Bottle Conditioning

Great news for the Pennbrook Cider... after 3 weeks of fermentation, I took a gravity reading of 1.000 which indicates that it has completed fermenting.  Before starting the whole process I took an inital gravity test, which yields an ABV of around 5.2%.  The next step is to bottle condition the cider.  This process allows the cider to carbonate, but you can certainly drink the cider as is.

First and foremost I cleaned everything with Five Star PBW cleaner, this is a recommend cleaner for brewing equipment.  Personally, I don't really care for it, but since I bought it I am going to use it.  Next thing is to sanitize EVERYTHING!!! You don't want wild yeast to get into the cider and make any unnecessary changes to taste.

I measured out 15 grams of dextrose, I used a calculator that I will link... here!  Added in some boiling water just to dissolve the sugar.  I waited for the water to cool and then siphoned the cider into a bucket that contained the sugar.

 This might be an unnecessary step, as you can probably siphon into the bottles directly, but I wanted to make sure the sugar was properly incorporated into the cider.  Since I didn't buy or save and 12 oz bottles, nor did I purchase a bottler (yet), I decided to use two half gallon growlers, courtesy of Happy Puppy.

Finished product

The growlers will sit for two weeks as it carbonates and then I will finally have my first batch of cider.

A little before and after of the siphoning process.  You can see the dead yeast, or lees, in the bottom of the carboy.  There is a tad bit of cider left over, but I didn't want to chance that dead yeast getting into the growlers.

With that I sit and wait another two weeks!

Cheers,

Happy Penguin