Cider Carbonation

Just a share... Vid of my Apple Berry cider poured. Bulk primed using my own AJC reduced from store bought juice.

This pour was from the plastic bottle tester, rock hard after 8 days. Bottles pasteurised in dishwasher.

[ame]http://youtu.be/qd35M6XlETU[/ame]

... and the recipe...

Apple Berry Cider - AB

27/09/12 - 1850

14.4 L Berri Apple &Pear
4.8 L Berri Apple & Blackcurrant
3L Original Black Label Apple &
Forest Fruits
440g Coopers Brew Enhancer 1
1.25kg dextrose
300mL water
EC-1118 yeast (Lalvin) per instruct.
2 tsp yeast nutrient

OG - 1070

Midnight - krausen forming.

17/10/2012 - 1040
Concerned that krausen may be infection, racked early, 4.8L Berri Apple & Pear added, topped up to 28L.
SG - 1004
SG - 1010 after top up
"Infection" turned out to be berry solids from juice.

24/10/12 - 2300
SG - 1010
Bubbly on pour from bucket

25/10/12 - 2250
SG - 1010
Bubbly on pour

28/10/12 - 1730
SG - 1004
Bubbly on pour

04/11/2012
SG - 1004
Bubbly on pour

13/11/2012
Test bottled two @ 750mL
Primed with large priming scoop
Left for one day, tasted one 24 hrs later, not carbed at all. One bottle drunk, other bottle left to age at room temp.

25 Nov 2012
Bulk cold crashed

3 Dec 2012 - 1730
Bottled, bulk primed with 3 x home made apple juice concentrate (400mL ea).

12 Dec 2012 - 0630
Pasteurised in dishwasher

12 Dec 2012 - 1915
Poured carbonation tester plastic bottle, not a gusher at all but strong carbonation.

I once had a batch where the carbonation acted like that too, almost like a rolling boil. Very strange.

What was your final gravity after backsweetening?

LeBreton said:

I once had a batch where the carbonation acted like that too, almost like a rolling boil. Very strange.

What was your final gravity after backsweetening?

Click to expand...

You know I'm not sure I took one, it's not in my notes... The juice I reduced contained 240 grams of sugar per 2.4 litres. I reduced that to about 0.4 litres and added 1.2 litres of that concentrate to my brew.

The taste is certainly not sweet but not puckeringly dry either. There is a definite kick after one 500mL bottle!

I sampled a fair bit towards the end of secondary before priming and bottling, I ended up bottling 24 litres. With all the different volume calculations to consider, I think it all became too hard to worry about a final ABV so probably didn't take an FG for that reason.

Im not very confident in the dishwasher pasteurization. Anybody have any experience?

Can you tell me (in gallons) how much you started with and how much AJ you used to prime/backsweetin'? I will be doing this soon with a 6 gallon batch and a 3 gallon

MarkKF said:

Im not very confident in the dishwasher pasteurization. Anybody have any experience?

Click to expand...

This was my first time at pasteurising at all. I used a cycle that used 70 C water temps. The cycle ran for about 2 hours, maintaining 40-50 C for the majority of that time, so hopefully I did actually achieve pasteurisation.

I used a digital thermometer display with probe on end of a wire to check the temps. The empty dishwasher peaked at 65C for about 20 minutes. When full of the bottles, the temp only performed as above but if it has worked, I did the whole batch at once and no bombs!

BadgerBrigade said:

Can you tell me (in gallons) how much you started with and how much AJ you used to prime/backsweetin'? I will be doing this soon with a 6 gallon batch and a 3 gallon

Click to expand...

The initial brew was 6 gallons. I don't remember why I used the water but would just usemore juice if I did it again.
Rough conversions:
Apple / pear juice- 3.5 gallons
Apple Blackcurrant - 1.5 gallons
Apple Forest Fruits - 1 gallon

Brew Enhancer - 1 pound
Dextrose - 2.5 pounds

The Apple Forest Fruits was a juice with all the pulp etc... This floated to the top once fermentation began and stayed there for the duration of primary. It gave me a fright and looked like this...

BadgerBrigade said:

Can you tell me (in gallons) how much you started with and how much AJ you used to prime/backsweetin'? I will be doing this soon with a 6 gallon batch and a 3 gallon

Click to expand...

Forgot the concentrate...

I started with roughly 2 gallons of juice and reduced it down to 1/6 of that volume in a large pot on the stovetop. I did this in 3 batches, each of which took bloody ages...

Fossey said:

Forgot the concentrate...

I started with roughly 2 gallons of juice and reduced it down to 1/6 of that volume in a large pot on the stovetop. I did this in 3 batches, each of which took bloody ages...

Click to expand...

I did this as an experiment the other night!
I put 1 gallon of fresh pressed apple juice in the freezer, Froze it, Let it start to thaw, Poured off the very first amount that thawed because I have a feeling it was the sugariest! Then I started gently simmering and stirring it.... After trying the end product it was way way way sweeter than the Apple juice I started with.... VUALA (Is that how you spell that? Lol)