Persuade me to carbonate or not

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Zippox

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So I have Johnny Jump Up cider in my carboy right now, and as you know the % is around 11 on that one.

I cannot decide if it would be best to carbonate it or not.

It just seems weird to me to carbonate a wine-like cider. Any reasons for or against leaving it still or make it sparkling?
 
I would not carbonate if it had a thick heavy fruit flavor like a desert wine. I like the fizz with a lighter taste.
 
I personally like my ciders carbonated even the drier ones that have a white wine like finish but I'm not a wine drinker. Its all personal preference and that's one of things i like most about making my own ciders and beer is I get to choose how I want it.
 
The only alcoholic beverages I prefer still are spirits and hot cider (Yes, I was pretty excited about getting my kegging equipment and tried carbonating some rum for ****s and giggles). I'm not a big wine drinker, but I even threw a bottle of white zinfendel into my keg and in my opinion, it was much better sparkling. But hell, I even like carbonated water, so like stated above, just personal preference.
 
So I did a 3 gallon recipe, I'm thinking it might be difficult to do a batch of bottles that are not carbonated and then try and guesstimate how much priming sugar to use. Don't want any bottle bombs!
 
I'm getting ready to bottle some cider myself. I have to give the borrowed carboys back to their rightful owner so I figured it's time to bottle. I have about 10 gallons of two different ciders, one with champagne yeast and one with cou de blanc yeast. I was thinking I'd like to carbonate them both, but DO NOT want bottle bombs, of course.

So, someone suggested 1/2 teaspoon of simple sugar per bottle should suffice for appropriate carbonation. Is there agreement here on that?

Also, have a "wild" cider that has fermented beautifully in a one-gallon jug and is crystal clear. I have never added ANYTHING to that one. Just put it in a clean jug and let 'er go. Is there anything dangerous about that in terms of bacteria? There was a pretty foamy, bubbly scum on the surface for a while but that is nearly gone now. It's now a super clear, beautiful looking brew with a pile of sediment on the bottom. I was going to sample it before bottling. I never measured the SG before so I have no idea what's going on with it. I could measure the SG from some of the sweet cider I have in the freezer from the same juice stock. But I wonder if I could carbonate this "wild" cider too?

Sorry for the rambling post. Any advice on any of the above points would be much appreciated.
 
But I wonder if I could carbonate this "wild" cider too?

Sorry for the rambling post. Any advice on any of the above points would be much appreciated.

Hard to know for sure because you don't know the abv tolerance of the wild yeast. If it fermented completely dry, (1.000 or less) there is likely enough active yeast to carb up ok.
 
Hard to know for sure because you don't know the abv tolerance of the wild yeast. If it fermented completely dry, (1.000 or less) there is likely enough active yeast to carb up ok.

I second that. I know some people get really good yeast strains where they live, and others, not so much. Friend of mine tried a wild ferment on his hefeweisen. Only got up to about 3.6 abv. He harvested the leese and pitched it into some water with malt extract to see if was the yeast, and what do ya know! Stopped fermenting at that same abv, and it smelled like a stressed ferment! You're always rolling the dice on wild yeast, but I know some who swear by it, so to each their own.
 
Mine is dry but still towing with the idea of carbonating it or not. I'll have a better idea with what I wan to do in 2 weeks when I go to bottle it (I hope)
 
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