. I'm hoping that it should be drinkable in another week or 2 (not planning to keep this one to mature). This has some cloudy apple juice in it (18l clear 5l cloudy) so will never clear but should taste good. Added honey to the mix and that comes over really well in the aroma and hints in the taste.

Dave