Another Carbonation Thread?

[skitter]

May have been answered, can't find it though and I may be using the wrong search terms.

Limited budget so trying to do this with what I have.

If I did a cider, in my case it would be 2.5 gallons based on the fermenters I am using.

If I did a 2 week ferment, letting it go completely dry on me, and then added sorbate and sugar to sweeten at bottling, would this allow it to carbonate without exploding on me? For this batch as it is my first I am leaning towards using plastic bottles (leftover Mr' Beer 1L bottles) so I can "firm test" the carbonation.

I tried this with a lemonade using Lavlin EC1118 Yeast and there was still too much yeast left and I had to cold crash, however I did another lemonade batch with Red Star Montrache and added the Sorbate 2 days before bottling and ended up with no carb. I still have 1/2 Packet of Montrache left and was planning on trying sweeten/sorbate at bottling with that.

Sound plausible?

Thanks,

Skitter

 

[menerdari]

Sorbate inhibits yeast reproduction, great to back sweeten but will not allow natural carbonation. Kind of a catch 22 with that one.
There are other methods that allow sweetening and carbonation, like bottle pasturization.
But that is something I wont attempt myself.
Kegging is another way to carb once sorbate and sweetening is done.

 

[johngaltsmotor]

As menerdari said, you're kinda stuck: to carbonate you need yeast to eat the sugar, but if you leave them alive to eat the sugar, they're going to eat ALL of the sugar (unless they die of alcohol poisoning at the upper end of their range).
So if you want sweetness you either need to add a non-fermentable sugar and the prime and bottle or kill the yeast and force carbonate. I've seen people mention pasteurizing by running them through the dishwasher once their test bottle shows the desired carbonation (worst case you have a bottle bomb explode and buy a new dishwasher )

 

[skitter]

I am attempting to NOT bottle pasteurize, I'm sure it's safe, however it's not plausible to use PET bottles for that, and glass sounds far to dangerous to get it right. I was hoping this would work as the EC-1118 kept carbing with the Sorbate added (plenty of yeasties alive I'm assuming) to the point of having to be cold crashed before I got explosions.

I guess the only way to know is try it out

 

[Maylar]

Safe and simple is to ferment dry and add priming sugar at bottling time. If you also want some sweetness add Xylitol or some other nonfermentable sugar. No chemicals, no pasteurizing.