# Bulk Priming Cider



## coeliacsurvivor (18/6/09)

Hi,

My name is Colm and this is my first post on the forum. Iv'e been looking around and there is lots of really good info here.

I mainly brew cider as I have coeliac disease and so can't drink normal beer. I will be brewing some Gluten Free beer soon and I'm sure I'll be asking other questions then.

I have a cider brewing at the moment, its from the Balck Rock kit, this is my third brew with this kit and I decided to experiment a little. So I added 500g of honey, 500g of brown sugar, and 6L of pure apple juice (preservative free), total volume is 23L. 
The initial graivty was 1047, and I am expecting it to ferment almost competely out. This will result in a fairly potent brew ~6.5%.
I was going to try bulk priming this, I normally just add sugar to the bottles as I go.

My question for now is this.
To reduce the alcohol concentration and also bulk prime can I rack onto pure apple juice (diluting the brew). The juice I have is about 10% sugar, so 3L will add about 300g.
How much sugar do you normally add to bulk prime cider?

Does this sound like a good idea or is something weird going to happen?

Any advice much appreciated.

Cheers

Colm


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## Stuster (18/6/09)

I'd say that's definitely too much sugar. I'd aim for more like half that. 150g to 180g of sugar should give you enough carbonation.

It's not really going to dilute it all that much of course. If you do want to dilute it, another option is to boil and then cool some water and add that to the batch in the bottling bucket when you're bulk priming. You could just use sugar then and boil and cool that along with the water to sanitise it. If you add 5L of water, you should be at around 5.3%. If you do that, I'd go with more like 180g of sugar as there'll be more volume of course.


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## Interloper (18/6/09)

180gms of sugar would be heaps too much. I would suggest you'll have gushers at that rate.

Try using this calculator for bulk priming and see how you go.

*http://www.geocities.com/lesjudith/Alcohol...Calculator.html*


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## Stuster (18/6/09)

Interloper said:


> 180gms of sugar would be heaps too much. I would suggest you'll have gushers at that rate.
> 
> Try using this calculator for bulk priming and see how you go.
> 
> *http://www.geocities.com/lesjudith/Alcohol...Calculator.html*



From that calculator, priming to 2.6vols for 28L (with the extra 5L for dilution) with the beer at 16C gives 174g of sugar.


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## Renegade (18/6/09)

Interloper said:


> 180gms of sugar would be heaps too much. I would suggest you'll have gushers at that rate.



really ? That sounds quite spot on.


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## coeliacsurvivor (18/6/09)

wow, thanks for the fast replies guys.

This batch actually seems to have stopped fermenting at about 1007, so won't be quite as strong as I thought.

Thanks for the great link to the calculator that will come in very handy.

This is my first attempt at bulk priming, how long do you normally wait after racking and priming before you bottle? is it best to leave it awhile or should you do it straight away.



Cheers
Colm


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## manticle (18/6/09)

I would have said 130 to 180 g white sugar or dextrose for 23 ish litres depending on your own tatses - 180 obviously being fizzier.

With bulk priming I stir gently and leave for at least 30 -60 mins but make sure you dissolve the dex/sugar in boiling water first, then cool it below 50 (I usually cool it to around 10).

If you're racking into another vessel you may not need to wait 60 mins - I just prime straight into the one fermenter.

To dilute it you probably need to add water but a 6% cider isn't that extreme.

Cider gets better with age so leave it a month-6 weeks if you can before you start tasting. When you get to the end of the batch you'll notice the improvements in the last few compared to the first.

I'm pretty sure Black Rock is OK but some cider kits do contain malt (I think Brigalow might be a culprit). I'm sure you're pretty savvy with working all that out though.

You can use juice to prime but I'm not sure if the sugar will equate exactly to white or dex so you may need to recalculate those amounts too. Is the 10% sugar in the juice added sugar or just the total sugars (fruit sugars AND added sugar)? For your first one I reckon I'd keep it simple, then experiment when you're getting results that make sense that you want to tweak.


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## altone (18/6/09)

coeliacsurvivor said:


> wow, thanks for the fast replies guys.
> 
> This batch actually seems to have stopped fermenting at about 1007, so won't be quite as strong as I thought.
> 
> ...



Soon as you prime, you bottle. If you're trying to clear your cider more, rack without priming, 
wait a day for solids to settle, then prime and bottle.


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## raven19 (18/6/09)

The fun with priming with more apple juice is it makes more volume, more alcohol and more to bottle.  

I like it!


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## coeliacsurvivor (18/6/09)

This forum really is great, I can't believe how fast you guys reply!

I'll probably rack and bottle this over the weekend, I'll let you know how it tastes in about six weeks.

Colm


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## Renegade (18/6/09)

raven19 said:


> The fun with priming with more apple juice is it makes more volume, more alcohol and more to bottle.
> 
> I like it!



Me too. I read the OP earlier today and thought for a while "Why Would You?". But then, if the sugars are going to do the same job, I started thinking "Hey, Why WOULDNT you?" It's so much easier to bulk prime with a bottle of AJ than measuring out dex or sugar. Just tip it straight in. It would be sterile anyway, and would add a slight but well received fresh apple juice flavour to the brew. 

What was said above though, is it the apple's natural fruit sugars (fructose? Wiki suggests maybe that's not the best term) or added sugar that you are reading on the bottle? It won't tell you that most likely. If the bottle says 'no added sugar' as a marketing concept on the front label then you would need to work out the ability of 'natural sugars' from the apples (that would be the 'sugar' they are quoting) to ferment in order to calculate the amount required for priming with juice. For all I know it makes no difference, so maybe others with more expertise can elaborate. 

Whether it's relevant, fructose is rated much sweeter than other sweet carbs, so I wonder if more sweetness = less fermentability? 

Postscript: since started this post, I checked out 'Apples" on Wikipedia, and they rate the fruit on the nutritional table as having 10.39 % 'sugars' content. So your juice is the real deal I'd say, no added sugars.


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## bum (18/6/09)

coeliacsurvivor said:


> I'll let you know how it tastes in about six weeks.



I've used this kit in the past and while it does turn out a decent cider you'll wanna wait at least double that time. IMO, of course. Always IMO.


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## coeliacsurvivor (7/8/09)

I popped my first bottle of this last night, it was bottled on the 24 June so has been just over 6 weeks.

It had a nice phssssst sound when I opened it and an ok head when I poured it, it also bubbled nicely for the duration of the glass. There was a decent amount of crud in the bottom, but the bulk priming with Apple juice seems to have worked.

The brew was not fantastic - tasted a bit yeasty - so I am going to leave it for another month or two before trying again.

plenty more to occupy myself with now that I have some gluten free beer on the go.

Colm


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## Mr.Moonshine (14/8/09)

coeliacsurvivor said:


> I popped my first bottle of this last night, it was bottled on the 24 June so has been just over 6 weeks.
> 
> It had a nice phssssst sound when I opened it and an ok head when I poured it, it also bubbled nicely for the duration of the glass. There was a decent amount of crud in the bottom, but the bulk priming with Apple juice seems to have worked.
> 
> ...



I've made a couple of ciders in the past, some using kits and some using straight apple juice with a bit of lactose to sweeten it up a bit (yeast tends to ferment bone dry ><). One method I like to use is the apple juice concentrate as a primer, as you get a specified sugar content (Same as with a bottle of apple juice, I suppose), and it also doesn't dilute the brew much. If you did your brew with straight apple juice it's probably not a big deal to dilute with more juice, but if you were adding other ingredients which need a bit of balancing (e.g; spices, other fruits, etc.etc) then apple juice concentrate is definately a solid option.
I've got mine from an organics shop previously (About $10 for an8:1 concentration making up about 2l of juice), but it seems like coles carries a cheaper one in their organics/healthfood section.

Cheers and beers (Or cider, as the case is),

Mr. Moonshine


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