Kits for 1 gallon glass demijohn

[shevyshock]

You can (rule of thumb: 20g/litre=1%) and a few people do, but it really doesn't need it.

Worth mentioning as you're a beginner: anything you make in a demijohn wants at least half a litre of headspace for the first few days, or it'll escape.
With the cider I top up on day4.

Thanks for the heads up. I think I read somewere about filling it to just below the nect of the DJ. Also before I start im going to calibrate it with duck tape per litre. When u say u top up do u just add water?

Top up to the neck with 1/2l of juice (or a bit more) you held back when you started it off. You don't get enough apple if you start chucking water in it.

In the secondary after ive siphoned it away from the yeast sediment after primary fermenting has finished do I fill to almost the neck?

 

[oldbloke]

In the secondary after ive siphoned it away from the yeast sediment after primary fermenting has finished do I fill to almost the neck?

Doesn't really need a secondary - primary for 10 to 20 days, then bottle when it drops clear. You can rack to secondary if you like though.

After those first few days, always keep anything as full as poss, to minimise exposure to oxygen.

 

[shevyshock]

In the secondary after ive siphoned it away from the yeast sediment after primary fermenting has finished do I fill to almost the neck?

Doesn't really need a secondary - primary for 10 to 20 days, then bottle when it drops clear. You can rack to secondary if you like though.

After those first few days, always keep anything as full as poss, to minimise exposure to oxygen.

Will do then. Thanks for your help. Going to start this on friday when im not busy with work. Will post my results :)

 

[shevyshock]

In the secondary after ive siphoned it away from the yeast sediment after primary fermenting has finished do I fill to almost the neck?

Doesn't really need a secondary - primary for 10 to 20 days, then bottle when it drops clear. You can rack to secondary if you like though.

After those first few days, always keep anything as full as poss, to minimise exposure to oxygen.

Say I wanted to prime bottles to carbonate it. The bottles I have for them are 900ml. Would a tea spoon of suger be sufficient enough for that or is that too much?

 

[oldbloke]

Say I wanted to prime bottles to carbonate it. The bottles I have for them are 900ml. Would a tea spoon of suger be sufficient enough for that or is that too much?

I do a level teaspoon per pint (or 500ml) so I suggest a heaped teaspoon for 900ml
But I like it fairly fizzy. Only rarely climbs out when I open one, and even then it does ti slowly

 

[shevyshock]

Excellent. So from what I understand so far. Once fermentation has completed in my DJ. Its safe to prime bottle and leave for 4 weeks. 2weeks warm 2 weeks cold. I read somewere that it carbonates better when cold. Would that be correct?

 

[oldbloke]

Excellent. So from what I understand so far. Once fermentation has completed in my DJ. Its safe to prime bottle and leave for 4 weeks. 2weeks warm 2 weeks cold. I read somewere that it carbonates better when cold. Would that be correct?

The warm phase gets the remaining yeast to eat the priming sugar and produce CO2
The cool phase encourages the CO2 to dissolve in the brew

If you're really thirsty, you can shave it down to 1week/1week, but it won't have as much fizz and the flavour won't be up to much that early either

 

[shevyshock]

Il give it time. I will want it to turn out as good as it can be first time lol or as good as I can get it should I say :)

 

[LeedsBrewer]

+1 to everything said by OB especially the not adding sugar to your cider bit. It doesn't need it and, if added, will be detrimental to the taste. If you want the best possible cider leave the sugar out (apart from using it to carbonate obviously).

Oh and the longer you leave it the better, either in bulk or in the bottle. Though in bulk is better. :thumb:

 

[shevyshock]

Yea I second that. He has heen a great help and very informative. Just one thing. If im going to leave it a while by racking it to a secondary(more so to free up the DJ). Can I leave it in that for few weeks before bottling for carbonating or is there a time frame in which it should be carbonated after fermentation has completed? I was planning on leaving for 4weeks to clear. Then bottle prime from carbonation. Then 2weeks warm and 2weeks cold. Would that be ok?

 

[LeedsBrewer]

It's fine to rack to a second DJ. You'll need to top up the headspace after racking again and then you can leave it for several weeks or months (the longer the better). Then when you are ready to bottle you just add the priming sugar to the bottles.

I have recently done a batch. Made 2 DJs of TC, topped up with AJ after initial fermentation had died down (after 2 or 3 days), Then left for 4 more weeks. I just realised that i forgot to rack to secondary but i'm sure it'll be fine. I'll be bottling at the weekend. Then 2 weeks warm, 3 weeks cold and then try to not drink them all at once. I usually try to stash a few bottles away and forget about them to test in a few months time.

 

[oldbloke]

Yeh, if you rack it you can leave it months and it should still carbonate when you bottle - even a tiny bit of dormant yeast will wake up if it tastes sugar.
And if you can leave it that long you may be able to get the malolactic secondary fermentation, though this does depend on the right bacteria being present (thread on recovering yeast known to harbour it elsewhere on forum, by GraysAlchemy)