Hi all!
I made 3 6-gallon batches of cider this fall, in hopes of using them at my wedding in May. This is my first venture at cidermaking, and I used cider from a local mill, sulfited, added honey/corn sugar, then pitched with champagne or white wine yeast. The first 2 batches are sitting in secondary fermenters and I will probably leave them there for a few more months, but this past weekend I went ahead and bottled my 3rd batch, thinking I would compare how they aged in the bottle versus in the secondary.
Anyway, I used 12 champagne bottles and about 30+ beer bottles, and 6.5 oz of corn sugar for priming. I also added a couple grains of champagne yeast to all but a couple of bottles for insurance (and left a few alone for comparison).
I sure hope they turn out good! They are very sour and tart now, which is good. I think the carbonation will add a needed dimension. They have a subtle apple flavor, but definitely some aftertastes which are not great and that I am hoping will mellow out over the next 6 months.
My biggest worry at the moment is that as this this was my first time using champagne bottles, which I wanted to use cause I think they look so much better. However, being my first time, I am a little nervous about them. I have been saving them for awhile and had a variety of different bottles. I used the plastic corks, most of which I had to hammer in. I used the cages on all of them, but was unsure how to properly attach them, and I have to say, the do not seem very secure. I broke some of the cages, twisting them too enthusiastically, but added wire to secure them. In general, the cages seem like they would allow the corks to move some, but I am not sure if that is normal, and I could not get them to be any more secure. I put the bottles up in the second bathroom, in the shower, in case. I am a little nervous of the unknown, but hoping for the best!
Also, I used a bottling "wand" to bottle them, but that leaves more head space in the champagne bottles than in a beer bottle. I am guessing it is almost 2 inches of head space. Is that bad?
Thanks for any feedback!