Bottled too early?

[criggs85]

Hi All,

I think I may have bottled too early. I bottled it after it held at the same FG for a couple of weeks (1.005). It was dry and very bitter. After I bottled it I read a lot of comments I should have left it in the secondary for a couple months to see if the bitterness dropped and rounded out. When I bottled it I also put some in a sanitized soda bottle to see how it was carbing. I'm a week in and the plastic soda bottle is rock hard. Should I be worried about over carbing or bottle bombs? Also is there any work around to right this (ie. opening and pouring them back into a secondary for a while then rebottling)?

Thanks!

 

[Chalkyt]

My guess would be that if you bottled at 1.005 it has continued to ferment down to 1.000 (since your soda bottle is now hard). At 1.000 the cider will generally be quite tart as all of the sugar has gone, and you will have generated around 2.5 to 3 volumes of CO2... the upper range of "normal" carbonation but not enough to cause bottle bombs.

I don't see any problem with opening the bottles and starting again except that you don't want to expose the cider to too much O2 (and keep everything sanitary). So, bear with the following which should salvage what you have... not in time for Xmas unfortunately, but maybe for the New Year.

There should still be yeast left which will start fermenting any sugar that you add, but putting a "pinch" of new yeast won't hurt if you are unsure. So, if you liked the taste at 1.005 when you bottled, add enough sugar (or if you prefer, a non fermentable sweetener like Xylitol, Splenda etc) to get back to that taste, then add enough fermentable sugar on top of this to get the carbonation that you want (with all of the mucking around, it will probably de-gas quite quickly so will need to be re-carbonated). Typically this would be another 0.004 or 0.005 worth of SG. So if you are using sugar, this would take you to 1.009 or 1.010, then bottle it. (The rough "rule of thumb" is that fermenting 0.001 SG results in 0.5 volume of CO2, or add roughly two tsp of sugar per litre for 2-3 volumes of CO2)

Then comes the sometimes "scary part" (it really isn't scary). Let it ferment down to your desired sweetness level or until your soda bottle is hard (but stop just as it gets hard, with too much carbonation you can't tell what is happening once you get past the hard point... twice as much carbonation still feels hard).

Then heat pasteurise to stop fermentation. There has been heaps of stuff on heat pasteurisation in the forum in recent months... just start searching). In your case, a good rule of thumb will be to put the bottles in a waterbath heated to 65-70C for 10 minutes then remove them. This will kill the yeast and leave your 0.005 or so of sweetness from unfermented sugar. If you are happy to wait for the cider to round out a bit, then let this happen in the bottles but it should be quite drinkable in a few weeks after it has carbonated to the level that you want.

Good luck!

 

[criggs85]

My guess would be that if you bottled at 1.005 it has continued to ferment down to 1.000 (since your soda bottle is now hard). At 1.000 the cider will generally be quite tart as all of the sugar has gone, and you will have generated around 2.5 to 3 volumes of CO2... the upper range of "normal" carbonation but not enough to cause bottle bombs.

I don't see any problem with opening the bottles and starting again except that you don't want to expose the cider to too much O2 (and keep everything sanitary). So, bear with the following which should salvage what you have... not in time for Xmas unfortunately, but maybe for the New Year.

There should still be yeast left which will start fermenting any sugar that you add, but putting a "pinch" of new yeast won't hurt if you are unsure. So, if you liked the taste at 1.005 when you bottled, add enough sugar (or if you prefer, a non fermentable sweetener like Xylitol, Splenda etc) to get back to that taste, then add enough fermentable sugar on top of this to get the carbonation that you want (with all of the mucking around, it will probably de-gas quite quickly so will need to be re-carbonated). Typically this would be another 0.004 or 0.005 worth of SG. So if you are using sugar, this would take you to 1.009 or 1.010, then bottle it. (The rough "rule of thumb" is that fermenting 0.001 SG results in 0.5 volume of CO2, or add roughly two tsp of sugar per litre for 2-3 volumes of CO2)

Then comes the sometimes "scary part" (it really isn't scary). Let it ferment down to your desired sweetness level or until your soda bottle is hard (but stop just as it gets hard, with too much carbonation you can't tell what is happening once you get past the hard point... twice as much carbonation still feels hard).

Then heat pasteurise to stop fermentation. There has been heaps of stuff on heat pasteurisation in the forum in recent months... just start searching). In your case, a good rule of thumb will be to put the bottles in a waterbath heated to 65-70C for 10 minutes then remove them. This will kill the yeast and leave your 0.005 or so of sweetness from unfermented sugar. If you are happy to wait for the cider to round out a bit, then let this happen in the bottles but it should be quite drinkable in a few weeks after it has carbonated to the level that you want.

Good luck!

Thank you! This helps a lot! I'll let you know what route I take and the outcome.

 

[dwhite60]

If I was sweetening it I'd use xylitol. Apparently Splenda (sucralose) breaks down over time. May not be a problem if it's not going to be around long.

 

[Rick Stephens]

Lately, a batch that was too 'tart' or sour for my personal enjoyment had been sitting around staring at me. They do that whenever I look in on how a batch is proceeding. I've gotten into two different habits, I'd guess you'd call it, with that situation. I either drip a little agave syrup into a wine glass before pouring, or 1/3 fill the glass with cheap apple juice or cranapple, or pomegranate apple etc then pour. Takes the edge right off it, still leaves the carbonation I love, and is eminently drinkable. Best part is, I don't risk pouring out, contaminating and rebottling.

 

[Maylar]

If you can keg it opens up a whole new world. Mine is just a 1.75 gallon Cannonball keg in a dorm fridge. I can bottle from it as well. An investment that pays off big time.

 

[Rick Stephens]

If you can keg it opens up a whole new world. Mine is just a 1.75 gallon Cannonball keg in a dorm fridge. I can bottle from it as well. An investment that pays off big time.

On my list. When needs must.... sorry about the pun.

 

[criggs85]

If you can keg it opens up a whole new world. Mine is just a 1.75 gallon Cannonball keg in a dorm fridge. I can bottle from it as well. An investment that pays off big time.

View attachment 711402

Yeah I'm starting to lean towards investing in this kind of setup. For some reason I always thought not having bottles I could gift would be the downside but somehow missed the fact you can bottle out of it. Thanks!

 

[Maylar]

Yeah I'm starting to lean towards investing in this kind of setup. For some reason I always thought not having bottles I could gift would be the downside but somehow missed the fact you can bottle out of it. Thanks!

You can bottle carbonated sweet cider. No need for pasteurizing. The picnic tap just barely visible in that pic mates perfectly with a standard bottling wand, just push a button and fill a bottle. This little keg lets me do 1-1/2 gallons at a time. I also have a CO2 cartridge with a tap attached, so I can move the little keg to a cooler and dispense cider for BBQ events on my deck. I love it.