sweet sparkling cider

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RugenBrau

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I'm new here so please excuse any mistakes. I've been making cider for the past two years and have good luck. Most people seem to like it, or they say so. The cider that I've made has been dry (I have sweetned some after stabilizatiion) Last year I attempted to make sparkling cider. I opened one botltle this summer and there was no carbonation so I thought it was a failure. I cracked a couple of the bottles the other night and to my surprise it was carbonated!! My problem is that most of my friends don't like dry sparklng cider. They want it sweeter. Therein lies my problem. If I bottle the cideur before it is fully fermented how do I stop it once it is in the bottle. Do I pasturize it? If so, what temp and how long? Can anyone help?
Also,has anyone made cider from MacIntosh apples? I've heard both good and bad and I have access to all the juice I want. Will I be wasting my time?
Thanks
 
I'm not sure how you'd do a sweet sparkling cider using sugar and bottling. You could use an artificial sweetener that would make it sweet, but I think that might leave an unnatural taste. As you found, you can do a sweet stilll cider, or a sparkling dry cider, but if you sweeten a batch that you don't stabilize, the yeast would ferment and you'd eventually have bottle bombs. Maybe you could find a way to chill the bottles, to halt fermentation, but that could also be dangerous.

Kegging is the only way I can think of to give you a dependable result with sweetened and carbonated.
 
+1 on kegging. That's pretty much the only way to do it, using fermentable sugar that is. You can always add splenda/lactose/setvia at bottling along with the priming sugar. That or if you are set on bottles and regular sugar. you can stabilize it then use a beer gun to bottle after you've force carbed.
 
I never thought about kegging it. Where can I find out how to do it? I have access to plenty of kegs so help me out ....please Thanks
 
I never thought about kegging it. Where can I find out how to do it? I have access to plenty of kegs so help me out ....please Thanks

You can get it just like you do beer. Do you have a co2 set up with regulator? If you don't, you could prime the cider just like you would for beer, and let it sit at room temperature until it's carbed up. Then, chill, and use one of those co2 chargers to push it. You don't want to force carb with those little chargers (they are expensive to do that) but just to push the cider would probably only use a couple of them per keg.
 
Isn't he going to stabilize and back sweeten? Wont that stop the "bottle carb" process?

You don't have to if you're kegging- you can ferment some of the sugar to carb it up, and then put it in the fridge to halt fermentation. Kegs will hold a HUGE amount of pressure compared to bottles.

If you can force carb, though, you'd stabilize and then sweeten and then force carb. The priming sugar is if you don't have a co2 regulator system.
 
Is it possible tp pasturize the cider after it has femented in the bottle? would think that the heat would ruin it but the book by Peroux and Nichols says to put it into a hot water bath until the water boils and take it out. I've also read to keep it in a ot water bath @160 degrees fo 5 minutes. Anyone try this?
 
You don't have to if you're kegging- you can ferment some of the sugar to carb it up, and then put it in the fridge to halt fermentation. Kegs will hold a HUGE amount of pressure compared to bottles.

If you can force carb, though, you'd stabilize and then sweeten and then force carb. The priming sugar is if you don't have a co2 regulator system.

Thank you young lady, I continue to learn more each day here. :mug:
 
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