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WAAYYY too many variables here. What was your gravity at time of pitching the yeast, what was your gravity at bottling? What kind of bottles is it in? How long did you let it sit after fermentation was finished (assuming it was)? Did you degas? .......

Try adding a bit of nutrient. Could be slowbecause the yeast just doesn't have enough to go on besides sugar. Just dissolve it in some boiling water, let it cool and mix it in. A bit of aeration might help too.

I've done a simple "ginger ale" before just by grating a whole lot (no idea how much, but my arm hurt) into a gallon of boiling sugar-water. I cooled and pitched some yeast (shouldn't matter what type). It fermented out really dry as you'd imagine, and was not too bad. Pretty one dimensional...

So I was just poking around the recipe database and found the following recipe for Hard Lemonade: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f81/hard-lemonade-126630/ Now, lemon is also a citrus fruit, and if you can get this to ferment, them I'm sure you can also get Mandarin/Lime. My guess is that you'll...

Sorry, but I think I'm confused. Do you HAVE to have unpasteurized cider to do this? Can you give us a rundown of your procedure to this point?

You're probably right to be leery. I'm sure you have, but read through the sticky on pasteurization by CvilleKevin. There are tips on knowing when there's enough carbonation. Pop a bottle, and if it gushes out on you then you don't want to heat it and you're running the risk of bombs. You want...

Aptly pointed out many times on this site, especially by Yooper, potassium sorbate DOESN'T KILL yeast. It blocks division. If you have a trillion cells in the solution, they can still metabolize sugar to make alcohol, so who cares if they can't divide? True, it does slow it down, but won't stop...

It's a bit more complicated than this. Your yeast will start back up with back sweetening and will go all the way to dryness. If you bottle too soon and don't pasteurize you'll have bombs on your hands. See this thread for discussion: PLS READ: "I want a sweet, carbonated cider"

This has been nagging at me for sometime. Why is it that with high alcohol, bottled cider (or mead) for that matter it is recommended to let it sit in the bottles to age for sometime to "tame" it? If the bottles are sealed, how does it lose any of the alcohol strength? What is the theory on...

You can leave it for quite some time (months) if there isn't much airspace and it's in decent (dark, not too warm) conditions. Was it dry when you racked it off primary? If you're waiting for it to dry out, then you need your gravity readings.

Please, listen to Revvy. Cold crashing is tricky. The only way that you'll actually kill the yeast is to pasteurize it. Any other method doesn't. Have a look here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/pls-read-i-want-sweet-carbonated-cider-282841/ It explains the different ways to keep you cider...

Apparently there's a way to finagle the sorbate out. See: http://www.winemakingtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=913 I have NO idea if this will work, but basically they suggest pitching some bread yeast and letting that go to the end. Then you rack and repitch a proper brewers yeast. Saves...

How long did it sit? Sometimes it just needs to bulk age. Out of curiosity, what type of yeast?

It depends what you want. Of you wan a dry flat cider, which is good, then just ferment to dryness an bottle. Make sure gravity is the same 3 readings in a row 3 days apart each. If you want it carbed, then do as above and bottle prime as for beer. If you want sweet and carbed, then See: PLS...

Just rack it and take a gravity reading. Then check again in 3 days and again 3 days after that. If they're all the same and somewhere close to 1.000 then it's fermented out. If its much higher then you might have a stuck ferment, but I doubt it. You probably just had a nice long, slow ferment.

Will you campden treat them at all? How will you make sure they're clean?

That should be fine, but be careful about how much to let them carb before pasteurizing. That sticky talks about this. Too much carbing and the heat could be bad. When oyu add the sugar, do it slowly. Taste it frequently. You want to make sure that it's palatable.

You just have to be cautious with the "firmness" test. The difference between firm and too firm is hard to discern. Make sure you check a glass one before heating them. If it were me, I'd use that method to tell when you should start checking your glass bottles. You may even want to test one...

Thanks Yooper. I wanted to try and get this all into one cohesive thread, it comes up so often and is so spread out, I thought it might help newcomers.

Ok folks. I haven't been doing this all that long, but I notice that at least 50% of the questions/discussions on this board have to do with how to get a sweet, carbonated cider. Everyone wants it the easy way. Well, there really isn't one. It comes down to biology. I've written this for a...