First Trial Cider

[shore]

Good Evening Everyone

Been looking in the older posts and seem to be on with the cider. Hope I've done it ok.

I suppose just asking for some clarity as the fermentation seems to of been finished within 5 days.

I pressed apples and then racked it with wine yeast and nutrients, it went nuts for 2-3 days and slowly calmed to hardly anything today. Checked the SG and it's below 1 now, it was 1.045 when started.

Transferred to a new tank for 2nd stage, I was going to add some potassium sorbate, finnings and campden tablets within the next couple days. Then I'll back sweeten with applejuice, would anyone experienced say this is the way to go or any other method would be appreciated.

I've read of people using tea bags as well, would this be a good idea at this stage?

This is my first cider I've done so please go easy

thanks in advance

 

[jof]

If you add apple juice to back sweeten, you run the risk of restarting fermentation - sugar content.
This year I am adding 3 Stevia based tea sweeteners to each demijohn. Others say I should use a different sweetener, but the dose is fairly low & it seems to work for me.

If you don't sweeten it, you can always add a teaspoon of golden sugar when serving.

Yokels say it won't be ready until 12th night (wassailing), but they would be fermenting at much lower temperatures in the corner of a barn, so there's no reason it won't be ready after a few weeks indoors.

I rack mine from a 5 gallon wine fermenter into demijohns after about a month. (This frees up my fermenter for another batch or some beer) At that point I taste & add sweetener to each demijohn - so you can have different sweetness in each one.

I don't use finings, I rely on time by putting demijohns outside & check clarity every week or so.

When it's clear enough I bottle with a small amount of sugar as I prefer lightly sparkling & the CO2 helps with preservation as my ciders tend to be relatively weak.