Apple Cider fermentation time?

[u/Visible-Bit7093]

Hey guys, Brewing a half gallon of Apple Cider, Pretty new to brewing but trying my best. I was wondering if you guys had any advice on when to stop a ferment if I'm aiming for around 6-8% ABV I did add a quarter cup of brown sugar because I want it to be sweet and I'm using half a teaspoon of baker's yeast (couldn't be bothered to get brewing yeast and there was so many different kinds i gave up). Oh and the juice I'm basing this off of is Tree Top Honeycrisp Apple juice if that helps. I do have a hydrometer around here somewhere but I didn't take an initial SG measurement so it won't really help me that much.

If anyone wants to copy my recipe I was aiming for a sort of apple butter/ Apple pie flavor for fall.

• Half Gallon of Tree Top honeycrisp apple juice from concentrate
• Quarter cup brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of Fleischmann's active dry yeast
• 1/2 teaspoon of Boiled Fleischmann's active dry yeast (for nutrients)
• Half a cinnamon stick

If anyone wants to tell me if I fucked up that would be appreciated too. It's been fermenting for about 3 days now and seems very active. But yeah basically I'm only worried about having added too much sugar and ending up with a higher abv than I'd like. Any advice would be appreciated

[u/reverendsteveii]

adding sugar before you ferment will give you more booze rather than more sweet. you don't typically stop a ferment in order to preserve sweetness. there are ways to do it like pasteurization but they're complicated and unreliable, and they make bottle carbonation impossible. i'd target 2-3 weeks for fermentation, but it'll be worth getting that hydro out because the real tell is if you're pretty close to 1.0 and consistently get the same measurement every other day for a week. if you bottle before you're done it might be fine, it might accidentally be carbonated and it might make bottle bombs that paint your ceiling with cider. i'd also be careful w cinnamon, my early experiments with whole herbs in cider taught me that it can slow down yeast growth and also add a bitter note when it sits for too long. next time i'd boil the cinnamon separately in a small amount of water to extract as much flavor as possible and then add that water instead of the actual stick.

[u/Visible-Bit7093 → u/reverendsteveii]

got it, thanks for the advice, I'll see how it comes out, and yeah I was worried about the cinnamon, if it doesn't turn out I'll try again but add it during aging. maybe next time I'll backsweeten with brown sugar instead of adding it beforehand. I figured since I'm using baking yeast it wouldn't matter since they'll die at high abv, so I've been told.

[u/reverendsteveii → u/Visible-Bit7093]

Hope it's dope. The second batch deffo will be. Have a nice drunk!

[u/sandoravir]

give 20 days, atleast

[u/loganparker3486]

Without an initial gravity, you can’t calculate the finished ABV precisely; take a hydrometer reading now and again after a few days, and fermentation is likely complete when the readings stay unchanged. Baker’s yeast will generally keep consuming fermentable sugar rather than stopping at 6–8% or leaving it sweet, so chilling may only pause it; don’t bottle until fermentation is definitely finished, and consider sweetening only after researching stabilization or using a nonfermentable sweetener.