I've made my cider juice, now what do I do when I get home?
Place your containers in a cool place when you get home, a garage or garden shed is ideal. You need to make a hole in the lid/cap and fit an airlock, and then wait…..! After a couple of days you will probably start to hear some bubbling as the yeasts present in the fruit convert the sugars to alcohol. If you don`t see or hear the bubbling don`t worry as you probably have a slower fermentation and the slower the fermentation, I reckon, the better the flavour.
The fermention will be complete within 8-12 weeks depending on the temperature. So typically around December - January you would expect the fermentation, and therefore bubbling, to have pretty much ceased. It is this time we advise you to syphon or "rack off" the cider into a clean sterilised container.
This second container needs to be non-gas permeable so either return it to the first fermentation vessel (cleaned and sterilised) or into a glass demi john with bung and airlock. PET bottles are not advisable as they allow oxygen to permeate through the walls.
Racking off
You will need a length of plastic tubing - you can get this from a home brew shop. You will also need to sterilise the container and tube with Sodium Metabisulphite (again from home-brew shops) and rinse them well.
To rack-off you need to carefully raise the cider onto a bench so that the bottom of the container is higher than the top of the second container into which you are transferring it. A "mat" of yeast sometimes forms on the top of the juice. You can either carefully remove this first, or place your syphon tube below the mat to ensure it doesn't get stuck in the tube. Try not to disturb the bottom sediment. Insert the tube 3/4 of the way into the container. Suck on the other end and when the juice flows put this end into the second container/ demi-john. The aim is to syphon the liquid leaving the settled sediment at the bottom of the first container.
It is important that you minimise the contact with oxygen, so make sure your containers are full - you can top them up with apple juice or water.
As the spring temperatures rise, so a secondary fermentation will take place - the malo-lactic fermentation - whereby the acidity of the cider is halved and further carbon dioxide is released. The carbon dioxide from this secondary fermentation gives a slight sparking effect when you drink it. This is a far slower fermentation process than the initial fermentation so don`t be surprised if nothing seems to be happening and you don`t get any bubbling through the air-lock.
This fermentation will slow around April/May time when you can further syphon the cider off the yeast sediment into clean demi-johns or bottles and start drinking.
Note you may still have some activity left so you need to keep an eye out for bungs blown from the demi-john. Don't store underneath a glass ceiling!
If you have any questions just get in touch by phone or email . |
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