Bottling day coming up!

[TheNewGuy2]

I will be bottling my cran/app cider back sweetening with cran and app concentrate and carbing them with it! I am so stoked!

 

[schwiz]

Cool you should check back in with pics and results

 

[TheNewGuy2]

Will do, I went full noob with note taking meaning I didn't so I'll give a simple and very vague description with taste results and further steps (aging)

Edit: I will be note taking from now on

 

[jed2009]

Sounds cool new guy. I am new as well. Question for you. So do you just simply open your primary, dump in the new concentrate/ingredients, then full up your bottles, cap, and let em sit? Do you leave the caps loose to prevent explosions or what? This is an area I'm still a bit vague in (carbonation).

 

[MarkKF]

Caps must be sealed to carb. It forces the CO2 to stay in solution.

 

[jed2009]

I see. So do you just monitor the bottles/jugs every day, or release the pressure once a day or something?

 

[TheNewGuy2]

From what I read and what I am planning on doing I will have my already filled carboys of cider (secondary). I will take my primary and use it for my bottling bucket and the steps are as follows
1)add ~1.25 cans of concentrate (for sweetness and carb) to bucket for ~2 gallons of cider
2)rack cider to bucket and gently mix the liquids to prevent aeration
3a) fill one soda bottle with mixed cider with bottling cane and secure cap
3b)fill 15 oz grolsche bottles until gone and secure tops
4)wait until soda bottle is firm and do stove top pasturization method
5)chill and enjoy
*process will change based off of advice and new knowledge that I come across
**you basically add some sort of fermentables ie suger, ajc, cider to the dry cider and fully cap and let it carb up. You use the soda bottle to gauge when it is ready. It is about ready to pasturize when it is hard to you squeezing it. Pasturizing can be found in the sticking in this subforum

 

[TheNewGuy2]

I will also take pictures to show you what I did. So by Thursday to Friday expect to see some!

 

[jed2009]

Nice, thanks for the replies mate. Sounds a bit complicated for me at the moment. I will just drink mine dry and perhaps consider sweetening/carbonating for my second go-round! Looking forward to the updates.

 

[Nogud247]

Subscribed

 

[TheNewGuy2]

Quick update, it won't be cran app it will be the original apple cuz the other still has not finished yet and I don't have enough bottle for both!

 

[T_Baggins]

apple/cherry is a nice combo ..I've done several from concentrate and even oaked some.

 

[ltmfb]

Sub'd....can't wait to see. I have a newb cider in the primary and pretty excited about it as well.

 

[TheNewGuy2]

Another update
Since I'm doing a full 3 gallons I will be adding approximately 1.8 cans of apple concentrate for both carb and sweetness. Since I discovered mold and particles in the grolsche bottles I got at a steal for 50c per I guess work had to be involved. So I will be cleaning those and bottling tomorrow afternoon. Sorry bout the delay but I gotta do what I gotta do!

 

[jed2009]

How are you getting the mold out?

 

[TheNewGuy2]

Soaking and scrubbing my friend then sanitizing

 

[phug]

Had that happen on bottling day once lots of rinsing too. And more scrubbing and more soaking. Don't forget to check under the gaskets


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[TheNewGuy2]

Today's the day, I got a new hydrometer and I will give detailed notes and pictures. This is how I'm feeling
Edit: bottle scrubbing will start when I return from school and the store.

 

[MarkKF]

I was gonna bottle last night. But after I sanitized my bottles I realized I didn't have enough. So I put everything back and drank a couple.

 

[debko]

I will also take pictures to show you what I did. So by Thursday to Friday expect to see some!

Also new to brewing. Getting ready for five gallons to go into second fermentation (have to buy a carboy because I have heard you shouldn't secondary in a bucket because of the too much head space or I might just secondary into gallon jugs with airlocks and car bungs on them). I plan on letting it sit in the secondary for a month and then bottling them with back carbonation and sweetening with Truvia and putting in fridge. How long has yours been sitting? Excited to hear how yours turned out, keep us posted.

 

[debko]

I will be bottling my cran/app cider back sweetening with cran and app concentrate and carbing them with it! I am so stoked!

New to brewing too so some quick questions. You say are are back sweetening with cran and apple concentrate. I was told that the sweetness would be all eaten if you are using real sugar and such as frozen concentrate, is this not true? Will some of the sweetness remain? I was told you had to use Xylitol or such for sweetening. Also, does the flavor stand up when you use a frozen concentrate rather than just a concentrated flavor from a bottle? Is one preferred over another?

 

[TheNewGuy2]

You can Backsweeten carb and for taste. Use the recomended amount for both and let it carbonate. I filled a soda bottle to test by hand (when it is firm the the squeeze it's ready) but then you have to pasturize it. There is a sticky in the forum for it, check it out!
Update: all bottled up. I will outline and post what I did within a few hours!

 

[debko]

You can Backsweeten carb and for taste. Use the recomended amount for both and let it carbonate. I filled a soda bottle to test by hand (when it is firm the the squeeze it's ready) but then you have to pasturize it. There is a sticky in the forum for it, check it out!
Update: all bottled up. I will outline and post what I did within a few hours!

Thanks. I didn't realize you had to pasturize it after it is bottled. Is this always necessary? I started out with 5 gallons of cold pasturized fresh apple cider with nothing added.

 

[Nogud247]

Thanks. I didn't realize you had to pasturize it after it is bottled. Is this always necessary? I started out with 5 gallons of cold pasturized fresh apple cider with nothing added.

If you want a dry fizzy cider you can do the math and skip the pasteurization. If you want sweet and bubbly you need to kill off the yeast before they consume all of your sugar or use a sugar type that they can't eat like xylitol.