Help please! My first ever batch of Cider,specific gravity?

[Homeygirl]

Hello brewing folks!

This is my first year in trying to make Cider,ok,I pressed them,put it all in a fermenting bucket for around 2 weeks or so,then siphoned it into demijohns.This was really bubbling insanely for about 2-3 weeks where now it has just about stopped.

My Hydrometer arrived today,so I thought I would have a go at checking it,the reading is 1.000-so does this mean there is no alcohol in it at all?!

How can I change this,add sugar whilst bottling or?this is where I am totally lost,I have not added any sugar yet,nothing actually,it is all pretty natural apart from,I did add some brewers yeast when it went into the demijohns.

At the moment,I have demijohns with no bubbling going on,it is rather dark in the amber colour and has about half an inch of sediment at the bottoms.

Any advice would be so welcome!

 

[graysalchemy]

No that means it has finished all the sugar has turned to alcohol. :thumb:

 

[Homeygirl]

No that means it has finished all the sugar has turned to alcohol. :thumb:

Oh really?!

How can I tell what the alcohol content is please? Thank you for replying,so I have cider-ready to bottle? yippee!

 

[fbsf]

It starts out at a higher reading - probably 1.050 or so for pressed apples, then works its way down as the sugar gets turned to alcohol.

Check it a couple of days apart - if the reading is steady, it means the yeast has done all it can.

If it drops, then it's still going, so leave it a few more days and try again - it will more than likely finish anywhere between where it is now and 0.990.

Edit - to know what the true alcohol level is, you would have needed to get a starting reading, but if you go with around 1.050, you can use an online gravity calculator to work it out.

 

[Homeygirl]

It starts out at a higher reading - probably 1.050 or so for pressed apples, then works its way down as the sugar gets turned to alcohol.

Check it a couple of days apart - if the reading is steady, it means the yeast has done all it can.

If it drops, then it's still going, so leave it a few more days and try again - it will more than likely finish anywhere between where it is now and 0.990.

Edit - to know what the true alcohol level is, you would have needed to get a starting reading, but if you go with around 1.050, you can use an online gravity calculator to work it out.

Thanks very much! I shall do that,the bubbling has stopped-well almost,only a few every so often so I shall leave it for a bit longer before I bottle it all up.

The only other worry is that it is not very clear at all,would filtering it prior to bottling cure this or is there some other remedy?

 

[fbsf]

Time is the best thing - most of the flavour from the cider will come from it being matured. Now I'm not saying don't have a sneaky taste, but if you can leave it for 2-3 months it will taste a whole lot nicer, and more like the cider you are probably expecting.

If you can get the fermenter somewhere cooler (10-15C) and leave it for a week or two, it should clear a little, but unless you added pectolase (a pectin-reducing enzyme) during the brew, it will remain cloudy due to the pectin in the apple skins and core.

Anyway, proper cider ought to be a *little* cloudy... :