Poor Man's Hard Cider - Can I Bottle It?

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jonathannevins

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Hello!

I've been browsing these forums for a few months now for advice on home brewing. A few months back I brewed a batch of Scotch Ale from a Brewer's Best Ingredient kit. It's not the most amazing beer, but it seems like the longer I let it age, the better it gets. The other day, however, on a whim I bought 5 gallons of unpasteurized and preservative-free cider from a local orchard. Realizing when I got home that I didn't have anywhere to store it and I didn't have a decent yeast to use, I improvised: I took a packet of Fleischmann's baking yeast out of the fridge, activated, and pitched it with my cider after cooking it over a medium heat on the stove for 45 minutes or so. It's been sitting in my basement for about 5 days now fermenting away.

My question is: is there any way to bottle this and have it carbonate without risking bottles exploding? I assume that waiting until it's done fermenting and then adding sugar (as I did when brewing beer) would work, but I'm worried about ending up with cider that has too much alcohol in it to enjoy. Can anyone suggest an amount that will give it some nice carbonation without, hopefully, making it too strong alcohol content wise? Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

Jonathan
 
As long as you're ok with a dry cider and don't plan on backsweetening, using a standard amount of priming sugar will carbonate it just like a beer.

After fermentation is complete, 3.6 ozs of table sugar added to the 5 gallons will give you normal carbonation. That amount won't add much to your ABV, less than 1% I think.

If you want to backsweeten, check out the stickies at the top of the forum for advice on pasteurizing or using unfermentable sugars.
 
Have a read of the bottle pasteurisation thread if you'd like a sweet cider.
 
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