Hey /ck/, im about a week in to my hard cider, what do you think?

>>8707346
rancid

That's a good batch of jenkem you got there. I'm a brown dragon junkie myself, can't wait to huff some shit.

>>8707346
Btw forgot to say but in this i used beer yeast

What kind of percentage are you going for? Did you add anything other than apples? Been wanting to try ginger in cider.

>>8707373
This being my first cider, i have no real accurate way of testing the alcohol%, but i would like it to be double digits. Only used apple juice

>>8707346
>cider volcano

your shit is contaminated. enjoy your blindness

>>8707397
How would it be contaminated

>>8707346
use pectin clarifier next time jackass

>>8707467
What is that

>>8707346
dont listen to the haters. your cider looks fine. Did you get it raw, unpasterized? if so great. if not no biggie. you need a total of a pound of sugar per gallon of cider to reach ~double digit alcohol. You are correct to add it in steps so as not to overwhelm the yeast. if you can, wait a month or 2 after it drops clear to indulge and you will be rewarded with apfelwein that you wont soon forget. In the future buy raw local unpasterized cider and no not innoculate, just let it ferment on its own. you can thank me later ;^)

>>8707494
How long do you think until it clears up, another week?

>>8707397
this guy talks out his ass. blindness is caused by methanol. this is produced in minute quantities in any fermentation. it is dangerous when distilled out in the beginning of a run of booze and drank as is. [its the first stuff to leave the condenser, and if you collect it and drink it straight, instead of throwing it out, like you should, its highly toxic]

>>8707503
thats a mystery... this is a living thing. be patient.. it could take a month, it could happen in a few days. you can cool it down to help it clear but BE SURE it has fermented all the way before you do or the yeast will fall out and not finish, leaving a degree of sweetness in the cider. how sweet would depend on how close they were to finishing the job before you shocked them out. this can be done strategically, but its better to let it ferment ALL THE WAY and then, if you simply must have a sweeter cider, stabelize with campden [potassium metabisulfite] and add more fresh cider to taste. i myself, am abhorred by the popularity of sweet cider. dry is the way

>>8707489
>>8707503
please just stop making alcohol, you can't afford any more brain damage

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>>8707397
>blindness

>>8707494
>>8707346
Adding suggar only increases the alcohol level without adding anything to the body of your creation. I see no reason to add additional suggar to the mix besides being an al/ck/.

>>8707552
This guy gets it unless your adding lactose sugar it just adds alcohol

>>8707552
precicely..
not to mention it doesnt take anything away either, and if he is following my advice it will end very dry [with little "body"] anyway :^)
the essence of apple, the tannins, and the flavochemical byproducts from fermentation are enough... as long as its not bastardized by a fuckton of residual sugar...

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Just racked my maple beer

>>8707561
...or worthless unfermentable carbohydrates imparted by a lactose addition

>>8707355
You need wine or champagne yeast. Something like EC-1118 will do a much better job of nomming the sugar in Apple jews.

I brew mine directly in the 2L Apple juice bottles, and add dextrose to get it up to around 9% abv.

>>8707570
But... But my milk stout meme

>>8707575
They make cider yeast too

>>8707575
some of the best ciders i had [apart from those fermented naturally] have been fermented by beer yeasts. champagne yeast is transparent and bland, leaves little character. dry [not powder, but dry as in eats ALL THE SUGAR] english ale yeast is a real star in cider

>>8707575
You're right. There are cider and wine yeasts which perform better in the high alc % regime. I don't have much expierence in that field but it is worth a thougth

>>8707581
you need an addition of cocoa nibs to be truly meme worthy

>>8707581
>>8707601
Disregarding the bullshit, there is use to adding lactose to your brew. It is a natural sweeterner that those damn gooks can't process resulting in a sweeter brew atracting some fine al/ck/ waifus

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>>8707601
Oatmeal work instead?

>>8707612
true, but it really doesnt taste "sweet" the molecules are too big for even that. just adds a more massive "mouthfeel", which will attract al/ck/ie femmes, weather that makes them waifu materail tho...

after stabilization, add fruit [preferrably one phalic in shape] and "pick your simple sugar" for the ultimate panty dropper

>>8707618
No. Doesn't.

>>8707618
kek.. beautifully i actually do enjoy that particulare meme-tier bier

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hey guys, cider thread? cool

>>8707637
But that's an Altenmünster Biersiphon. Not an APPLE/CIDER Siphon you distasteful human being. On another note adding apple juice to your beer yeast results in perfectly viable cider.

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I think I fucked my ciders up, they don't look right

>>8707637
i am quite jealous of that flat bottom boiling flask

>>8707650
god damnit. who invited /b/

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>a-anon, why are you h-heating your hard cider?

>>8707654
thanks, thinking of investing in a 4L with two necks

>>8707661
hnnnnnnnngggggg

>>8707661
when i worked i started my colonies in a 6l erlenmeyer. i stepped them up in 3 stages to 12 gallons, of course, before pitching into 7bbs.. i would have snapped up one of those in a second had i come across one cheap

>>8707661
What is your reason for a see-through balloon? Aromas are beeing reduced you know.

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>>8707682
ask and ye shall receive

>>8707710
okay, now im more jealous of the flat bottom boiling flask...

>>8707710
is that a simple pot still or is there surface area under that foil for reflux in the column?

>>8707710
Nigger are you making meth or cider

>>8707741
hes making a small amount of meta[anol] and a larger amount of enthanol, and some higher esters like butanol and propanol

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>>8707353
>it will never be 2006 again

>>8707728
it's a fractional column with a bunch of glass pointy surfaces

I put foil over it to make the process faster, but include the column so a single batch run tastes great without needing a second run (if I'm not too drunk to separate from the tails in time)

>>8707787
sweet. yeah gotta cut her off before you get the fusels. how much booze you get off of one run in that flask? 6 -12 oz? plenty to catch a buzz obviously. specially if you are sipping heads off the condenser

>>8707799
depends on batch size and my starting wine ABV but usually around 300ml of 50% ABV brandy... I want to upgrade to a bigger flask

>>8707827
boiling flasks arent cheap

>>8707850
captcha "tap"

>>8707710
How do you know how much to throw out so you get all the methonal out

>>8708077
depends. if you are starting with a small wash, like a couple gallons, trow away the forst 50 ml or so. if you have a 20 gallon wash discard the first 200-300ml to be safe. theres really no practical way that i know of to know exactly when the methanol has distilled out. its part of the angles share, just sacrifice it and say a prayer before you start nipping of the faucet ;^)

>>8707346
impressive cum jar

>>8707346
Looking good anon, I've been making hard cider, cyser, and mead for a couple months now. Ideally you'd have had a hydrometer to take a gravity reading in the beginning so you could get an abv estimate but in my experience adding 2.5 cups of sugar to a gallon of cider is enough to slam it up past the 17% alcohol hard limit if your yeast can handle it. Since you're using beer yeast it probably won't get that high depending on the exact strain you're using. About how many airlock bubbles per minute are you getting? If it's little to none your yeast may have stalled or be on the downslope, it should still be fairly active after only a week.

>>8708299
ill bet it will be good. even if it peters at 16%, it will be nicely balanced. a healthy ale yeast should take it all the way. hes using just over a pound of sugar at 1.046 or so ppg

>>8708077
taste, thermometer readings,and luck

the temperature of the vapor mix will start small because volatile impurities with lower boiling points will boil first and drag the overall temperature down. so yeah, discard the first small amount before you see the temperature rise closer to that of ethanol's BP. then you let the middle section go for a while and separate into jars once in a while and use a spoon to smell and taste a drop at a time to detect any changes. then once you've almost depleted the ethanol in your boiling vessel the solution will get hotter on your heat source and the compound with higher BPs than ethanol will start boiling out and hopefully you will notice via boiling temperature or taste to cut it off from the rest of the middle section.

OP here, how do i tell if its done, i dont have a hydrometer

>>8710869
>don't have a hydrometer

Yeah, that's a complex, expensive piece of equipment. A whopping $5.00. I sure wouldn't invest in one if I were you.