Hail, friends. Welcome back to the Bag End
brewer. I'm Michael and today I'm going
to rack this cider.
It's been 21 days since I put together
this cider and the other day - six days
ago - I took the first gravity reading.
Let's take a look at that. It's been 16
days since I brewed up this hard apple
cider. I don't know if you can see that
on camera. It's pretty far away, but a lot
of sediment has gone down to the bottom
and it is looking really clear right now.
But I need to get a gravity reading on
here, so we're going to go ahead and
siphon some out into my graduated
cylinder and check the reading. Let's go
ahead and cut this bung off of here I
had to tie down as you saw in the last
video. Try not to disturb it any more
than I have to. Of course I've sterilized
all the equipment that I'm going to use
today.
Oh, that's stuck in there. That's stuck in
there real good. That smells like alcohol.
Let me smell that again. That really
smells good. Give this a couple of pumps.
Hydrometer.
One point zero one zero (1.010) today, after 16
days. So if we started at one point zero
five zero (1.050) as I calculated - or estimated,
really - and we end at one point zero one
zero... subtract that and then divide it by
zero point seven seven six, I should be
looking at five point two percent
alcohol. That's what I was shooting for.
Six days ago I had a reading of one
point zero one zero which, according to
my calculations, would have been a five
point two ABV. I'm pretty sure I already
said that last week
but I forgot. And then I let it sit for
the six days and checked it again. I
thought it was going to be done at that:
five point two ABV; and I was happy with
it. I was happy with the way that that
tasted. But after letting it sit for
another six days I tested the gravity
just now and it came out to one point
zero zero four. Well, the best that I can
read on that hydrometer. I'm pretty sure
it's right there which puts it at five
point nine ABV, approximately, right? And
so I have to decide what I'm gonna do
with this cider, because I'm not quite
sure. It's almost dry and I did test it
and it is, but I like it. It actually
tastes a little bit like champagne. But
am I going to back sweeten it and and
carbonate it? Bottle carb, right? Bottle
conditioned it? I think that's what I'm
going to do but I need to do some more
study on that. So in the interim today
I'm going to rack it off into a
secondary carboy and that will clear
this one up for my next brew: a mead. So
let's go ahead and get started. Now, of
course I've already sanitized my carboy.
I've sanitized everything I'm going to
use today as a matter of fact. That is
clear; that's crystal clear.
Like I said, if this was carbonated I'd
be all over this!
First things first, my auto siphon. And I
got to tell you I'm having a hard time
with this auto siphon. I obviously do not
know how to work it. I'm gonna take this
clip off of here so that I can make sure
to get it down to the bottom. A couple of
pumps setting this up higher in order to
get the gravity to work I don't know if
that's up high enough and maybe it could
go faster than that. I don't know. We'll
speed this up. The auto siphons are
designed so that you can actually set it
down to the bottom and not suck up the
Lees. I'm afraid to try that. Nice and
easy. We're gonna try it.
My very first brew. If this goes off
without a hitch and this comes out good
I'm gonna be surprised, myself. In fact
what I'm gonna do is these first few
brews: cider, then Mead, and then, I think,
either a Ciser or a ginger beer - probably
a Ciser - I'm going to keep them very
simple as far as the recipe goes, and
then after that I'll branch out and try
and get a little bit trickier. Let's keep
an eye on this. Now will I be able to
tilt this in order to get as much cider
as possible?
Man, it is beautiful! I'm tempted to eat
one of those raisins. Have you ever done
that? Another thing, I was tempted to
throw in a cinnamon stick in this but I
can't really get a straight answer. If I
were to put a cinnamon stick in here -
which I'm not going to - but if I were on
a future brew would I need to sanitize
it sterilize it? What what do you do with
your cinnamon sticks?
All right. I'm not gonna pump I'm just
gonna leave it like that. Now here's the
tricky part. How do I do this?
I guess just like that. This I'm gonna
take to the sink. It is beautiful! and I
just did something that most people say
is an absolute no-no, but some people say
that you can do. I'm not going to tell
you what that was. You can guess. Go ahead
and put our stopper in there. Hopefully
I'll have this dry enough where it will
stick in. Please stick in.
That's pretty good. And voila! My first
time racking. So I'll let it sit in here
until I decide on what I'm going to do
with it. Again, to recap on that, what I'm...
what I would prefer is a... well I
definitely want to bottle condition, and
I did get some swing top bottles for a
really good deal on Amazon, and I'm
thinking of back sweetening it. Which I
want to show you something real quick.
Okay, many people talk about back
sweetening with Splenda. I don't know if
I want to use that or not. I'd rather use
a natural means to do that.
Remember, this is Bag End Brewer, and I
want to do things as close as I can to
how they would brew a cider, or a mead, or
a ciser, or beer, in the Shire, Beowulf, at
King Hrothgar's. I've already talked
about all of this stuff. What they would
drink at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft
and Wizardry. But regardless, this is
Splenda sugar blend. So it says that
however much sugar you would use cut it
in half. So here's my question:
If anybody has used a sugar blend or a
Splenda sugar blend - if I were to use
this in order to back sweeten and bottle
condition at the same time, have you
ever done that?
Did it work, and what measurements did
you use? I've gone online and seen
carbonation calculators - "well how much
fizz do you want and what's your volume"
and put in... you know, what are you gonna
use? Put in this amount.
I haven't found anybody talking about
doing a sugar blend with Splenda. So let
me know if you have any experience with
that. And so in the meantime we're gonna
let this sit and hopefully this weekend
I will get started on my very first mead,
and I'll show you every step along the
way on that one.
So thank you for joining me here on The
Bag End Brewer.
Again, I'm Michael. If you like what you
see please subscribe to the channel and
click the bell icon down there at the
bottom and you'll be notified every time
I post a new video. I also want to do
some food. We're thinking about different
dishes that we can do here in order to
complement my fine apple wine, I guess.
It's not; it's a cider, right? apple wine
needs to be a higher ABV whatever we'll
talk to you next time on the Bag End Brewer.
And I realized that my dog has been
barking the entire time as I've been
doing this episode that's wonderful I
want to eat one of these raisins uh ha
ha ha I actually like that smell
