Newbie Wine maker Just signed up here yesterday

[AndrewH]

Hello all
My name is Andrew and i found this forum by accident
I just signed up for the forum yesterday
and I am hoping to get a few questions answered here
as long as I can find the time to post them my days seem to run out
before I have finished my daily errands & chores.

 

[Julie]

Hi Andrew,

Welcome to winemakingtalk

 

[pjd]

Hello all
My name is Andrew and i found this forum by accident
I just signed up for the forum yesterday
and I am hoping to get a few questions answered here
as long as I can find the time to post them my days seem to run out
before I have finished my daily errands & chores.

Welcome Andrew, glad you found us. This is the most helpful forum on wine making out there. it is also the friendliest! Ask your questions, you are bound to get them answered.

 

[AndrewH]

Julie
I just looked at your list and you have been a busy bee...

I am lucky if I get to make one bottle of wine or hard cider.

I just made a quick bottle of wine made last week using
bottled Welch's concord Grape juice. It did not turn out too bad
and should get better the longer it sets.

Have to start my day before I loose it...

 

[AndrewH]

Welcome Andrew, glad you found us. This is the most helpful forum on wine making out there. it is also the friendliest! Ask your questions, you are bound to get them answered.

Thanks Phil...
I was on another forum and it took forever for somebody to answer simple questions and when I got an answer it was like the person who answered was talking down to me for not knowing what i was doing.

have to get my day started thanks again... Bye

 

[jamesngalveston]

welcom, ask anything but , never ask Julie how old she is.

 

[Skycrestfarm]

Welcome!!! I think you will like this forum. I second Pjd's comment. This by far the most friendly of the winemaking forums. I belong to another forum where the comments can be quite sharp and are not nurturing in the slightest. Enjoy!

Cheers!
Stephen
Skycrestfarm

 

[alissa]

Welcome! I just joined myself! I started my first wine this weekend and people on this forum have been super helpful. Good luck

 

[Runningwolf]

Hello all
My name is Andrew and i found this forum by accident
I just signed up for the forum yesterday
and I am hoping to get a few questions answered here
as long as I can find the time to post them my days seem to run out
before I have finished my daily errands & chores.

Welcome! I just joined myself! I started my first wine this weekend and people on this forum have been super helpful. Good luck

To both of you welcome to Winemakingtalk! Please ask all the questions you want regardless of how silly they may seem. There are plenty of other folks looking on wondering the same thing you're asking. We love to help new folks, educate each other and pick on one another all in fun! You have just begun the best hobby!

 

[sour_grapes]

Welcome! Look forward to your questions....

 

[LoneStarLori]

Welcome Andrew and Alissa!
I'm a newbie too and have to say I was not able to understand the process till I found these great people. I searched books, videos and the great WWW for weeks and learned 5x as much here in the first 3 days.

 

[vacuumpumpman]

Welcome !!
please just ask away any questions you may have and I am sure you will find the answer you are looking for

 

[dangerdave]

Glad to have you, Andrew! Ask away!

 

[AndrewH]

I just started a gallon of hard cider last Saturday, this is not the first one that I have made but I think that I am still doing something wrong. Right now I am getting ready to go into work so my questions will have to wait until I get home tonight or tomorrow morning. ...

 

[Hokapsig]

Welcome!!!

My initial advice will be to read up on some threads that interest you and, by no means, feel that you are asking a dumb question. You can learn a BUNCH from a lot of very talented winemakers on this site.

 

[AndrewH]

So here is my newest hard cider trial, I choose this juice because it had small bits of pulp in it. My recipe for hard cider was motts apple juice three cups of sugar two table spoons of raisin puree to feed the yeast.( I started using bread yeast because it was always available (the nearest Brew/Wine supply store is about 17 miles from me and not near any other stores I usually frequent so I do not go in that direction often. )

You can see from the date on the jug when I started and the other two pics show the hydrometer reading before and after I added the sugar to the juice
So here are my question

What kind of time line should I have from after the day the fermentation stops to racking the cider the first time then to bottling and maybe adding finishing tablets to make a sparkling cider





Juice before added sugar


Juice after added sugar

 

[Hokapsig]

so you are starting at 1.070 and if you ferment dry to 0.992, that should be right around 10% alcohol (ABV). I would put some pectic enzyme in to aid in clearing and back sweeten with a container of frozen apple juice.

 

[Tess]

Hi Andrew, Welcome. that us a good name. My son's name

 

[GaDawg]

Welcome Andrew

 

[BernardSmith]

Hi Andrew, And welcome.
I would take the airlock off and agitate the cider a couple of times a day to mix the liquid and (yes!) introduce some air into the cider. When the specific gravity reads close to 1.010 or 1.005 I would replace the airlock. And that may be today or by the end of the weekend. (I just fermented a gallon of apple cider - no added sugar - at a starting gravity of 1.045 (I think it was ) and it took only two days to drop to 1.000. The ambient temperature was about 70 F). I am not looking to make a wine from this but a hard cider at about 6% alcohol by volume or ABV)


It looks like you have significantly less than a gallon so my suggestion would be to either add more apple juice and sugar (at a gravity of 1.070) or else look for smaller containers that you can allow the cider to age without exposure to air. The larger the headroom in your carboy (the space between the surface of the liquid and the bung ) the more air you are exposing the cider to. During the first few days or weeks while there is active fermentation the yeast need air but when the fermentation slows or stops that air now binds with the wine and oxidizes it (a bit like rust). My $0.02