hard apple cider and more...

Woot! Woot! My first batch of hard apple cider is ready and oh boy does it have a kick... I generally jump into things with both feet without really taking a whole lot of time to check things out. I started my first batch without doing much more than read the instructions and some comments on a few websites... I didn't make one important connection from any of my sources... the amount of sugar determines the alcohol content - not the sweetness of the finished product... I wanted a very sweet hard cider and got one that could knock down a moose. Not a bad thing, just unexpected. It finished it's fermentation so the next step was to move it to another bucket to allow it to clarify. You have to try not disturb the sediment at the bottom so your supposed to siphon it off into the next barrel - sounds simple enough, until you consider that I have no luck with siphoning that is... I've had waterbeds for more than 20 years and draining them has always been a nightmare until I started renting a pump to do it with. I understand how to siphon and I get it started with no real problems but after a while it always stops and won't restart. That is exactly what happened in this case. Not even half the bucket had transfered when it quit. So I try and try to get it to go again. I ended up a little drunk and never got it going again. I opted to give up and just pour it very carefully into the second bucket... The second bucket has a spigot on it so I've been pouring some glasses to drink. I haven't yet bought bottles to actually bottle it in. I did get a one gallon growler, added some sugar water and filled it with cider. That will cause it to carbonate all on it's own in a few weeks. The rest, now that fermenation is done, I'm going to sweeten it a little bit and call it good. I don't think this first batch is going to make it to the bottling stage... I think instead it is going to stay right in the bucket and be dispensed a glass at a time.
Tomorrow I'm going to start my second batch and this time I'm going to add a little thing of cherry flavor to the cider and see how that goes... other than that I'm keeping it exactly the same as the first batch. Well and now I'll know better than to attempt the siphon again unless I'm actually looking for a buzz that is!