can Apfelwein be bottles carb-less in wine bottles???

mikesalvo · 05-15-2009, 11:26 PM

so, as much as I like my cider carbonated, I dont really have the $ to go buy bottles that can handle carbonation. I have a five gallon batch one week in, and Im just starting to think about cheap ways to bottle it. Any suggestions? I have alot of wine bottles, but then again, like I said, I do enjoy a nice carbonated cider....

petes · 05-15-2009, 11:48 PM

No PET soft drink bottles 'round your place?

**Yooper** · 05-15-2009, 11:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mikesalvo

so, as much as I like my cider carbonated, I dont really have the $ to go buy bottles that can handle carbonation. I have a five gallon batch one week in, and Im just starting to think about cheap ways to bottle it. Any suggestions? I have alot of wine bottles, but then again, like I said, I do enjoy a nice carbonated cider....

If you have a corker you can bottle still cider in wine bottles. You can bottle still or carbonated cider in plastic soda bottles, which might be cheaper than buying corks.

Chello · 05-15-2009, 11:49 PM

wine bottles are not made to hold pressure, so they will either blow their corks or just plain explode if you try to carbonate in them.

You can bottle them in plastic soda bottles, 20oz, 2 liters, etc... so if you just save those up from friends/co-workers you could have enough very quickly.

Edit: Too slow...

**ChshreCat** · 05-15-2009, 11:53 PM

Any friends that drink beer in pry-off bottles? I bottled half of my apfelwein still in wine bottles and half carbed in beer bottles. I'm still not sure which I like more.

Laurel · 05-16-2009, 12:09 AM

Still apfelwein goes down smoother and quicker which one would assume makes it more dangerous. Sparkling apfelwein is remarkably similar to sparkling cider (Martinelli's) or soda which also makes it dangerous. Personally, I prefer it carbed, but not very.

mikesalvo · 05-18-2009, 02:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Chello

wine bottles are not made to hold pressure, so they will either blow their corks or just plain explode if you try to carbonate in them.

You can bottle them in plastic soda bottles, 20oz, 2 liters, etc... so if you just save those up from friends/co-workers you could have enough very quickly.

Edit: Too slow...

thanks so much for the input guys. So, I have alot of 1 liter seltzer bottles. These should woprk right? Now, my next question is, HOW do I carbonate these when bottling them in 1 L plastic bottles? I think I want to carb half and still bottle half in magnum wine bottles. I know I need to add priming sugar right? How do I do this!? as always, thanks so much for dealing with my noooob questions!

gregbathurst · 05-18-2009, 04:15 AM

Speaking for myself, i bottle some in PET soda bottles and some in old beer bottles with a bench capper. I use cane sugar added to each bottle, the amount depends on how much carbonation you want.

**Yooper** · 05-18-2009, 11:58 AM

You can start with about one ounce of sugar per gallon of cider. Dissolve it well (you can pull out a little cider, and heat it up in the microwave, and stir it well and dissolve it) and put it into the bottling bucket. Then rack the cider into it, so that it swirls around and mixes well. Then, using the bottling wand, fill each bottle.

Once you do that, you can rinse out the bucket and sanitize again and then siphon your other cider (the non-carbed portion) into it and bottle that.

mikesalvo · 05-18-2009, 01:37 PM

what is the purpose of racking into a bottling vessel before bottling? Just for one more rack for the sake of clarity and eliminating any cloudiness?

also, when using the plastic bottles, should I just fill the bottles and screw the caps on? Seems to easy. Also, can someone point me in the direction of a cheap bottle wand? Ebay search yielded nothing. Does it just connect to my siphon?