Bottle Carbonating Question

[Ch4s3]

I have a batch nearing the end of fermentation and I want to bottle carbonate it, but I've never done that with cider. I keep seeing conflicting direections and opinions of various sites so I'm a little lost.

I plan to cold crash it and maybe siphon it off into another bucket and add a bit of yeast and back sweeten it it then bottle it. Will that work?

Are there any tips for how to go about it, without getting bottle bombs?

 

[CadillacAndy]

The best "safety net" I've found when bottle carbing is to fill a plastic soda bottle while you're filling your glass bottles. Prime it the same way you would the glass bottles - or pour like a regular bottle, if you add the priming sugar to the bottling bucket. Then keep the plastic bottle with the filled glass bottles (same temp, etc) and check the firmness of the plastic bottle. One the plastic bottle is firm (not bulging, but firm) I usually stove-top pasteurize.

I've found that bringing the water in the pot up to 170F or so and then submerging the bottles (up to 1/2 way on the neck) and then letting them sit in the water for 10 minutes (turn the heat off for this step) works very well. I always make sure I put the lid on the pot just in case anything goes boom - but I've never had a problem.

I personally use 16oz crown cap bottles. Make sure you don't use regular wine bottles with regular wine corks or you'll end up with cider geysers in your kitchen.

Another lesson I've learned is to fill the test plastic bottle in the middle of the batch and make sure all sugar is fully dissolved. I've pulled the test bottle from the dregs of the bucket before and it carbed up much faster than the glass bottles. No real risk of bottle bombs, but I have a whole case of cider that's not carbed to my liking.

 

[Jacob_Marley]

I have a batch nearing the end of fermentation and I want to bottle carbonate it, but I've never done that with cider. I keep seeing conflicting direections and opinions of various sites so I'm a little lost.

I plan to cold crash it and maybe siphon it off into another bucket and add a bit of yeast and back sweeten it it then bottle it. Will that work?

Are there any tips for how to go about it, without getting bottle bombs?

Yup, that'll work.

I'll second Cadillacandy's good suggestions.
Alternately, when your plastic test bottle seems hard and carbonated enough, if you don't want to heat pasteurize, you could just put your batch of bottles in the icebox on the lowest shelf to prevent further pressurization.

If you want a technical explanation of how to carbonate by priming and fermenting you could check out ...
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/cloudy-cider-269568-post3357179/#post3357179

 

[Ch4s3]

Cool thanks guys. I can't wait!