So i made Cider

So i made a cider and now do not know what to do with it......other than drink it :fro: i made a two gallon batch mixing half gallon with brown sugar warming up and mixing yada yada yada. so after two weeks it is done fermenting, should i bottle it and let it age, or just let it sit and bottle right before i drink it. i dont think cider is carbonated, and i have read where some people run bottles through the dishwaser to pasteurize. i am really looking for the easiest way. thanks.

Hi Chia,

You should definitely let it age for a while. If it's just juice and sugar it will take about 3/4 months before it will taste good. Of course you can drink it earlier, it just will taste more of alcohol and yeast. It needs time to mellow and for the apple flavor to dominate.

It's best to bulk age (leave it in the fermentor) rather than bottle it and then let it age.
If you have the ability the very best thing is to transfer it to a secondary, getting it off of the lees (the yeast cake at the bottom.) If not it's alright to leave it for 3 or 4 months, then bottle.

If you want it to be carbonated you will have to add priming sugar. It's normally 3/4 a cup of sugar for a five gallon batch, so you can do the math and taylor to your batch. This would give you a dry carbonated cider, which is very nice, if you like dry cider.

If you want a sweet carb'ed cider you would need to pasteurize. I don't have a dishwasher, so I can't be definitive, but I have also read people saying they had no problems.

I would suggest when you get ready to bottle, use at least one plastic soda bottle like a 16 or 20 oz one. That way you can feel the level of carbonation and if the bottle every gets rock hard, you know that you would need to cold crash the batch, or else you might get bottle bomb. I found this helpful when I was first bottle carbing.


Good Luck!
-The Doctor

DoctorWho said:

If you want a sweet carb'ed cider you would need to pasteurize.

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You can use a non fermentable sweetener like Splenda. Then you just prime normally.

That's true, you can use non-fermentable sugars to backsweeten. However, I tried a few (splenda, lactose) and found that they imparted a chemical sickly sweet flavour that I didn't care for. YMMV.