Cider carbonation in bottle - Not optimal?

[Dimax]

I wanted to update you on the current situation, and to pick your brains, if I may?

After 4 weeks of waiting, I added 3 quarters of a cup of white cane sugar into the 5-gallon plastic carboy. The juice had been in the same carboy for the entire 4 weeks, I did not complete a second racking.

The sugar was added and after one hour I syphoned the juice into 15 Ikea Korken Bottles (the ones with the stopper at the top).

Two days later, I noticed that some bottles had very few bubbles at the top of their individual bottles, whilst others had copious amounts of bubbles furiously bubbling at the top and from the bottom of the bottle. Although this bubbling was what I was looking for, I was genuinely concerned as to whether the bottles would explode.

Today, I came back to an exploded bottle (not one of the Ikea bottles), and so I decided to let some of the gas out from the bottles by opening them. It was quite a frightening experience, as I was unsure as to whether the bottles would explode in my hand as I uncorked the bottles. Thankfully, this did not happen, but, like I said, I was pretty concerned.

So, to my questions.

1- Is it better to just leave the bottles alone regardless of how much they are bubbling as this will eventually subside?

2- Could opening the bottles, when they are showing signs of heavy carbonation, lead to bottles exploding in my hand? Some of the popping sounds that I am hearing when I open the bottles is quite 'worrying'? Have you, or anyone else, experienced this before?

3- If I add less sugar, would this reduce the amount of carbonation, or perhaps make it more subtle over a longer period?

4- Would a second racking make explosions less likely? I am thinking that reducing the amount of contact the 'new sugar (3/4 cup) has with the yeast at the bottom of the carboy might help with fewer explosions.

You also mentioned that putting the juice into the fridge may help. Is this something you would also recommend?

As always, thanks in advance for the responses.

All the best,
Simon M.

Warning this can and will be hazardous to your health and anyone around you, if you do do this do it outside! Suit up like an explosive ordnance expert then crack them all open and transfer back into your carboy, let sit a week and start the process over,
Check a bottle after a couple days if its carbonated to your liking start pasteurizing right away, and be sure to suit up again when you pasteurize!

 

[bucketnative]

Warning this can and will be hazardous to your health and anyone around you, if you do do this do it outside! Suit up like an explosive ordnance expert then crack them all open and transfer back into your carboy, let sit a week and start the process over,
Check a bottle after a couple days if its carbonated to your liking start pasteurizing right away, and be sure to suit up again when you pasteurize!

It is serious business. I had a friend experience some bottle bombs in batch in his basement. When he decided to let the caps off the remaining bottles, he donned a face shield, Kevlar gloves, and a very thick apron. Long sleeves as well. A glass bomb will send shards at high velocity.

 

[dmtaylor]

It is serious business. I had a friend experience some bottle bombs in batch in his basement. When he decided to let the caps off the remaining bottles, he donned a face shield, Kevlar gloves, and a very thick apron. Long sleeves as well. A glass bomb will send shards at high velocity.

Up to 20 feet in my experience.

 

[globell]

Like I said - there are limits. I don't know the maximum you can get and still pasteurize, but it's nowhere near a sparkling cider like Angry Orchard.

My ciders are carb'ed to about 2.4 volumes. I get a slight hiss when opening. Gushers is way too much. If you want really high carb then consider kegging.

Thank you!!

 

[MarkKF]

Up to 20 feet in my experience.

And they can stick in the ceiling, too. Ouch!

 

[SimonMM]

Thanks all for the tips.

So far I have had no further explosions, but I am still very careful when opening the bottles. Luckily, you can push in the steel holdings around the cap in a little and this releases some of the pressure before opening, so this has assisted with making it less of a 'pop' when opening.

On another note, I have the following observation, and I am not entirely sure what it is.

The juice that I am using is Hollinger Austrian 100% direct pressed apple juice. This juice, as it says on the carton, is cloudy. I have been leaving the juice in one carboy for at least 4 weeks, and not racking to a secondary. After 4-5 weeks, I then add my sugar (mixed with water) and fill up the individual bottles.

What I have noticed, on the whole, is that the juice keeps its cloudiness, which is OK, but today I noticed something very odd.

I placed one of the bottles into the freezer just to get the chill going quicker (typically I refrigerate overnight, but I had forgotten on this occasion), and when I came back about two hours later the juice had cleared completely apart from a half inch thick white 'goo' at the bottom of the bottle.

Now, I have seen this 'look' before on other posters pictures, but I always assumed that this was due to the fact that they were using 'clearer' juice from the start, but this was the first time I had seen this in the cloudy juice I used. What makes it even stranger, to me, is that I have placed bottles in the fridge and freezer before, from exactly the same batch, and this has not happened.

I can't be sure if this is yeast, or just the cloudy remnants of the organic juice.

So, has anyone witnessed this before, or could shed some light on what it might be? To be honest, I really like the clearer cider look and would be happier to have this all the time, so if it just means leaving the cider in the carboy for longer, then perhaps I will try that, but I will await any suggestions from you guys

As always, thanks in advance
Simon MM

 

[Dimax]

Thanks all for the tips.

So far I have had no further explosions, but I am still very careful when opening the bottles. Luckily, you can push in the steel holdings around the cap in a little and this releases some of the pressure before opening, so this has assisted with making it less of a 'pop' when opening.

On another note, I have the following observation, and I am not entirely sure what it is.

The juice that I am using is Hollinger Austrian 100% direct pressed apple juice. This juice, as it says on the carton, is cloudy. I have been leaving the juice in one carboy for at least 4 weeks, and not racking to a secondary. After 4-5 weeks, I then add my sugar (mixed with water) and fill up the individual bottles.

What I have noticed, on the whole, is that the juice keeps its cloudiness, which is OK, but today I noticed something very odd.

I placed one of the bottles into the freezer just to get the chill going quicker (typically I refrigerate overnight, but I had forgotten on this occasion), and when I came back about two hours later the juice had cleared completely apart from a half inch thick white 'goo' at the bottom of the bottle.

Now, I have seen this 'look' before on other posters pictures, but I always assumed that this was due to the fact that they were using 'clearer' juice from the start, but this was the first time I had seen this in the cloudy juice I used. What makes it even stranger, to me, is that I have placed bottles in the fridge and freezer before, from exactly the same batch, and this has not happened.

I can't be sure if this is yeast, or just the cloudy remnants of the organic juice.

So, has anyone witnessed this before, or could shed some light on what it might be? To be honest, I really like the clearer cider look and would be happier to have this all the time, so if it just means leaving the cider in the carboy for longer, then perhaps I will try that, but I will await any suggestions from you guys

As always, thanks in advance
Simon MM

"It's called Cold crashing is basically refrigerating your beer in order to clear it up. When you cold crash, it causes more yeast, proteins, etc... to drop to the bottom of the beer where so you can rack above it and have clearer beer going into the bottle or keg.

Putting the beer at standard refrigerator temps for a day or so makes a big difference."
I cut and pasted this from another poster you can do a search on cold crashing to get more info.

 

[SimonMM]

Dimax

Thanks very much for the information. I will search Cold Crashing in the forums

Much appreciated