Recent content by caseymac91

I can't tell any difference in taste after pasteurizing.

Apologies for the way late reply. That may be the case, i'll keep one bottle open and see what the inside temp gets to. I've lost quite a few bottles to heat stress. I got a little ptsd though.... since it happened I switched to sweetening in the glass.

I keep having an issue with over carbonated bottles. I use Pappers bottle pasteurizing method, but it's like the yeast isn't dying. I just opened a cider in a grolsch bottle and the neck literally blew off, made my ears ring. Just finished releasing pressure on the batch, had a few more explode...

I'd say about 2 1/4 cups of apple juice to bottle prime 2 gallons. You could back sweeten with non fermentable sweeteners like sucralose, stevia, xylitol or lactose. Or you could back sweeten with apple juice concentrate and use the stovetop pasteurizing method. Check the sticky at the top of...

Xylitol is definitely the best tasting artificial sweetener.

Holy %$#@ balls batman. That's a lot of cider. This is how you force carb bottles: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/ Or you could just buy a beer gun. Another option would be to let it finish fermenting, add priming sugar, and back sweeten with non...

The one thing I really wish I had and still don't, kegerator. The bottling process takes more work than anything for me. A bottle rinser and bench capper has made it a little easier.

You could try to pasteurize, they might explode though. Definitely chill them right away. You could release some pressure. Pry the cap slowly until you hear a psss sound. It should let out air slow enough to not foam out. Wear eye protection, you never know when they'll give.

You would lose some, but not all of the co2 in solution. Chilling it helps. I've done this exact same thing when forgetting to make a tester a week into carbing. Not to mention he just bottled today. Carbing starts out slow and speeds up towards the end.

Nothing to worry about here. Looks like a healthy krausen. It should drop when fermentation ends. Yeast strains behave differently, last time I used white labs liquid yeast it looked exactly like that.

With that much sugar you are currently at 5 volumes of CO2, so bottle bombs are likely. You would have issues starting at 4 volumes. What I would do is uncap a bottle or two and transfer it to an empty soda bottle. Than you can keep track of how much pressure the batch is at. Once it feels like...

I think xylitol is the best tasting non fermentable sweetener. Unfortunately it gives me extremely painful stomach "issues". I've read that some people need to gradually increase intake to avoid these symptoms. It does have an off taste if over used, but not in reasonable amounts.

There's no benefit in adding xylitol beforehand. If you add it afterwards you can sweeten it to taste. Use 1 tsp of yeast per gallon.

Do you know how much stevia per 5 gallons? If not i'll add it slowly and go by taste.

What is your opinion on the best artificial back-sweetener for hard cider? Truvia, splenda, equal, or sweet n low? I'd like to hear from people who have actually used them. Xylitol is not an option for me, it causes stomach pain. I've tried back sweetening with AJ concentrate and bottle...