Can't get carbonation

[docz]

Hi I tried to make a batch of cider, it all went great - except for carbonation. It is not fizzy at all. There is some, but more like Riesling and not like beer/cider.

I made it from 5 liters of 100% apple juice from my own apple tree with 200g of honey and I used S04 Ale Yeast.

Primary went good, allthough it took longer than I'm used to with beer. It took about 4 and a half week to complete. I bottled once all had settled and it cleared up quite nicely. I used cooper's carbonation drops, three per 0.75liter bottle. I let them sit for two weeks. After that I took one bottle and left it in the fridge over night and tasted. Taste was good, but not fizzy. So I let the additional bottles sit for another two weeks and did the test again. Still no fizz.

So I took at opened the bottles and added more carbonation drops - two more per bottle. And I left them for two additional weeks. Still no carbonation to speak of. But the cider is quite dry, and the sugar tabs are gone, so I guess something must have happened to it? The bottles are tight flip top bottles with new gaskets.

OG was about 1.051 and FG was 1.004

Any ideas?

 

[phug]

Sounds like there still could be a seal issue. Can you find a plastic pop bottle of an appropriate size and transfer the contents of one bottle to it and screw the cap on tight. You might have to add carb drops again if your fg of 1.004 was before bottling and if the amount you transfer is still/ back at 1.004.


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[javalin]

Since you're a beer maker I'm assuming you know what you're doing, but I'm going to ask the beginner questions anyway. Did you pasteurize your cider, or add any preservatives such as potassium sorbate or potassium metabisulfite?

If you did neither of those things, is there a layer of sediment at the bottom of the bottles?

 

[docz]

I did use 100% pure, unpreserved apple juice.

But seems that the problem was time. Now the carbonation was spot on! For some reason it took a lot longer than I was used to from making beer.

Taste was pretty good, a little on the dry side, my hope was that using ale yeast with a 73% would result in a sweet cider, maybe I need to add some more sugars to the juice prior to fermentation, in order to get more residual sweetness? Nothing wrong with it though, but I think it needs to age on the bottles a bit to develop more.

 

[Maylar]

You typically get very little residual sweetness with cider. Adding more sugar up front just increases alcohol content. If you're going to bottle carb and you want it sweet too consider using Xylitol for the sweetener when you bottle, it won't ferment.

 

[NinjaBear]

You typically get very little residual sweetness with cider. Adding more sugar up front just increases alcohol content. If you're going to bottle carb and you want it sweet too consider using Xylitol for the sweetener when you bottle, it won't ferment.

How does Xylitol affect the flavor?

 

[Nogud247]

Xylitol is a sugar alcohol so it will sweeten without giving the yeast something to eat.