I currently have a 3gal. cider that I recently stabilized. Since most of what I make I bottle dry, I decided to back sweeten to change it up. I tried searching the forum, but couldn't really find an answer to the specific question I have. When I went to back sweeten, the SG of my cider was .98. I dissolved .75lb of mesquite honey in warm/hot water and added it to the carboy (this addition brought the cider to about one inch below the stopper; I like to fill carboys as high as I can because I do not blanket with C02.). After letting it sit for a day, I noticed that the SG only rose to .99. By my calculations (if I did them right) it should have risen higher than that - to about 1.005-1.007. After trial and error using samples, I determined that .75lbs of honey would be best based on the scaled down tests I ran; however, the taste of the test does not match the taste of the whole.
Is it possible that all of the honey is sitting on the bottom and did not mix in with the cider after a day? I gave the carboy a few swirls as I periodically walked by, but don't know if that helped any. I am anxious to finally just let this batch age, as it has been my most cranky to date (my last thread about sulfur was for the same batch; though it finally cleared and has quite a nice nose now
). Below is my recipe (though it may not be necessary for this question).
25lbs various tart abbles juiced to make ~ 1.5 gallons.
7.5lbs brown sugar
tea made of 4 cloves and 2 sticks of crushed cinnamon
water to 4 gallons (now 3 gallons and a couple of bottles after racking)
SG: 1.086
let must sit on 4 cambden tablets and pectic enzyme per package instructions over night.
Pitched 5g Cotes Des Blanc rehydrated in 6g GoFerm
19g Fermaid-K and 12g DAP (SNA until 1/3 break)
Also treated this batch with 3g OptiRED and copper to get rid of the sulfur produced by the CdB.
Is it possible that all of the honey is sitting on the bottom and did not mix in with the cider after a day? I gave the carboy a few swirls as I periodically walked by, but don't know if that helped any. I am anxious to finally just let this batch age, as it has been my most cranky to date (my last thread about sulfur was for the same batch; though it finally cleared and has quite a nice nose now
). Below is my recipe (though it may not be necessary for this question).25lbs various tart abbles juiced to make ~ 1.5 gallons.
7.5lbs brown sugar
tea made of 4 cloves and 2 sticks of crushed cinnamon
water to 4 gallons (now 3 gallons and a couple of bottles after racking)
SG: 1.086
let must sit on 4 cambden tablets and pectic enzyme per package instructions over night.
Pitched 5g Cotes Des Blanc rehydrated in 6g GoFerm
19g Fermaid-K and 12g DAP (SNA until 1/3 break)
Also treated this batch with 3g OptiRED and copper to get rid of the sulfur produced by the CdB.
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