Hey Guys, Sorry in advance for the long post
I'm attempting to make a hybrid of this recipe and and another great cider recipe from the site found
here, with the intent of trying to make what I'd like to call an 'apple champagne' if it turns out how I'm imagining.
The other recipe is just as simple as Pappys only instead of adding 10lbs of sugar and fermenting it straight through, it calls for fermenting 4gals of apple juice and then adding the 5th gal when bottling to backsweeten it as well as let it carb up.
What I've done here is added 6.5lbs of sugar to 4gals of apple juice hitting an OG of 1.12. I pitched the the EC-1118 with a packet of wine yeast nutrient and have been stirring it daily to ensure the yeast is getting the oxygen it needs to keep it chugging along and I've been very good at maintaining the temperature between 19-21C.
It's now been a week and the gravity is reading 1.020(13%ABV). I've tasted a sample and you guys aren't wrong when you use the words 'rocket fuel' to describe this baby! There's still plenty of sugar in there as I get a nice sweet (almost
too sweet?) apple flavor on the nose but you don't need a refined palate to discern the alcohol hitting your throat on the finish.
My initial plan is to let it dry out all the way to 1.000 (which should leave me with 4 gals of 15-16%ABV) and then let it rest a week or 2 to let some of the 'hot alcohol' flavors mellow out before backsweetening it, resulting in a nice bubbly cider of roughly 12-13%ABV ("apple champagne!") However after tasting it just now I'm beginning to question if I overshot my OG as its still
really sweet and I'm beginning to wonder if this thing is going to dry out below 1.000, potentially exhausting my yeast while waiting for the 'hot alcohol' flavors to mellow? My fear is that I can still add my 5th gallon at bottling but all I'll get is the sweetening but none of the bubbly(edit: NOT "apple champagne")
I'm now wondering if I should just go ahead and backsweeten and bottle the moment the gravity reaches 1.000 to ensure I get my bubbles. Does anyone think that the sweetness of the 5th gallon will help offset/mask the 'hot alcohol' flavors already present in the cider if I bottle early or should I keep the faith and wait 2 more weeks to bottle, hoping I'll still get my desired bubbly?