I will be bottling a sweet cider tomorrow. I have been taking gravity readings daily for the past five days and plotting them against the time fermenting in an excel chart. It is quite linear (r² = 0.9943) with an average drop of 7 points per day.
I will bottle them while still fermenting and then pasteurize the bottles once they are well carbonated to kill off the yeast. I've read in the 5 day sweet cider thread that some people have had gushers after only two hours and others needed to let them sit a few days before they were adequately carbonated. I simply won't have the time to open a bottle every two hours after bottling them. I'd like to have a rough estimate of when they will be ready.
If I make the assumption that the gravity drop remains constant at 7 points per day (which I know is a big assumption) and if I know what gravity drop produces an ideal carbonation than I can estimate the time I need in bottles until I need to pasteurize, which will give me a good time to actually bottle that will work around my schedule. I realize this is a rough estimation, but it's better than nothing.
Sooo... Does anyone know a good gravity drop for adequate carbonation in bottle?
I will bottle them while still fermenting and then pasteurize the bottles once they are well carbonated to kill off the yeast. I've read in the 5 day sweet cider thread that some people have had gushers after only two hours and others needed to let them sit a few days before they were adequately carbonated. I simply won't have the time to open a bottle every two hours after bottling them. I'd like to have a rough estimate of when they will be ready.
If I make the assumption that the gravity drop remains constant at 7 points per day (which I know is a big assumption) and if I know what gravity drop produces an ideal carbonation than I can estimate the time I need in bottles until I need to pasteurize, which will give me a good time to actually bottle that will work around my schedule. I realize this is a rough estimation, but it's better than nothing.
Sooo... Does anyone know a good gravity drop for adequate carbonation in bottle?