Carbonating cider

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Rambohorn1

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I'm getting a lot of numbers from different people. Is there a standard for how much primer sugar should be added per gallon? Also most people say to use dextrose but would regular sugar work as well?
 
My "understanding" is you can use the same practice as beer. So for example 5oz for a 5 gallon batch. I personally use corn sugar. I will state, I have NOT bottled my first batch yet, this is just based on videos i have watched.
 
I couldn't get a straight answer out of anyone as well. What i did was move the cider into a bottling bucket and added one can of apple concentrate and then bottled. I put cider into 3-20 ounce bottles to check for carb leveling and started opening bottles every other day after they began to harden. ( after 3 days) The bottles were sitting at about 65 degrees during this time. The cider was at .998 before I moved it into the bottling bucket. It took me 8 days to reach my desired carb level.

I hope this helps...knowing what i know now i would have added splenda to the cider to get my desired sweetness as well as the concentrate. My understanding is that splenda is a non-fermentable suger and u wouldn't lose the sweetness during the carb process.
 
I have heard 1/8 cup to 1/4 cup per gallon (depending on how carbonated you want), but that is not backed up by my personal experience. I will backsweeten my first non-still batch of cider in about 3 weeks, and I'll let you know how that turns out. Dextrose is supposedly preferable because of the "fizzy" quality of the bubbles, but any fermentable sugar should work.

As far as non-fermentable sugars go, I would recommend using Xylitol, a natural alcohol sugar. (Stevia also works, though it has its own flavor, which I personally like but you may not want in your brew). Splenda is sucralose-- nasty stuff. A solution of sucralose will eat through an aluminum pan; not what I want in my brew. Go with Xylitol instead.
 
JustinCider said:
I couldn't get a straight answer out of anyone as well. What i did was move the cider into a bottling bucket and added one can of apple concentrate and then bottled. I put cider into 3-20 ounce bottles to check for carb leveling and started opening bottles every other day after they began to harden. ( after 3 days) The bottles were sitting at about 65 degrees during this time. The cider was at .998 before I moved it into the bottling bucket. It took me 8 days to reach my desired carb level.

I hope this helps...knowing what i know now i would have added splenda to the cider to get my desired sweetness as well as the concentrate. My understanding is that splenda is a non-fermentable suger and u wouldn't lose the sweetness during the carb process.
Click to expand...

How much cider were you making. I'm making a 6 gallon batch and I'm wondering how many cans of concentrate to use.
 
I have used simple syrup with success, but because there are too many variables to deal with, I recommend using your hydrometer. Typically you should raise the sugar content up .003 above your desired sweetness.
I will also suggest bottling one cider in a plastic bottle (like a soda bottle) so you don't have to open a bottle every other day to insure proper carbonation -you can tell it's done when the bottle tightens up.
 
Try this site:
http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

It allows you to enter the style...gallons in batch and temperature of your batch at bottling...then it will recommend types of fermentables and weights for each. It's not exact, but it gives you a good reference.

I personally prefer Corn Sugar/Dextrose for bottling because it won't impart any flavors in your cider (not that you use a whole lot)

I like mine closer to beer or soda and fritzy instead of like champagne. So I use 3.9 oz of corn sugar per 5 gallons. Some people will go up to 1 oz per gallon.
 
I do 1oz per gallon for beer with corn sugar. I'm currently doing a 2.5 - 2.6 gallon batch of cider, according to the calculator I should use 2oz total, so thanks for linking that.

Personally, I think i'm going to put 1 gallon in a glass jug, and then prime and bottle the rest.
 
jflongo said:
I wonder how much of the CO2 remaining is affected by secondary racking? For example if I do a Oatmeal Stout, letting it sit in the fermenter for 12 days, then bottle, vs letting it sit in the fermenter for 12 days, racking it into a carboy for 2 weeks, and then bottling it?
Click to expand...

If you are using an auto-syphon, I doubt very much will be lost, but I assume you will lose some. If your fermentation is finished then it won't make any more CO2. That said, if you lose your blanket from the primary, you won't have it in the secondary.

When you sample your cider or beer from the fermentation vessel when racking, it's flat...so I don't think there's actually a lot of residual CO2. If it's been cold crashed, there should be more. Maybe someone (other than me) has a better understanding of actually how much residual CO2 there would be.
 
I was curious, so I found this article. Good priming article and it has a chart that shows how much residual CO2 based on final temps. About 1 volume at 60ºF...more than I thought..hmmm

http://***********/stories/techniques/article/indices/21-carbonation/1276-priming-with-sugar
 

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