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My first ever brew
Hi, I'm from the other side of the pond. After drinking fantastic hard ciders and ales in the United Kingdom for over ten years, I have moved back to Spain, where such (although accesible) are not easy to find (other than in bottles). I have thus decided to take the plunge and make my first home brew, which happens to be a cider. I used a variety of apples (sweet and acidic), the initial O.G. was not brilliant (1200) and therefore I added approximately 200g of sugar (in syrup form). I've used a cider yeast (Youngs) and noticed that my airlock went crazy for about half an hour, then it stopped bubbling. I can see 'movement' in the cider as a result of the yeasts doing their stuff, but there is no evident bubbling in the airlock.
I know that I've added plenty of yeast, so I can't rightly explain the lack of CO2 been produced. Has anyone ever experienced this? Do I need to add more sugar? Would bubbling in the airlock be a continuous thing, over say a period of 2-3 weeks? If so, this is not happening with my batch and I would really like it to work.
Also, I tried my cider after measuring the O.G. and it was apply in flavour but not tart/sour enough for my liking. I've read that lemmon juice might help solve this for me, if so, what are we looking at, the juice of a lemmon per gallon?
Any help would be great.
Salud!
First, welcome aboard.
Check the seal. Meaning, when you see some bubbles in an airlock one time, and then none shortly after...there may be a leak in the seal. Especially if you see some fermentation action happening. The CO2 is probably escaping somewhere, just not through the airlock. Also, check to make sure the airlock isn't clogged. Having an OG of 1.200 is rather high(for beer at least, not sure about cider), and some krausen may have clogged the airlock opening a bit.....
I don't brew cider, but with beer an airlock will go pretty strong at first, and then calm down for the rest of the primary fermentation period. I've seen an airlock still bubble ever so slightly even after 2 weeks....
Cheers, I thought as much....just hope I have not made a load of vinegar as a result.
Thanks a million
The cider I am currently brewing was very very active the first three days, (bubbles from activity filled all of the head space in my carboy!) then calmed way down at about four days. My airlock went from 10-15 bubbles a min in the air lock to almost half that on day four, and has steadily decreased but is maintaining at about 2-5 a min. currently. I would check for leaks. If none are found, I wouldnt worry about it. At this point you have pitched your yeast, and at the point of no return, so sit back and see what happens 
After a month, I re-checked the gravity and it was at 990. I have bottled 2/3 of my hard cider as it was and will not touch it for another 5 months. I bottled the remaining 1/3 with honey, cloves, whole nutmeg and cinammon (will open this after 3 months - approx Christmas time). I tried the sample I used for reading the final gravity and it nocked my socks off. Very tart but still retaining an apple taste. My hard cider is still cloudy, but I think it will start to become clearer with time. I racked it twice prior to bottling.
I want a sweeter type of hard cider for my next batch, I guess this is achieved by the type of apples used or does it boil down to how much sugar you use?
Finding the waiting very hard, but for my first attempt I'm just glad I did not make several gallons of vinegar.
Regards,
Gavin
gpgafan wrote:
I want a sweeter type of hard cider for my next batch, I guess this is achieved by the type of apples used or does it boil down to how much sugar you use?
To achieve a sweeter cider I'd look into trying different kind of yeasts. I don't have a lot of experience with cider so I can't suggest a specific strain but it works just like brewing beer does. Different strains of yeast have different attenuations which can leave a cider sweeter or drier.
OK, Ta for that FirePitBrew. I used a cider yeast (Youngs), but perhaps next time I will try a yeast used for desert wines...I think the uncertainty adds to the fun, that's if you don't end up with a very horrible product in the end 
Regards
Gavin
Tried one of the ciders that I made three months ago. This one contained honey (for carbonation), cloves, whole cinammon and nutmeg. I lost about a quarter of the bottle when I opened it as it was fizzy as anything, but I can say that it tasted awesome. Can not wait to see how it tastes after 6 months.
Happy Christmas
Gavin
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