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**oasisbliss** · 10-10-2012, 09:07 PM

I just did 5 gallons of tree top apple juice w/ knottingham dry yeast. Has been in primary for 5 weeks. I kow want to bottle in 12oz bottles. Can I use the standard 3/4 tsp of table sugar in the bottles for carbonation? Just want to make sure this will work and not cause bottle bombs. Ultimately I would like to keg 3 gallons and bottle the remaining 2 gallons.

thanks for input

Mike

**rgarry** · 10-11-2012, 01:26 AM

I would check out some of the cider recipes and use what they recommend. There was a good discussion about sweet cider using artificial sweeteners. I did a batch on Sunday ( 3 gallons apple juice, 1.5 lb light brown sugar, ec 1118 yeast). I plan on letting it sit for 4-6 wks, then bottle. Should be ready for thanksgiving. If you can't find it from the recipe section, let me know and I will dig it up.

**TopherM** · 10-11-2012, 04:54 PM

You do realize that you've made a dry English-style cider, NOT a sweet American style cider. Just asking because most people who make cider for the first time don't realize that you can't just ferment apple juice and end up with a Woodchuck. Most people do NOT like dry English cider.

Since you have a keg, the backsweetening procedure is VERY easy. The backsweetening procedure for bottles is a PITA. For that reason, if you DO want a sweet cider, I'd recommend you keg the whole thing, then to backsweeten just add 1/2 gallon of sweet apple juice to 4.5 gallons of fermented cider once you have it in the keg and cold so the yeast are dormant.

I do alot of ciders....Let me know if you have any questions!

**rgarry** · 10-11-2012, 05:38 PM

I do realize that I was making a dry cider. I haven't figured out what I was going to do with it when its done fermenting. I had read about adding on of the artificial sweetners and was thinking about doing 1/2 sweet and 1/2 dry. This was an off shoot of Ed's Apfelwisen (sp). I figure anything that gets 10,000 post then I need to try it. I didn't follow it exactly since I couldn't get the dextrose in time. I wasn't planning on kegging it but that is a fantastic idea. Any other suggestions would be appreciated.

**oasisbliss** · 10-11-2012, 05:47 PM

Yes on the dry cider that was reccomended to me so....thanks for the backsweeten instructions sounds great. ! will do this weekend.

Rgarry - what are you going to add for sweetner when you bottle to carb them? and how much per bottle

thanks

M

**rgarry** · 10-11-2012, 08:45 PM

I haven't decided but I read about artificial sweeteners and was going to try adding the one that comes in blue packages. Add.....taste.......add etc. with that said, I will try it unsweetened first and decide.

**siouxbee** · 10-13-2012, 03:23 AM

I can't consume artificial sweeteners, so I like a dry cider also. I have bottle carbed using 22 oz bottles and have had good, consistent results with 1 tsp white table sugar per bottle. I rack the bottles first and then use a funnel to drop the sugar in, cap and then rotate a little to make sure the sugar is dissolved. Then bottle condition in my basement. It usually takes about 2 weeks to get a good fizz, and if it is too much-I cold crash in the fridge. I haven't had a problem with my dry cider-which is alot like the apfelwein recipie but have run into problems/geyeser/bottle bombs back sweetening with frozen concentrates. We drank a bottle from May last night that we forgot about and it had improved with age. I wish we hadn't drank most of it right away, as I think I may have 4 bottles left.
I've used carbonation drops too-but I think they have artificial sweeteners in them. The fizz they produce is good, but I used the low end of the recommended drops per bottle and aged a long time. The one awesome tip is filling a plastic screw top bottle so you can feel how carbonated it it. I used to fill 3-4 and go from there, but I don't have easy access to plastic bottles so I've just been opening and drinking to test.

**oasisbliss** · 10-13-2012, 07:01 PM

sounds great - thanks sioux !

**FATC1TY** · 10-14-2012, 03:01 AM

Just make sure they stay cold if you back sweeten them.

I just did my batch of cider.. but I used 4 gal of juice, and 2 lb of brown sugar. Ended up getting 1.070- to 1.000.. It taste really good, and actually has a great apple sweetness left to it to me. I plan to toss 1/2 gal of white grape juice into it, mix it, and keg it all. Plan to bottle it off the kegs when I transport it. Hopefully it goes quickly as I don't want to store this stuff around in the kegerator much taking up precious space!

**helibrewer** · 10-14-2012, 03:15 AM

I back sweetened by adding Sorbistat K and Kmeta, then added another gallon of apple juice as the sweetener...tranfered it to a keg and carbed it...I like it better carbed. Sorbistat K won't stop fermentation that is active but it will prevent new fermentation from starting.