First time brewing

[evreikipresvia]

Hi everyone.

This is my first attempt at any sort of home brewing. I started with a mix of 8kg granny smith, 6kg red delicious, 2 kg pink lady and 2kg pears (not sure what kind). Juiced using a fruit juicer since I don't have access to a press. Total volume was just under 4 gallons and added 2 cups refined sugars. I brought this to a simmer for about 20min with 2 sticks of cinnamon. Pitched into a plastic paint bucket fermenter with a 2 yeast packets (one red star premier cuvee and one red star cote des blancs). Its been a good 36 hours and fermentation seems to be going fine, though I'm not sure i would know otherwise.

I am thinking that after about 2 weeks to transfer into a secondary fermenter for another 2 weeks before racking, but I really have no idea.

As I understand it, this should produce a sweet, dry and high abv cider after about 3 or 4 months.

Any thoughts or suggestions?

Also (and sorry if this is on the boards), but how do you determine the OG of home pressed juice?

Thanks

[spiderwrangler]

Many transfers likely aren't needed.

As I understand it, this should produce a sweet, dry and high abv cider after about 3 or 4 months.

Sweet and dry are typically considered to be on opposite ends of the spectrum. Ciders typically will be dry, unless there is too much sugar for the yeast to handle before they produce more alcohol than is healthy for them. To determine the OG, you'd take a hydrometer reading, but depending on the amount of pulp you have, that may have varying accuracy. Also, the boiling will have set your pectins (fruit sugar complexes) giving you a haze in the finished product (mostly appearance though). In the future, use pectic enzyme to avoid this. How did the juice taste?

[evreikipresvia]

The juice was very sweet and it was quite a bit pulpy. I thought about straining it through a cheese cloth to remove some of the pulp.

The juice never fully boiled, but the temp got up towards 100C. I understand that this is needed to kill off any wild yeast.

Would it be a bad idea to sterilize my siphon and test the OG now? Or should I give it a week or so?

[BDawg]

Welcome-

An alternate to pectic enzyme is to raise the temperature of the must up to ~150F for 20 mins (keep it at that temp without boiling it). The lower temperature will not cause the pectin to set and thereby it avoids the haze, while still providing enough heat to pasteurize the must.

[BDawg]

No, don't bother. It's already begun producing alcohol so you'll not get an accurate reading. It is better to simply wait until it ferments out rather than risk contamination at this point.

[spiderwrangler]

I agree on the not bothering on OG at this point... I have had pectin haze even with no-boil, but lower heat for longer is a good way to pasteurize w/o treating the juice as hard. Sulfites would be another option. Depending on how it finishes, you may want to use an acid addition to brighten it up and increase the tartness.

[evreikipresvia]

Thanks for all the suggestions!