Homebrewing - Beer, Mead, Wine, Cider

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A community dedicated to homebrewing beer, mead, wine, cider and everything in between. If it ferments, bring it over here.

Share recipes, ideas, ask for feedback or just advice.

Some starting points for beginners:

Introduction to Beer Brewing

A basic mead primer

Quick and diry guide to fermenting fruit - cider and wine

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First cider (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Hey guys, new to brewing and this site. I made a gallon of mead that was... okay, and figured I'd try my hand at something that wouldn't take quite so long

So basically I just threw a gallon of apple juice and some yeast into a carboy and let it sit for a few weeks. I'm going to transfer it to bottles and try it out this weekend

I'm thinking about adding some sugar to the next one to get a higher abv. Any clue around how much I can add without having to wait a stupid amount of time for fermentation to finish?

Also does anyone have other recommendation to make it taste a little more interesting next time?

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

I mean I’d imagine the more sugar the more time it will take.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

Apple juice makes little bit blunt tasting cider, I have access to press (Moštárna) - so I make it from my own apples.

Juice has about 13° Bx (13% of sugar) and all yeasts are able to ferment it dry! I don't care so my cider is always dry - I let it in carboy for about week to two weeks for primary, then I put it in bottles at about 1-1,5° Bx for secondary fermentation/ageing.

For sweeter cider you have to stabilise it. I never done it so can't help. Also you can add herbs, fruit to make it more interesting.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago

I think fermentation speed can depend on your yeast and conditions - yeast will work more slowly at lower temps (and then again at much higher temps).

Your approach (juice) is much like apple wine - you could google for some recipes pretty easily! I'm just about to bottle a batch of apple and fejoia wine which is tasting pretty good!