My First Cider is in the barrell but have a few questions

[Alkaseltzaa]

Hey everybody. I brewed up a hard cider from sainsburys basics apple juice using this recipe

Batch size - 20 ltrs

16 ltrs apple juice
3 ltrs raspberry juice

Simmer 340g honey in around 1 ltr of apple juice for 5 mins
Add 15 ltrs of juice to the fermenter
Add 1 cup of black tea
Add the juice with honey
Add 2 teaspoons pectolase

So i've left that to ferment for 2 weeks and the gravity is now all the way down to 1.000 it started at 1.042 so it's not a really strong cider but i've tasted it and it's got a nice bittersweetness to it but it's still a little yeasty maybe.

Anyway I racked it off into a barrell last night and added gelatin to it. What I want to know is how long do you think the gelatin will take to clear a 20litre batch I used 1 and a half sheets of gelatin from the supermarket dissolved in a sanitised pyrex jug before adding it to the barrell.

And also, it's Hogmany (new years eve) tomorrow night, I tasted a sample this morning, obviously it hasn't cleared yet but I was thinking if I went out today to the homebrew shop and bought some Co2 bulbs, could I force carbonate it for tomorrow night and drink a few glasses in it's cloudy state?

I have a cheap plastic barrell, I thought it only had a pressure release valve on it but I investigated a bit further online and i've found that it did come supplied with an S30 valve. What procedure do I follow for force carbonating it for tomorrow night?

Cheers

 

[mickeyt69]

If it is in a plastic pressure barrel you won't be able to force carbonate as it won't take the pressures required for force carbonating. However if it tastes good drink it! It will get better with a little patience though. Hope you have a happy new year!