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Low FG with ale yeast

I just bottled a cider that I had fermented using 5 gallons of fresh cider, brown sugar, and 2 packs of Coopers Ale Yeast. The OG was

1.066, and after 10 days in the primary, it tasted real good with a gravity of 1.011. I racked to the secondary, and let it ferment for 14 more days. The FG came out to 0.094. I had used ale yeast, instead of champagne yeast specifically so I didn't get such a low FG. I was hoping for a smoother and sweeter cider, as opposed to an alcoholic, dry cider. What went wrong? I didn't even think you could get that low of an FG with ale yeast. Did I use too much yeast? I bottled with priming sugar, and I'm hoping the carbonation plus sugar will help make it a little sweeter and less strong tasting. At this point, the alcohol just overwhelms the apple flavor :(. Was there something I could have done going from primary to secondary to prevent further fermentation, while still having enough live yeast for bottle conditioning? Thanks.

John

Reply to
John M
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You simply can't expect yeast to stop working just because ya want sweet cider ......

What you can do is this:

1) When fermentation is done, add sugar to taste, add a yeast inhibitor and force-carbonate. This is pretty effective

2) If you want to carbonate naturally, you cannot add preservatives, but you can sweeten with lactose, which will not ferment.

It is surprising that ale yeast fermented out so dry, I use champagne yeast for that, nonethe less, either of the above methods should help. If you simply add extra sugar at carbonation, you will just get over-carbonated cider which is likely to foam out of the bottle.

hth

steveb

Reply to
steveb

Whoa, typo in my original post. F.G. was 0.994, not 0.094. I making cider, not grain.. lol.

Steve, when you say "force-carbonate", I assume you mean a keg system with CO2?

John

Reply to
John M

Yes ....it would be a good solution. You can kill the fermentation dead, and sweeten to taste.

steveb

Reply to
steveb

That gives you about 9.3 ABV, not too high for an ale yeast. I agree with steveb on things you can do to solve the prob. I haven't tried to sweeten up any of the ciders that I have made yet, but as soon as I get a keg setup, I'm going to go with the "force carbonate" plan. Cheers,

Reply to
DragonTail281

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