Batch #9: Bottled

I bottled batch #9 today. The cider had fermented completely dry. After racking off to a separate carboy, I added 30 oz of fresh apple juice. Bottling produced 58 12oz bottles and 6 22oz bottles.

I had a little left over and it tasted it. It tasted pretty good - a little raw, of course, but I'm hoping that it will age well. It also had a bit of a kick, so I guess the raisons that I added 1%+ ABV. I'm looking forward to having this ~3 cases on hand for a while.

Batch #9

For Christmas, I got a gift certificate for brewing supplies, so I bought a 6 gallon better bottle and a 6 gallon carboy. I decided to replicate batch #5 with a 6 gallon batch. I forget exactly when, but I started the 6 gallon batch in the better bottle right around mid-February. After a week or so, I racked the cider to the 6 gallon carboy and added 1/2 gallon of fresh apple juice. I also added ~1 1/2 cups of raisons.

As I write this, the secondary fermentation continues slowly. The plan is to let this ferment to dryness (another month, or so), at which point I will back sweeten with ~1 quart of juice.

Batch #8: Secondary and bottling

The cider fermented to rapidly for a few days at which point I added the raisons mentioned in the recipe. The cider continued to ferment for a few weeks to complete dryness. I racked the cider off to a secondary carboy and topped off with fresh Knudsen's apple juice. After adding the apple juice, the SG measured ~1.010. I let ferment for another week to let some of the sediment settle and some of the sugars ferment off. By the time I got back to the cider, it had fermented dry again. I racked off to another carboy, back sweetened with ~6oz Knudsen's apple juice and bottled (bottling date: 3/17).

Batch #8

Amy gave me some Lalvin yeast as stocking stuffers, so I started a 1 gallon batch using the Lalvin 71B-1122. Recipe #8:

1 gallon Murray's apple cider
1/3 5g Lalvin 71B-1122
1 oz of organic raisins

Batch #7: Bottled

Batch #7 was allowed to sit in secondary for a few more weeks to complete dryness, then back sweetened with a little apple juice for carbonation. We'll see how this differs for #6 in the final product.

Batch #6: Bottled; Batch #7: Still fermenting

The secondary fermentation for batches #6 and 7 has been really slow, taking ~1 month to reach between 1.005 and 1.010 SG (batch #7 is still not there yet). When bottling #6, I racked off the gallon into another gallon and bottled exactly 11 12oz bottles, so I didn't even get a taste to see what the starting point was. This will make it an even better exercise in patience.