# "pre-carbed" Cider?



## DL (11/9/12)

I bottled a small batch of cider last night and it was already a bit carbonated. Is this normal?

I've never done a cider before and first time I've just used glad wrap instead of an airlock.

It was just 2 bottles of Berri Apple/Pear (50/50), a strong cup of black tea and US-05. I didn't take an OG, but it got down to a steady 1.005 after 3 weeks. I saw another post somewhere where someone got down to 1.006, so it seems on the money.

I used one of those 3-way scoops to individually prime the bottles with sugar, but went down a "size", e.g. for the Grolsch bottles used the 0,33 size instead of the 0,5 size scoop (whatever that may be)

Any chance of bottles bombs?


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## mestoth (11/9/12)

mine normally goes down @ 1.005 , maybe fractionally lower
I gotta ask though; Why Black tea?
Not knowing the exact juice, the ALDI verison with a bit of pear juice, however it noramally starts @ 1.045 or so.

mine has never been carbed previously. It may have still had a little bit of residual sugar in the juice.

I use the 500ml Grolsh bottles: my last batch I put in half a teaspoon of Caster Sugar. these were all very lightly carbed (hiss, but no real bubbles). This batch (bottled yesterday) I went the full teaspoon.
I think you probably would be fine, depending on what a 0.5 scoop actually has.


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## spaced (11/9/12)

Yeah that's normal. Should be fine.

@mestoth - Black tea is used to replicate wine tanins. Seen a few recipes that recommend it.



DL said:


> I bottled a small batch of cider last night and it was already a bit carbonated. Is this normal?
> 
> I've never done a cider before and first time I've just used glad wrap instead of an airlock.
> 
> ...


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## glenwal (11/9/12)

DL said:


> I bottled a small batch of cider last night and it was already a bit carbonated. Is this normal?



Completely normal. When you bottle/natrually carb a beer/cider it is just fermentation producing CO2. The primary fermentation produces CO2 as well and some of this is absorbed into the beer. This is the reason that priming calculators need the maximum temperature that the beer has been at. The higher the temperature, the less residual CO2 will be in the solution.

You possibly also notice this more when using glad wrap instead of a traditional air lock as the glad wrap may result in a slightly higher pressure inside the fermenter, which means more CO2 will be absorbed.


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## DL (11/9/12)

thanks for the replies, good to know i should be ok.

Yeah, got the black tea thing out of a book, Strong Waters, by Scott Mansfield. Many of the recipes say "1 teaspoon of grape tannin or 1 cup of black tea". I probably should've left it out of the first batch, as I won't know what difference it makes  

how's this for tasting notes, out of the hydrometer it tasted "peary" and "cidery", but a bit sharp, so I'll give it a few weeks to settle down.

i got another "cider" that should be ready to bottle (no sg taken yet), a bastardised version of a recipe from that same book. I didn't want to bottle that if I was going to just create more bombs. Great to get the feedback

@spaced: FYI this is the second time you've helped me out, I messaged your blog a few months back (before joining this forum) about GF orange and coriander and I had orange peel in the fermenter. thanks for that as well.


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## Greg.L (11/9/12)

Sounds to me like it was still fermenting. You should leave it a bit longer before bottling, but not under gladwrap.


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## DL (12/9/12)

Greg.L said:


> Sounds to me like it was still fermenting. You should leave it a bit longer before bottling, but not under gladwrap.



Don't say that!  

I'll leave the other cider a bit longer in the fermenter. Is it worth racking it? I haven't bothered with racking before on beers (I'm no veteran in that either, only done 2 so far)

As for the bottled one, I've done a bit more reading. A couple of the bottles I used are PET, so I'll monitor them to see how hard they get. Once they're hard, I'll chuck the bottles in the fridge, and/or release a bit of CO2 from the Grolsch bottles.


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