Be kind of wary about those big plastic water type bottles.
They are oxygen permeable and will not really be a good choice for brewing. If you really want plastic, there are some bottles called “Better Bottles” (google it)that are about 25 bucks each.
Beware that hard cider my FRiend, it tastes soooooo good but packs a real wallop!.
Let me know how it all turns out.
Cheers,
knewshound
Getting ready! Cider is almost at room temp! Note funnel in iodine solution in the foreground.
Cider in the jug. I shoulda popped the yeast starter an hour ago... Wake up, little yeasties! Get yur butts outa bed! There's work to do!
Lazy bastids...
Yeast pack is swelling a bit more now, I'll give it another 15 minutes or so, dump it in, then seal the deal!
The whole operation is taking place in a tub in my spare bath. But it's located away from the central heat, so the ambient temp in the room runs 64-68 degrees. I will watch how things develop and if it looks like I might need to turn the heat up a bit, I will.
Cheers!
Update:
Day 5
Well I started Saturday. Transferred the sweet cider and yeast into the bottle.
I elected to just seal the top with aluminum foil, the theory being that the positive pressure from fementation would keep the nasties out.
There were bubbles in it on Sat, but they were from the pouring action, not the yeast. Eventually, it settled down to be pretty much flat.
On Sunday morning, some patches of foam were starting to appear. These became much more prominent by Sunday evening.
Monday morning, the whole surface was covered in foam. Some large bubbles, like an inch across were present. As time went on, these didn’t seem to be so prevalent, and went away.
By Tuesday, a quite thick layer of yeast (3/4 inch) was starting to be apparent. It was bubbling very nicely.
Yesterday it seemed as though the bubbling was slowing down, but not by much. I took the bottled and rocked it to get everything inside swirling around, then let it set. Caught the distinct odor of hard cider.
Today it is bubbling at a good pace, but has dropped a bit from yesterday. The color is a yellowish/brown.
My plan is to wait till Sunday or Monday, and siphon it into a second jar. This will be a “settling” jar of sorts. If it settles well, then within 24 hours or so, I will bottle it.
I am curious. Can I harvest the yeast or will it all be dead? Also, I asked the gal at the store about how much sugar to add to the bottles (for carbonation) and she said about a half teaspoon each. These are the 15.2 ounce Grolsch bottles, so does that sound right?
I plan on doing it about half and half, adding sugar to half of them, the rest just plain.
My primary goals at this point are drinkability and clarity. The cider I got when I was a kid on the farm had only a slight color to it, but was otherwise crystal clear.
Cheers!