# Apple Cider Recipe *carbonated*



## LoveTheWine (Dec 29, 2012)

This is a simple Cider I made this year. It will be carbonated in the bottle, taste slightly off dry and will make 22L of finished product.

Here is the recipe I used:

Ingredients
-24L fresh apple juice without additives (preferably fresh pressed) 
-1/2 tsp grape tannin (If using high tannin apples omit this)
-pectic enzyme (follow directions on package)
-Kmeta
-Lalvin 1118 yeast
-Sweetner (splenda or other non-fermentable sweetner)
-SuperKleer
-3/4c of white sugar

How I made it:

Day 1-Crush and press 100lb apples or use 24L juice. Add tannin, enzymes and 50ppm Kmeta. 
Adjust PH to 3.5 using acid blend or watering down.
Add white sugar to get juice up to sg 1.050
If it is a little higher that is ok.
Fill two 23L carboys 1/2 full plugging top with cotton. (open fermenter would work too)

Day 2- Reconstitute yeast and add to both carboys without stirring.
Let ferment for 4 days or more until sg 1.00, then rack both carboys into a single 23L, topping up. Affix airlock.

1 month later- Rack again and keep topped up.

3-4 months from start- Cider will be fairly clear now. Rack again and add 1/4-1/2 tsp Kmeta. Sweeten to taste using *Splenda or another non-**fermentable sugar* *or substitute* (I made a syrup using 3/4 cup splenda and 1/2 cup water on the stove the night before).
(If you used white or corn sugar the Cider will start to ferment again!
If you add sorbate you won't be able to carbonate naturally later on.)
Add SuperKleer and top up. Put in a cool place.

1-2 weeks later- Cider will be brilliantly clear now. Make a sugar syrup: 3/4 cup white sugar and 1/2 cup of water on the stove. 
The next day rack cider carefully into another carboy and mix in syrup.
Bottle using cleaned and sulfited beer bottles and cap.

1 month later- Chill and enjoy!


*The best ciders are the ones made from a variety of apples inc. a small amount of crab apples. Crab apples will add all the tannin you need and acid so you could omit the tannin powder addition.


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## soccer0ww (Dec 29, 2012)

sounds tasty! Nice simple recipe.


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## LoveTheWine (Jan 13, 2013)

This makes a simple cider

A few things I am doing differently in my latest batch to add a bit more flavour:
-Substitute brown sugar when bringing up SG to desired level at the start
-Forgo the SuperKleer. It may be a bit cloudier but hopefully have more flavor.
-When priming at the end to get carbonation use 1-3/4 cups of (not from concentrate) pure apple juice with no preservatives, add brown sugar to this until SG reads 1.1 (as opposed to using priming sugar). Then bottle immediately
afterwards.


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## ckassotis (Jan 14, 2013)

If you drink this relatively quickly I suspect you would be fine. I would however like to point out that Splenda is NOT a non-fermentable sugar. It may start out that way, but over time it will break down into fermentable forms. 

Here's a response with more detail:

There is nothing wrong with using Splenda to sweeten your wine, if the flavor is acceptable to you, however there are some things
you should know.

Splenda is made by taking sugar and altering its molecular structure so that it can not be metabolized by us humans. That is what makes it effective as a diet substitute for someone whose either a diabetic or someone whose just trying to watch their figure. It simply goes right through the body.

The same holds true for yeast. Yeast are unable to metabolize Splenda and ferment it into alcohol, at least while it is in its current altered state, but given enough time the enzymes that the yeast produce are able to break some of the Splenda back down into a fermentable sugar. It is usually a matter of weeks not days.

Caution needs to be taken when bottling Splenda treated wine. Potassium sorbate needs to be 
added to the wine to make sure that the yeast cannot become active again and ferment the broken-down Splenda, just as if you 
were adding regular sugar to it.


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## LoveTheWine (Jan 14, 2013)

ckassotis said:


> If you drink this relatively quickly I suspect you would be fine. I would however like to point out that Splenda is NOT a non-fermentable sugar. It may start out that way, but over time it will break down into fermentable forms.
> 
> Here's a response with more detail:
> 
> ...



What is the source of this info?
Probably in the bottle 2 months tops before being all bottles consumed.
Other people have recommended Splenda and apparently have had no further re fermentations. 
I don't have much experience with it though... yet!
Is there any other way of achieving a sweet and carbonated cider (or wine) without kegging?


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## ckassotis (Jan 15, 2013)

This forum really frustrates me sometimes. It seems to be kicking me off regularly now and *not* saving the entire post that I tried to submit, even though it claims that it is. Ugh. 

So here we go again. The source is the manufacturer of Splenda actually. You can contact them directly to verify. 

As for creating a sweet and carbonated wine, you could do a few things. First, use a truly nonfermentable sugar. The problem with Splenda and Sucralose, etc. is that they are all just modified sugar. They take sugar and chemically modify it so that in the time it takes to pass through the body it will not be broken back down into sugar again. However, in the presence of yeast for long periods of time it can do just that. (I can assume that 1-2 months you are probably fine. In 5-6 months you would begin to see issues I would suppose). So you could use something like Stevia/Truvia to back-sweeten, which is a natural sweetener and thus not something able to be broken down into sugar. Lastly you can pick a low alc tolerance yeast and pitch that with sugar, ensuring that when the yeast die off to alcohol % in the bottle, there will still be sugar left in there to make it sweet.


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## LoveTheWine (Jan 15, 2013)

ckassotis said:


> This forum really frustrates me sometimes. It seems to be kicking me off regularly now and *not* saving the entire post that I tried to submit, even though it claims that it is. Ugh.
> 
> So here we go again. The source is the manufacturer of Splenda actually. You can contact them directly to verify.
> 
> As for creating a sweet and carbonated wine, you could do a few things. First, use a truly nonfermentable sugar. The problem with Splenda and Sucralose, etc. is that they are all just modified sugar. They take sugar and chemically modify it so that in the time it takes to pass through the body it will not be broken back down into sugar again. However, in the presence of yeast for long periods of time it can do just that. (I can assume that 1-2 months you are probably fine. In 5-6 months you would begin to see issues I would suppose). So you could use something like Stevia/Truvia to back-sweeten, which is a natural sweetener and thus not something able to be broken down into sugar. Lastly you can pick a low alc tolerance yeast and pitch that with sugar, ensuring that when the yeast die off to alcohol % in the bottle, there will still be sugar left in there to make it sweet.



Interesting thoughts
Thanks


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## LoveTheWine (Nov 28, 2013)

*Trying another way this year.*

I didn't care for the splenda taste last time so this time we will use sugar to sweeten and carbonate. To prevent bottle bombs we will use pasteurization

Started with a mix of: Crab apples, Gala apples, pears and some other varieties.
Pressed the apples, added pectic enzyme and K-META. Raised SG to 1.055 with white sugar.
There were lots of acids and tannins so no adjustment was necessary to these.
Fermented with Nottingham ale yeast and fermentation went really slow (Typical of cider). Co2 was being produced for 2.5-3 months! 
Finally racked and cold crashed in a fridge.

Cider is a bit cloudy, which is fine as it tastes great and will clear in the bottle.
We then racked into a bucket, sweetened with table sugar until just off dry and balanced.


As I'm bottle conditioning (carbonating with yeast/sugar in bottle), another cup of sugar and d-47 wine yeast was stirred in and then cider was bottled in beer bottles with crown caps. As well I filled (1) coke bottle to monitor how much carbonation is going on.

As soon as the coke bottle gets hard I will chill and open a bottle to check carbonation levels. When the Carb level is perfect, the bottles will be carefully pasteurized to kill off the yeasts and stop activity.

Will post the final outcome in a few weeks


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## reefman (Dec 4, 2013)

Aron,
Can you give us more details on the pasteurization process? I'm assuming you heat the bottles to a predetermined temperature to kill the yeast? 
Thanks!


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## LoveTheWine (Dec 4, 2013)

reefman said:


> Aron,
> Can you give us more details on the pasteurization process? I'm assuming you heat the bottles to a predetermined temperature to kill the yeast?
> Thanks!



Heat water in a big pot to 190 deg Fahrenheit.

When the temperature reaches 190, turn off the heat and add the bottles carefully to the pot. Add 6 or 7 bottles at a time but don't crown the pot too much or the heat will go too low to accurately pasteurize.

Put the lid on and wait ten minutes. Repeat process until all the bottles are done.

This apparently is safe, works great and won't cook the cider.


If you google search 'cider forum', click on the first link and you will find all this info in great detail.


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## BernardSmith (Dec 4, 2013)

But if you prime the cider with a known and specific amount of sugar after you have fermented all the initial sugar (taking the SG from 1.050 to 098 or lower) then not sure I see the need to pasteurize the cider. If you prime with 20 grams of sugar per gallon that is all the sugar that is available for the yeast and that will produce about 2.5 volumes of CO2. Not enough for a bottle bomb if you bottle in beer bottles or in bottles designd to hold sparkling wine. Obviously if you prime with more sugar and you want to create both a sweet and sparkling cider then pasteurization may be the way to go. But I guess I don't see the need to pasteurize otherwise.


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## Putterrr (Dec 4, 2013)

If you read his post, they sweetened to taste and then added the priming sugar. Without the pasteurization, the yeast would eat up all the sugar not just the priming sugar.

Instead ot heating the water to 190, i use 175 and preheat the bottles to 100-105. everything else the same. This usually gets the internal temp up to 150+ for 2 minutes or so. I would suggest testing temps depending on the type/size of bottles. I use 500ml heavy glass beer bottles. Larger or smaller bottles would require adjustments.

As is stated in other forums, NEVER NEVER EVER PASTEURIZE ANY BOTTLE THAT IS OVER CARBONATED.

CHEERS


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## LoveTheWine (Dec 4, 2013)

Putterrr said:


> If you read his post, they sweetened to taste and then added the priming sugar. Without the pasteurization, the yeast would eat up all the sugar not just the priming sugar.
> 
> Instead ot heating the water to 190, i use 175 and preheat the bottles to 100-105. everything else the same. This usually gets the internal temp up to 150+ for 2 minutes or so. I would suggest testing temps depending on the type/size of bottles. I use 500ml heavy glass beer bottles. Larger or smaller bottles would require adjustments.
> 
> ...




Awesome advice... Thanks!


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## BernardSmith (Dec 4, 2013)

mea culpa. Must have missed it


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## Putterrr (Dec 5, 2013)

i started with the cider from this fellow. i like the idea of not going fully dry then backsweetening. Seems to have more flavour

http://www.singingboysbrewing.com/Apple-Cider.html

this was a slightly dodified method for pasteurizing than the origianal

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/another-way-bottle-pasturize-315499/

maybe this might help

Pasteurizing temperatures (cider temps)
at 53C = 128F minimum time to kill population 56 min
at 60C = 140F minimum time to kill population 5.6 min
at 67c = 152F minimum time to kill population .56 min

cheers


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## Rosa321 (Dec 10, 2013)

LoveTheWine said:


> This is a simple Cider I made this year. It will be carbonated in the bottle, taste slightly off dry and will make 22L of finished product.
> 
> Here is the recipe I used:
> 
> ...



Thanks for the step by step recipe. I do have one newbie question.
What do you mean by "cleaned and sulfited beer bottles"? Do you mean you add something like Kmeta to the bottles, or that you sterilize the bottles before using? 

Trying to learn the lingo.... 
Thanks!!!
Rosa


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## LoveTheWine (Dec 11, 2013)

Rosa321 said:


> Thanks for the step by step recipe. I do have one newbie question.
> What do you mean by "cleaned and sulfited beer bottles"? Do you mean you add something like Kmeta to the bottles, or that you sterilize the bottles before using?
> 
> Trying to learn the lingo....
> ...



Yeah add kmeta/water mixture and then drain and rinse with purified water.

This is an improved method:



> Ingredients
> -24L fresh apple juice without additives (preferably fresh pressed)
> -1/2 tsp grape tannin (If using high tannin apples omit this)
> -pectic enzyme (follow directions on package)
> ...


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## Rosa321 (Dec 12, 2013)

ok..... one more question (For now! haha  )

My SG is good and I'm ready to rack to a carboy + airlock, even though it smells quite stinky 


I've never made cider before, so I don't have a stockpile. What do you use to top it off with? Could I use just plain unpasteurized cider? Or is that a no no? What else could I use if I don't have homemade cider on hand?

Thanks!


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## LoveTheWine (Dec 13, 2013)

> My SG is good and I'm ready to rack to a carboy + airlock, even though it smells quite stinky



What does it stink like? Yeast? Rotten eggs? Splashing while racking drives off a lot of bad odors.



> I've never made cider before, so I don't have a stockpile. What do you use to top it off with? Could I use just plain unpasteurized cider? Or is that a no no? What else could I use if I don't have homemade cider on hand?



If it is still fermenting and throwing out a lot of Co2 then topping up can wait.
When you need to rack you could rack into a smaller containers and then topping up wont be needed or you can top up with cider or water if not adding too much I suppose. If you add more cider, it would simply keep fermenting until all the sugar is used up which isn't a bad thing. Adding water isn't great as it waters down the taste and alcohol content.

I usually make a little extra at the start and have enough to top up with later.


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## Rosa321 (Dec 13, 2013)

Yeah..... I'm gunna go with a rotten eggy kinda bad smell. Although my friend says it smells like 'crap'. Haha I've been stirring and it's giving off a lot gas and it's starting to smell better, but still doesn't smell palatable. :-( 
Not alot of apple smell.....


What does splashing mean? Sounds fun and potentially messy!! ;-)


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## LoveTheWine (Dec 13, 2013)

My latest batch smelled like crap (like vinegar) straight out of the press but after all fermentation ceased the smell was great.
Sometimes smells are just yeasty newly fermented wine/cider that improves as the dead yeast finish up and settle to the bottom of the carboy.
If it smells of rotten eggs it may be a H2S problem.

To deal with this, while racking between primary fermentation vessel and carboy hold the siphon hose near the top of the carboy allowing the cider to fall to the bottom splashing within the carboy. You can also pour the cider back and forth a few times between 2 carboys or buckets after racking. This introduces oxygen to drive off the bad smells.
http://www.grapestompers.com/articles/hydrogen_sulfide.htm

After fermentation is completely done you may want to add crushed up Campton tablets or 1/4 tsp sulfite powder (for 5 gallons) to protect the wine from further oxidizing or spoiling and will probably deal with some of the bad odor as well.
http://www.finevinewines.com/sulfites2.htm

After it's in the bottle later, carbonated, sweetened and aged a bit the apple smell will come back.

Have you taken a Hydrometer reading? What is your S.G. at?
http://www.grapestompers.com/articles/hydrometer_use.htm


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## Rosa321 (Dec 13, 2013)

LoveTheWine said:


> My latest batch smelled like crap (like vinegar) straight out of the press but after all fermentation ceased the smell was great.
> Sometimes smells are just yeasty newly fermented wine/cider that improves as the dead yeast finish up and settle to the bottom of the carboy.
> If it smells of rotten eggs it may be a H2S problem.
> 
> ...



Thanks for all your help. I really appreciate it.
Maybe I'm just being impatient. It HAS only been 9 days. haha 

I've been taking SG readings, and they're "good" in that they're staying around 1.048. But I don't know if that's low enough. 

As for the smell. I just nearly gave myself a headache sniffing it and trying to pinpoint it. haha It's not really rotten eggy. It's sour....but not really vinegary. You can smell yeast and hints of fermentation. It's more sour and just off smelling.....

But like I said. I've never been good with waiting things out. I guess I just have to hang on and see what happens. Any advice on when to rack to another carboy? 

Thanks again!!!!!
Rosa


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## Rosa321 (Dec 13, 2013)

Wait!! Nevermind......I just re-read the recipe and you START at 1.050....

I read where you said to get to 1.00 and I didn't realize there was such a huge difference between 1.00 and 1.048. In mathematics, there isn't !!! 

I added 2 lbs of brown sugar to already sweet unpasteurized local cider and only made 5 gallons. I was at 1.069 SG when I started.....Could it possibly take weeks and weeks to get all the way down to 1.00??


I also already added campden tablets as per my recipe (1/gallon since it was unpasteurized)....


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## LoveTheWine (Dec 13, 2013)

Rosa321 said:


> Wait!! Nevermind......I just re-read the recipe and you START at 1.050....
> 
> I read where you said to get to 1.00 and I didn't realize there was such a huge difference between 1.00 and 1.048. In mathematics, there isn't !!!
> 
> ...



No It shouldn't take weeks and weeks to get to 1.00 SG
Probably around a week if temps are 70 degrees or more.
You are going to end up with 9% cider though.
Try warming the room up if it is cold and add a bit of yeast nutrient to feed the yeast.
Sometimes Cider does take a long time to ferment because it lacks nutrients.

You add campton at the start yes. by the time fermentation is completely done (SG below 1.00 for 3 days) the sulfite has bound itself to solids, oxygen
and evaporation. There will be little to none left in the cider at this point.
if sweetening and carbonating right away, no biggie.
If you are going to splash rack and age for a bit then it is wise to maybe add more at this point.

Your final SG is going to be below 1.00 probably aroung 0.995 or so if you used a wine yeast.
If you added ale yeast it may finish higher.


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## Rosa321 (Dec 13, 2013)

LoveTheWine said:


> No It shouldn't take weeks and weeks to get to 1.00 SG
> Probably around a week if temps are 70 degrees or more.
> You are going to end up with 9% cider though.
> Try warming the room up if it is cold and add a bit of yeast nutrient to feed the yeast.
> ...



Thanks for all the guidance. This is why I make my students DO things!
We can read and read about it, but until we actually DO It, we don't figure out the process! ;-)

I used Nottingham Brewing Yeast because that was one the article I read recommended. It also recommended keeping the temperatures lower. That some cider brewers will go as low as 55F in their brew room! It recommended 60-65F so that's where I've been keeping it. And my house is naturally cold so I"ve been closer to the 60 side, but not worrying because the article and the Nottingham site (Lallemand http://www.danstaryeast.com/) said it's optimal temp could go as low as 57F.

Have you used Nottingham? Do you think if I raise the temp to 70 I'll have better results?

Thanks again. Sorry for all the questions. But I'm definitely VERY new at this


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## LoveTheWine (Dec 14, 2013)

Rosa321 said:


> Thanks for all the guidance. This is why I make my students DO things!
> We can read and read about it, but until we actually DO It, we don't figure out the process! ;-)
> 
> I used Nottingham Brewing Yeast because that was one the article I read recommended. It also recommended keeping the temperatures lower. That some cider brewers will go as low as 55F in their brew room! It recommended 60-65F so that's where I've been keeping it. And my house is naturally cold so I"ve been closer to the 60 side, but not worrying because the article and the Nottingham site (Lallemand http://www.danstaryeast.com/) said it's optimal temp could go as low as 57F.
> ...




Sorry I wrongly assumed your ferment was stuck or stopped. If it is still rolling you can ferment at the lower temps and it will turn out great.

Nottingham is an excellent choice for cider. Neutral taste and will preserve more apple flavor then wine yeast.

I brewed a beer last year with it @ 53 degrees.
raising the temp will only make the ferment go faster.
Keeping it low creates a nice cider but it will take longer to get to the desired SG for which to rack to second vessel. Either way it will taste fine.

No need say sorry. I ask many questions too. Everyone here is happy to help.


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## Rosa321 (Dec 14, 2013)

Well......I hope it's not stuck.
I've done wine kits. And to be honest, they're pretty fool proof. I'd just map out the dates on my calendar and not do any of the "dirty work" so to speak! 
I'm still getting used to the hydrometer. I hope I'm doing it right. I've watched a bunch of videos on Youtube! hahaha 
But I'm not 100% certain. :-/

I'll see what the SG continues to read...... Too early too give up!!!


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## LoveTheWine (Dec 18, 2013)

Here it is the finished product.
I ended up pasteurizing by: Pre heating bottles in pot with hot tap water, bring water in another pot to 180 degrees, turn off heat and add 9 or 10 bottles, time it 10 min. then take out bottles and let cool. repeat with next 10 bottles. I had two bottles break in the covered pot about 5 min. in the process.

The cider is quite clear now and tastes amazing!


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## Rosa321 (Dec 25, 2013)

Yeah..... So first of all, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate!

Secondly, I just checked and my SG is only at about 1.022-1.021. It's going down, but SOOOOOO slowly. And now it's starting to smell yeasty.

Is this ok? Should I just let it keep chugging along? 
Should I still keep it in the initial container?

THANK YOU!!!


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## LoveTheWine (Dec 26, 2013)

Rosa321 said:


> Yeah..... So first of all, Merry Christmas to those who celebrate!
> 
> Secondly, I just checked and my SG is only at about 1.022-1.021. It's going down, but SOOOOOO slowly. And now it's starting to smell yeasty.
> 
> ...



Wow it's taking it's sweet time.
Cider is kinda notorious for this, probably deficient in a few nutrients and if it's cold in your room it will take a lot longer.
Adding nutrients at this time however is not a good idea.
If it is dropping, I would assume things are ok.
You could rack now if you want but it may stall the fermentation as racking leaves yeast behind.
You could stir the yeast up a bit and warm up the carboy slightly, or just be patient.


One thing to keep in mind for future reference (for all cider/beer/wine): Making a yeast starter and pouring this into the juice gets the fermentation off to a roaring start.(as opposed to sprinkling it on top of the juice or simply rehydrating)


This is how I do it: Rehydrate yeast in a large sterilized measuring cup, precisely to package directions. After 15 min stir up yeast and add 10 ml of the juice you will be fermenting. Five min later add more juice. Keep doing this every hour, in larger increments for 12-24 hrs then pour the 1-2 liters of liquid yeast into the fermenter. By this time you have a lot of acclimatized yeast that will devour the juice quickly and efficiently.


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## Rosa321 (Dec 26, 2013)

Thanks for tip!! I did simply follow package directions fir rehydration, but I will try that next time.

Gunna go shake those little yeasties up! ;-)


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## Rosa321 (Jan 26, 2014)

Finally......FINALLY!!!!!!!! I hit 0.998
WOO HOO!!!!!  I think because it's been SOOOOO uncharacteristically cold this winter, AND because my recipe did not call for yeast nutrients, it took FOREVER (Well not really, but it felt that way hehe) to get here. 

I transferred to another carboy. Since I've managed to contain my impatience thus far.....I suppose I'm game for a bit of "bulk aging" ;-) How do I know when it's "drinkable"? lol

Rosa


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## LoveTheWine (Jan 26, 2014)

The journey continues!
I would be bottling pretty quickly if it is fairly clear. Bulk aging won't hurt it either though.


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## Rosa321 (Jan 26, 2014)

Oh......Okay!

For some reason, form what I read, I thought Cider was better when it sat and sat and sat............ 

I'm just not sure at what point it's "drinkable" lol.......do you just open bottles and try them? Or do you have a general amount of time that you let it sit and age?


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## LoveTheWine (Jan 27, 2014)

I bottle fairly quickly... 2-3 months from start to finish especially when using Nottingham.
At bottling I sweeten , carbonate, pasteurize and let sit a further month.
If carbonating in the bottle, sediment will be in there anyways. Cider that is a small amount cloudy is OK with me as well.


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## Rosa321 (Feb 21, 2014)

LoveTheWine said:


> I bottle fairly quickly... 2-3 months from start to finish especially when using Nottingham.
> At bottling I sweeten , carbonate, pasteurize and let sit a further month.
> If carbonating in the bottle, sediment will be in there anyways. Cider that is a small amount cloudy is OK with me as well.



ok! I've assembled help and I'm ready to get this show on the road
I'm a little clueless about how much I should sweeten.. Does this work like wine? Will it develop and sweeten overtime? or should i sweeten it to my liking before bottling?
is there any general rule for how much sugar to add?
also are you using just plain white sugar?

THANK YOU!!!! :-D


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## LoveTheWine (Feb 21, 2014)

Rosa321 said:


> ok! I've assembled help and I'm ready to get this show on the road
> I'm a little clueless about how much I should sweeten.. Does this work like wine? Will it develop and sweeten overtime? or should i sweeten it to my liking before bottling?
> is there any general rule for how much sugar to add?
> also are you using just plain white sugar?
> ...



It may sweeten a little over time. Mine never lasts long enough to test that theory

There are basically 3 ways to do it if you want to sweeten and carbonate:

a) Add pot. sorbate and sugar to taste and then force carbonate in a keg with Co2

b) Add a non fermentable sugar (splenda, nutrasweet, etc...) then add a premeasured amount of sugar (priming sugar). Use this calculator:
http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

c) Add sugar to taste and then add priming sugar on top of this using the above calculator as a reference. When there is enough Co2 generated, pasturize the bottles to prevent bottle bombs


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## Rosa321 (Feb 22, 2014)

hehehhe At first I read "add pot" and I'm thinking WHAT???? Is he making a joke? lol
But then I read the rest of the statement. tehe 

I think I'ma go with option C...... Thanks for the calculator!!! 

Rosa


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## LittleBearGameFarm (Mar 20, 2014)

BernardSmith said:


> But if you prime the cider with a known and specific amount of sugar after you have fermented all the initial sugar (taking the SG from 1.050 to 098 or lower) then not sure I see the need to pasteurize the cider. If you prime with 20 grams of sugar per gallon that is all the sugar that is available for the yeast and that will produce about 2.5 volumes of CO2. Not enough for a bottle bomb if you bottle in beer bottles or in bottles designd to hold sparkling wine. Obviously if you prime with more sugar and you want to create both a sweet and sparkling cider then pasteurization may be the way to go. But I guess I don't see the need to pasteurize otherwise.



I am looking to bottle some hard cider tonight and have a questions on bottle carbing. I was going to add a couple frozen concentrates of apple juice prior to bottling to enhance the apple flavor. The concentrates say 27grams of sugar per serving and 6 servings per container. If you look for 20 grams of sugar per gallon and I have 5 gallons, I would need 100 grams of sugar to carb. One concentrate would have 162 grams. Does the grams of sugar listed on the nutritional guide equate to a measurable gram of sugar. I have a hard time believing there is that much sugar in one concentrate. Any advice?

Thanks!


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## LoveTheWine (Mar 21, 2014)

One can of concentrate is about enough to carb a cider perfectly. I know 'cause I've done it!
Two cans and you will have to pasteurize and will have an off dry cider or risk bottle bombs.
By comparison 125-130 grams of CORN sugar will give you approximately 2.5 volumes of Co2 which, in my opinion would be nicely carbed.


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## Pumpkinman (Mar 21, 2014)

I use the sugar/honey/brown sugar that I use to back sweeten to carb my cider, if you use honey it will take a little bit longer to carbonate.
I also add a few cans of 100% pure unsweetened apple juice concentrate to boost the apple flavor a little. 
I usually test a bottle a week to check the carbonation level, when it reaches the level that we prefer, I pasteurize using the same method as Aaron.
When making beer, the "average" amount of priming sugar added to prime 6 gallons of beer to 2.3 vol. is 4.32 oz of priming sugar, this is 122 grams, but again, if I back sweeten, I do not prime mine, there has always been enough sugar to carbonate the bottles.


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## Rosa321 (Mar 27, 2014)

So I back sweetened and used extra for priming sugar. It's been sitting a month and I tested two bottles. Zero carbonation 

Now.....my brewing room is on the cool side, and it did take a good while to ferment dry. Should I let it go, or assume it's not going to carbonate? In the second event, is it ok to let it go, or should I pasteurize it anyway to be safe?

Thanks!!!
Rosa


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## LittleBearGameFarm (Mar 28, 2014)

Can you put a small heater in the room to get the temp up into the 70's?

I don't think you would have to worry about pasteurizing. Someone can correct me if I'm wrong but I believe when you sweeten and bottle carb, you pasteurize once you have the desired carbonation to kill off the yeast so it doesn't consume all of the sugar, thus leaving it sweet. Also, too much sugar being consumed by the yeast could create the bottle bomb.


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## LoveTheWine (Sep 1, 2014)

That time is upon us again when apples are in season.
This year I'm making blackberry/apple hard cider.

Anyone else doing a batch of cider this year?


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## jamesjr (Dec 29, 2014)

Old post I kno lol but how much brown sugar should I use for 1 gallon of cider to prime?


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## LoveTheWine (Jan 15, 2015)

jamesjr said:


> Old post I kno lol but how much brown sugar should I use for 1 gallon of cider to prime?



About 0.8-0.9 oz


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