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