Still cider - backsweeten with cider and bottled - how to prevent bottle bombs

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ashyg

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My current plan is:

5 gallons of UV pasteurized cider from a local cider mill + 1 packet champagne yeast + pectic enzyme until it stops bubbling... then rack it off the primary fermenter/yeast cake to a bottling bucket.

Once it's in the bottling bucket, add 5 crushed campden tablets and up to one additional gallon of UV pasteurized cider, tasting every once in a while until desired sweetness is reached.

I'm going to be bottling since I don't have the capacity for kegging... will the campden tablets and siphoning into a bottling bucket+using pectic enzyme to hopefully drop the particulate matter down prevent me from having bottle bombs?
 
Yeah, I think I'm going to go the pasteurization route... I don't even need to backsweeten that way.
 
OK, so my OG was 1.057(no sugar added).

The attenuation of my yeast(Red Star Pasteur Champagne Yeast) is 72-77% so I can expect to end up maybe around 1.014 FG.

1.014 should be pretty sweet, right? I think I might just let this batch ferment until dry and then add priming sugar like a beer... it seems much easier than pasteurizing :)
 
You will be surprised that the yeast will pretty much devour all the sugars in the cider, even though the attenuation of the yeast says differently. I have a batch that I am racking tonight, that I used Safeale S04, and I had attempted to bottle a couple weeks ago and had bottle bombs all over the place. I was able to save 75% of the cider, and dumped them all back into the primary to let it finish.

I guess what I am saying is don't be surprised when it hit 1.000 on you SG reading.
 
You will be surprised that the yeast will pretty much devour all the sugars in the cider, even though the attenuation of the yeast says differently. I have a batch that I am racking tonight, that I used Safeale S04, and I had attempted to bottle a couple weeks ago and had bottle bombs all over the place. I was able to save 75% of the cider, and dumped them all back into the primary to let it finish.

I guess what I am saying is don't be surprised when it hit 1.000 on you SG reading.

How long did it take your bottle bombs to develop?
 
OK, so my OG was 1.057(no sugar added).

The attenuation of my yeast(Red Star Pasteur Champagne Yeast) is 72-77% so I can expect to end up maybe around 1.014 FG.

1.014 should be pretty sweet, right? I think I might just let this batch ferment until dry and then add priming sugar like a beer... it seems much easier than pasteurizing :)

Attenuation is only a factor when using complex sugars like in malts. Any yeast will attenuate 100% when using simple sugars like cider, honey, corn or cane sugar.
 
In order to get a yeast to quit early the only "natual way would to use a yeast with a low alcohol tolerance and have way more sugars available than it can handle.

Champagne yeasts tolerance is quite high compared to others.
 
My bottle bombs started in about 48 hours.

I checked the SG of that batch of cider, and it was at 0.995, and this was using Safeale S04 yeast. I racked it off the yeast cake and have it sitting in a carboy. I will rack it again, next week, and try to back sweeten it a bit and then try bottling again. I hope it works this time. Next week I will also have time to monitor and pasturize them too.
 
My bottle bombs started in about 48 hours.

I checked the SG of that batch of cider, and it was at 0.995, and this was using Safeale S04 yeast. I racked it off the yeast cake and have it sitting in a carboy. I will rack it again, next week, and try to back sweeten it a bit and then try bottling again. I hope it works this time. Next week I will also have time to monitor and pasturize them too.

How's the taste at 0.995? Dry enough? :cross:
 
too dry for my taste, but it wasn't bad. I am planning on backsweetening it to about 1.010, then bottle. Hopefully things work out better this time around. I think my problem before was the fermentation was just too active, that's why I got the bottle bombs.
 
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