My bottle carbing experiment..

Ok, so its not so much as an experiment, as me being stubborn. My preference is to bottle carb my product, mostly because my joy of creating a living product. And then drinking it.

2 gallons Cider
1 gallon Apple juice
1 gallon water with 1lb of dissolved honey
8 oz water with 1/4 cup disolved molasas
2 cans of juice concentrate

2nd generation of WY American Ale II
Yeast Nutrient
Pectic enzyme

Mixed cider, juice, honey solution, and molasas solution. Added enzyme and nutrient in the carboy. pitched yeast after a few hours.

Ferments like crazy over the next 2 weeks, Gravity at .980. Rack to secondary and crash at around 60f for 3-4 days. After a few days, add a can of concentrate. Let it ferment at 68 for a week, crash, then add second can of concentrate. Ferment at 68 for week, then crash again for 3-4 days. Gravity is back at .98 (approx). Process was just about 6 weeks total.

Here is the stupid part. I want to bottle carb. Not a lot, but enough to give it some sparkle I get 16oz grolsch style bottles and carb drops that are weighted for 12 oz bottles. Prior to bottling I back sweeten with about 6 tbs of Truvia (4 dissolved in water, another two added direct to the batch after tasting).

So. Cider, in 16 oz bottles with carb drops measured for 12 oz bottles. Have I done something incredibly stupid, or have i done something that makes sense? Or should i just evacuate the house and consider it all a loss?

This sounds right. Stevia is supposed to be non-fermentable, so the only thing feeding the yeast should be the carb tabs, which should be just fine in a 16 oz bottle.

Try a bottle in a week and make sure you don't have a ridiculous amount of carbonation. If you do, you'll be able to relieve some of the pressure using the swing caps, and then you can cold crash the bottles to make the yeast inactive (or at least a lot less active).