priming cider

[azzmanthe]

hi I'm just about to bottle some cider. last time I made it I used the carbonation drops I used two . I was just going to use sugar this time so I didn't need to buy the drops. Last time it was not bubbly enough how much sugar do people recommend for 750 ml pet bottles I like it very carbonated but don't want to make bombs in my house .. thanks

 

[Airgead]

what are you bottling in? That will determine the maximum pressure you can safely put in there.

 

[Schikitar]

I made a perry back in March and bottled with carbonation drops in those PET bottles. I was frightened of bottle bombs but actually ended up with terribly undercarbonated perry most dissapointing given how much effort I put into mincing and squeezing the juice from the pears off my own pear tree. I put 1 drop in half and 2 drops in the other half - the 2 drops barely carbonated enough and the 1 drops I shouldn't have even bothered with!

Really depends on where your gravities are at I suppose, but next time for me I'll bulk prime with about 6-7g/litre of regular table sugar (my go to for pales) instead of using the carbonation drops.

Just note, I'm not telling you what to do, instead I'm just adding to your confusion based on my one time experience making a perry! Good luck, let us know what you end up doing and how it turns out.

 

[azzmanthe]

so bottled my cider today I used 7 grams of sugar in the 750ml pet bottles. the temp was about 18-20 when bottling . hope it goes well now I have to just wait for a couple of weeks

 

[Schikitar]

So, how'd it turn out?

The perry I mentioned above I actually re-primed and re-bottled, due for tasting later this week. Fortunately no bottle bombs!

 

[Reedy]

I bulk prime mine now, about 95gm of dextrose, boiled in water for 10 minutes & added to the bottling bucket for a 23L batch.

I used to use the carb drops but the Mrs reckons they were too fizzy, is much happier with the carbonation now.

 

[azzmanthe]

so the ciders came out great .good amount of bubbles

 

[Hangover68]

does anyone prime with apple juice and if so how much is enough, also using 750ml PET bottles for my first attempt at cider brewing.

 

[Lyrebird_Cycles]

It can be done but it's not ideal.

The majority sugar in apple juice is fructose and yeast doesn't assimilate fructose well in stressful conditions so the chances of incomplete fermentation are increased vs using the sugar yeasts prefer: glucose (known as dextrose by Septics).

If you want to use juice, my reading suggests that the sugars in apple juice represent 70 - 80% of dissolved solids so if you measure the oBrix of your juice, take 3/4 of that value as fermentable sugars and you'll be close enough.

 

[Hangover68]

It can be done but it's not ideal.

The majority sugar in apple juice is fructose and yeast doesn't assimilate fructose well in stressful conditions so the chances of incomplete fermentation are increased vs using the sugar yeasts prefer: glucose (known as dextrose by Septics).

If you want to use juice, my reading suggests that the sugars in apple juice represent 70 - 80% of dissolved solids so if you measure the oBrix of your juice, take 3/4 of that value as fermentable sugars and you'll be close enough.

Thanks, pretty much what my research came up with. Being my first cider i will just use sugar as i am bottling it tonight.

 

[Crusty]

Being a sweet tooth, I don't like most ciders on the market but I had a few Somersby apple ciders last night & their pretty awesome.
Has anyone made a sweet cider that's pretty close to a Somersby?
Show me your press too if you please.
Cheers

 

[Airgead]

Sweet cider is hard (depending on your equipment). There is a thread on sweet cider floating around somewhere.... https://aussiehomebrewer.com/threads/sweet-cider-how-to-keep-things-sweet.83751/#post-1240152