Bottled, to dribk or not to dribk?

[applesnhops]

I bottled my first five gallons of hard apple cider. I let 5 gallons of store bought apple cider, 2 pounds of brown sugar and yeast nutrient ferment with Lavlin champagne yeast for 3 weeks.Now it was still cloudy, but having tasted pretty good, I decided to bottle it. I primed 1/2 with powdered sugar and the other half unprimed. I am hoping it will get a little more sparkle. Do I age it? Put it in fridge? Or leave at room temperature? Or do I drink it all right away? Will it explode? It was slightly carbonated when bottling. Also, it was very dry, and strong 8-9 % at a guess, I forgot to get SG at beginning. If I wanted it sweeter would I use ale yeast? Thanks for your suggestions..

 

[Apple_Jacker]

What was your final gravity of the cider before you primed it? What was the gravity after you primed it? You need to, at the very least, get those things in a cold refrigerator or pasteurize them so they don't explode. Open one up and check for carbonation level. How long have they been in the bottles?

 

[applesnhops]

Thanks Apple_Jacker for the reply.
I just bottled them Friday night. I didn't get a reading since I had failed to get one before I started. I'll gladly open one up though and get one. It was barely carbonated at all when I bottled. I went to the homebrew store and the guy said that the unprimed ones could be stored in or out of the fridge that they were finished. He said for the primed ones to give weeks at room temp, cool one down in fridge and then open and check for carbonation. He said to go week by week to desired carb level then put in fridge. What do you think?

 

[Totes]

I primed 1/2 with powdered sugar and the other half unprimed. I am hoping it will get a little more sparkle.

I have to ask, what do you mean by powdered sugar? Dextrose? Confectioners sugar is a horrible choice for bottle priming, jsyk.

 

[applesnhops]

Yup thats what I used! I hope it doesn't ruin it. Someone had suggested that it dissolved very eadily at cooler temperatures...

 

[Totes]

Yup thats what I used! I hope it doesn't ruin it. Someone had suggested that it dissolved very eadily at cooler temperatures...

It won't ruin it, but confectioners sugar has corn starch in it to keep it 'powdered'. Starch helps bad things happen in regards to clarity and food for undesirables. You will be fine, but I would suggest a different sugar for the future. cheers.

 

[saramc]

Yup thats what I used! I hope it doesn't ruin it. Someone had suggested that it dissolved very eadily at cooler temperatures...

Superfine sugar is what dissolves better at cooler temperature when compared to regular granulated sugar. Definitely do not want to use powdered/confectioners sugar anywhere in fermentation.

 

[Kashue]

Your best bet to sweeten for carbonation is to add more juice concentrate before bottling. I recently did a gallon batch with 1 tube of concentrate and a quarter-cup of maple syrup- it fizzed nicely and the flavor was incredible, although a bit sweeter than I wanted.

IN GENERAL, proper carbonation of a cider that has fermented dry and been in secondary will take 5 days or more. Provided you don't agitate the bottles too much you can open one to check for neck mist, then cap it up again if it's not ready.

Note that some recipes, like UpstateMike's Caramel Apple, skip secondary in favor of launching directly into sweetening and bottling. In this case carbonation happens MUCH faster, like a young beer.