How do I bottle condition a semi sweet cider?

[xxkiskekyxx]

I'm at a loss as to how to bottle condition a cider without it going bone dry first and then adding priming sugar. Otherwise it would be create bottle bombs.

 

[thadass]

This is a common issue with ciders. To paraphrase another user, making a carbed cider is easy and making a sweet cider is easy, but making a sweet/carbed cider is difficult.

The easiest ways to achieve this is to either stop fermentation when it's as sweet as you want and then force carb in a keg... or

Allow to ferment out, sweeten with something artificial/non-fermentable, and then prime with sugar and bottle.


There is a third option of bottling it before it's done fermenting, letting it carb, and then pasteurizing it in the bottle to cease yeast activity.

All of these options are fairly well covered on the forum... check around!

(here is the stove-top pasteurizing sticky: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/ )

 

[KeyWestBrewing]

I'm at a loss as to how to bottle condition a cider without it going bone dry first and then adding priming sugar. Otherwise it would be create bottle bombs.

I do this all the time, check the link posted below. Let the cider ferment dry using Nottingham then once its finished fermenting and clearing up rack it to the bottling bucket. Before you bottle it up add whatever juice youd like to backsweeten with, I also use honey, and mix it in to taste. Once its bottled youll have to open a bottle a day to check the carbonation level then pasteurize all the bottles when its carbed up how you want it. Usually thats about day 3 or 4 in the bottle. If you let the cider get overcarbed the bottles can blow up when you pasteurize them. In all honesty it sounds more complicated in writing than it really is. Its actually a lot less work to make cider than it is to brew beer.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/