carbonating cider

I have a question about carbonating hard cider. I have been told that if you want it carbonated then you need a kegarator, but has anyone tried using the carbonation tabd that coopers makes for beer? just wondering if that would bring about the same affect. I am going to try my fist batch of cider this weekend.

Are you carbing in a bottle?

If you don't kill the yeast prior to bottling you can do a batch prime with 5oz corn sugar(dextrose) and two cups of water boiled together and cooled. I found it far more effective in my beer making then the carbonation drops. Just rack the cider into a bottling bucket on top of the priming solution. Then bottle and cap.

Note that 5oz is assuming you are doing a 5 gallon batch.

I've used the drops but find that you need about twice the number of drops per bottle to get a decent fizz - assuming your brew has fermented out first and no other sugars are added before bottling.

If you want a dry cider bottleing is no issue, if you want it sweet you need to keg, or backsweeten and pasteurize, which can be tricky doing it at the right time

cool thanks yes i am doing a 5 gallon batch i think i will try half and half since this is also my first time doing this and i would like to try both. I would be carbing in the bottle as well since i am still really new to this i havent gone out and spent the money on a kegging system yet but i think i eventually will.

A lot of people (me included) add more apple juice concentrate at bottling to crispen the flavor. This is also high in sugar and will facilitate carbonation.

My last 1 gallon batch got a full tube of concentrate and a quarter-cup of maple syrup at bottling, and I got a solid PFSSSHT and steam upon opening after 5 days. Cider will usually pop a little after uncapping in just a day, so I go by the CO2 and vapor swirling in the neck myself.

I have never used tablets simply because it's so easy to flavor and add sugar at the same time.

A few cider recipes skip a proper secondary and just involve bottling IMMEDIATELY, if you also add sugar at this point it will carb up VERY fast.

So I understand since I will also be bottling g a 1 gallon batch..... You used a whole can of concentrate for 1 gallon? Wasn't the final product very sweet? I assume you pasteurized once carbonation was where you wanted it?

So yea did the tabs on half of my cider and it was carbonated but I left the other half to sit in my garage and went to open a "still" cider and it about exploded in my kitchen I didn't kill the yeast so the other half is more carbonated than the tabbed half kinda crazy but still so so good

That is strange. Might be a silly question, but did you happen to mix the two batches up by mistake? The tabbed ones in the garage causing the extra sugar to over carb?

What was your final gravity on the cider?

I am the worst at doing gravity readings but no I made sure to put the ones I wanted carbonated in my deep freezer its off so its not cold, but I put the tabbed ones in there in case of a bottle bomb. (its also solid steel on the inside its old) all in all they did turn out good though but i also never killed the yeast before i bottled so i am thinking that has to do with it, and that it has been so hot in my garadge lately.

Yeah, if you want a still cider you have to kill of the yeast.

I did my first batch of pasteurizing hard cider today. I added a 12 oz can of ajc to about four gallons of fermenting cider. Being wary of over carbing, I made three small test bottles to check at different times. Those bottles were soda bottles, so I could check on how "hard" the bottles became. To my liking, 7 days seemed about right pressure wise as well as being just sweet enough. The one I cracked hadn't been in the fridge yet and had more than enough bubbles. I will see what I have for the group when I wait a few days to see what they will be like when cold. I did have one explosion in the dishwasher, so I figure I may be just about right. This was my first batch of "regular" cider making, and as prior I have used two liter soda bottles with self venting caps. I'll let you all know after I crack open the first glass bottle next week holding my my hand made hard cider.

I did something a bit unique on my cherry apple cider. This was just a 1.25 gallon batch 1 gallon of apple Juice and 32oz of pure cherry juice. I used carbonation tabs at bottling. Just before that though when I racked the cider in the bottling bucket I back sweetened with just a little over 2oz of Glycerin. I got 8.5 bottles out of the batch. It should take 3-4 weeks to carbonate. I used 5 tabs per bottle.

The half bottle I had I did not cap of course. I let it chill down a few minutes it was not cold but cool. I then poured it as a still sample and WOW before the glycerin and after was a big difference. Before it was a bit bitter I assume that was from the acid of the cherries. It didnt taste bad it was just kinda like a sour drink. after the glycerin it was VERY smooth Not bitter at all. It taste sweet like you would expect a woodchuck. It retained some apple and some cherry flavor. The ABV is 9.5 by the way.
I usually dont back sweeten but its summer time and I figure a sweet cider would be great. I cant wait to try it after it carbonates and if for some reason it doesn't (it happen's) It should still be good enough that anyone could drink it.

man you guys get carbonation in a week? Maybe my house is to cold right now at 64 degrees F
It took my last gallon batch took exactly three weeks. The first week I opened a bottle there was a tiny amount of carbonation that went still in 60 seconds. Week two was a bit more carbonation but pretty much went still really fast. Week Three the magic happened. Perfect carbonation bubbles and more bubbles.

Yeah, my ciders carbonate exponentially faster than beer; not sure why.