Newell's Groundhog Cider (woodchuck amber clone)

Hankhill11 said:

I did! I bottled it on 11/6. It was really good. One of my top 2 ciders so far. I have one 22oz left. I dont know how much like woodchuck it actually tasted, but it did have great flavor and body. I let it carb til 11/11 and then stovetop pasteurized. It was carbed enough for me. I like a little lower carbonation over all, but its got da bubbles

Unfortunately i didn't keep enough notes to tell me what i actually did to it for back sweetening and priming. i just wrote the dates down.

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Thanks!

That's what I'm worried about. I want a mid - high level of carbonation. Is there a way to tell when to stovetop pasteurize? Or is it all best guess?

ErickJ said:

Is there a way to tell when to stovetop pasteurize

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You can get some 12oz sodas and drink them/empty the bottles. bottle one or two ciders in them. once the plastic 12oz is really hard, check them for carb level. check one, if its not carbed enough wait longer and check the 2nd one. It can be a couple or few weeks, but i'd start checking at the 5-7 day mark. It will also depend on how you treat the cider before you bottle. If you cold crash then bottle, i'm sure it will be on the longer side since the yeast have to come out of their dormant state first.

Hankhill11 said:

You can get some 12oz sodas and drink them/empty the bottles. bottle one or two ciders in them. once the plastic 12oz is really hard, check them for carb level. check one, if its not carbed enough wait longer and check the 2nd one. It can be a couple or few weeks, but i'd start checking at the 5-7 day mark. It will also depend on how you treat the cider before you bottle. If you cold crash then bottle, i'm sure it will be on the longer side since the yeast have to come out of their dormant state first.

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Awesome. That's what I wanted to know. I ordered a keg set up. Oh well. It looks like I'll do both. Thanks again for the great information.

I'm brewing a cider (the original recipe on this thread, pretty much) and was intending to dose the cider with Potassium Sorbate after fermentation is complete, before back sweetening. Now I'm reading (in other sources) that both Potassium Sorbate and Potassium Metabisulfite should be added prior to back sweetening.

My initial thought was that K-meta is only needed up front in the cider making process if you're using unpasteurized cider (to kill or supress any wild yeasts)... but now I'm thinking maybe it's needed in back sweetening (any cider).

So my question is, do I need both K-sorbate and K-meta or just the K-sorbate prior to back sweetening? I'm trying to understand the difference.

ATLPat said:

(SNIP)
So my question is, do I need both K-sorbate and K-meta or just the K-sorbate prior to back sweetening? I'm trying to understand the difference.

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Both before back-sweetening.