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If you're backsweetening without killing the yeast you may want to consider pasteurizing or refridgerating the bottles after they get to your desired carbonation level. If you let them sit too long the yeast will eat all of the added sugars and: 1. It'll end up dry again; and 2. The bottles...

Only let the bottles sit long enough for the carbonation to get to your preferred level and then pasturise. Once its pasteurized you can let it age for as long as you want without fear of exploding bottles (provided you did it properly). Just gotta remember, the biggest reason you're...

You might be able to get away without using the hydrometer (I did for a while), but they are pretty cheap and its nice to be able to confirm when a batch is finished fermenting and even being able to figure out the approximate alcohol percentage. Last thing you want to do is bottle an actively...

Well a quick answer is yes, put them in the fridge asap to prevent them carbonating too much more. I assume the colder the better (but obviously not freezing) but someone here would have more detailed information on temperature.

Basically you bottle with a bit of extra sugar for the yeast to consume and produce extra carbon dioxide which creates the bubbles. There are a number of calculators to determine how much sugar to use based on the type of sugar and how much carbonation you want. This shouldn't significantly...

Edit: Whoops, double post

Agreed. For every story about avoiding bottle bombs there are plenty with people narrowly avoiding getting hit by flying shards of glass or coming into their garage in the morning to find exploded bottles.

Well I wouldn't quite take this as a sign that you don't need to worry about bottle bombs. More that certain bottles can take a lot more pressure than you'd think. If you're using fliptop bottles however I doubt you'd need to worry about bottle bombs as much because the seal at the top will...

Yeah, thanks for the info as well. I might experiment a little with these ideas for my next batch :)

I understand that boiling can set the pectins. But does anyone know of other methods of concentrating apple juice into a strong appley syrup or something? Preferably without setting the pectins. My reasons for this are to get a strong natural apple flavour to boost the flavour and sweetness of...

Yeah I use unscented non-enzyme napisan (sorta the aussie equivalent to oxyclean) and soak the bucket for a while and give it a light scrub. Then I fill it with a little water with a tiny bit of vinegar to get the soapy crap out faster. It works great. Then I fill it back up with water and use...

Roadymi has a point. Let the cider finish and use a fining agent. It can make a pretty big difference in the time it takes for yeast to drop. Just be very careful, a fining agent may help the yeast to drop but it can get stirred up extremely easily. When you're getting close to bottling try...

I believe they refer to it as freeze concentration. I don't think it is illegal in most places but it really depends on where you live. Distillation using a still is illegal in most places but freeze concentration not so much from what I understand.

Actually I am curious about this idea too. I'd love to use apple concentrate but it doesn't appear to be readily available in Australia these days.

There's a few reasons why people like to pasteurise rather than backsweeten. Firstly some people are lactose intolerant or sensitive to the tastes of artificial sweeteners (they often get a nasty aftertaste). Secondly, the natural sweetness from apples may just taste better to some people...

Just be careful when removing the bottles after pasteurising them. Try warming the surface you are placing the bottles on. The sudden change from hot to cold may cause temperature shock in the glass. I know I've read reports of people having problems with this. I think they either used a towel...

I don't see why you couldn't pasturize immediately after bottling if you don't want carbonation. If you leave it for a week and there is any residual sugar and yeast it'll carbonate on its own, so immediate pasturization sounds like the best thing for you. As for starsan, I haven't used it...

One other thing to remember is the more sugar you use the higher the alcohol content is likely to be. Also it will mean you are gonna need to age it for longer as well. I made the mistake of doing a batch with 2kg of sugar and it still tasted like rocket fuel 6months after bottling. It got me...

I'm pretty sure that re-starting the brew will not help to get rid of the yeasty flavour. The reason it tastes yeasty is because there is probably still some yeast in suspension in your brew and adding more sugar will porbably just reactivate the yeast and they'll hang around longer. Try...

I haven't done that many batches either (3-4). But generally, the more sugar you add, the stronger the alcohol content and the worse it is likely to taste straight after fermentation. If its high alcohol, people suggest leaving it to age. The flavour should improve with time and the higher the...