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another newbie!
Hi guys! I have been checking out the site for a while now and finally made the plunge into brewing something. I started a 5 gallon batch of cider (seemed appropriate with the season). I started on 10/12/08 with a S.G of 1.050. I checked (and tasted) it yesterday and it was down to about 1.010 - still a little young (as expected). There's still some moderate activity happening, so i'll be keeping an eye on it for a while yet. I used the White Labs English Cider Yeast and the juice came from a local cider mill. I didn't add any additional sugar or anything - I wanted to use this batch as a baseline.
Maybe someone can help me with a question? I've read a lot about bottle bombs. What is the "safe" F.G for cider for bottling? Also, I'm considering adding some carbonation to some of the batch during bottling. What is the best product/method for doing this?
Any thoughts or input would be appreciated 
Bru
Welcome to the forum.
I've never used that strain before but I looked it up on the the WL website and it says it can achieve above 80% attenuation. With a starting gravity of 1.050, and with proper aeration and yeast pitch rate, you can expect to reach a final gravity around 1.010 or lower.
You'll get bottle bombs if you bottle your cider before fermentation is complete. The best way to know if your fermentation is over is to take multiple hydrometer readings and get consistent gravity readings 3 days in a row. The White Labs site also says that this yeast produces sulfur esters that will disappear with a couple weeks of aging so letting it sit in the carboy/bucket longer will help it condition.
To carbonate your cider boil some corn sugar and a couple cups of water for 5-10 minutes, let cool, and add to your bottling bucket before racking your cider into it. For a batch of english style cider anywhere between 1.2 and 2.4 volumes of CO2 are acceptable. For a 5 gallon batch use anywhere between .56oz and 3.78oz of corn sugar to achieve those carbonation levels. Personally, I'd shoot for the higher end and use about 3.5oz but that's just me. Good luck!
Thanks for the fast response FirePit! appreciate the info. I'm going to use your recommedations on the corn sugar for carbonation.
Bru
you can also carbonate your cider using some unfermented cider. just get some more fresh cider from your local cider mill and use that. it will prime just as well as corn sugar and be apple tasting.
just get the OG of the unfermented cider so you can calculate how much you need to add to carbonate your volume of fermented cider.
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