Carbonation with sugar in bottle and lees removing

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The_italian_cider_maker

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Hi aaaall!
I'm near the bottling time (maybe in 2/3 weeks) and my goal is to obtain a champagne style cider (maybe something less to avoid bomb effect šŸ˜).
I want to do a natural carbonation in bottle but I think that at the end I'll have a lot of lees on the bottom and this could affect taste and the visual effect (it's not so nice to see something floating inside the bottle...).

I read about the disgorging technique but it's quite complex... Any other idea? Or do you suggest to add CO2 in keg and then bottle?
 
I'm near the bottling time (maybe in 2/3 weeks) and my goal is to obtain a champagne style cider
I want to do a natural carbonation in bottle but I think that at the end I'll have a lot of lees on the bottom

Has the cider cleared out yet? Put off bottling until the cider clears, and then any material in the bottom of the bottle will be minimal.
 
If you bottle carb there are always lees.

You can take several sweetening paths with force carbonation that would be perfectly clear.
Thank @Rick Stephens
I want to obtain a dry sparkling cider.
So do you suggest to use forced carbonation? I'm not sure how about the lees on the bottom will be see by the drinkers... If they will be see as a bad thing or a sign that the cider is homemade...

The cider is mostly completed clear.
 
Bottle carbonation will produce a small amount of sediment. I bottle my cider in beer bottles, so you can't see through the bottle. I store and chill them upright, so when I pour it into a glass I leave the last 10% in the bottle. The cider in the glass is quite clear. Of course later I drink the dregs from the bottle. But it does not go into the glass.

I've had commercial ciders that have some sediment in the bottle. I don't think that small amount will affect the flavor.
 
Since I bottle carbonate, like Raptor99, I end up with a little sediment/lees in the bottom of every bottle. I don't care. A little care in pouring leaves almost all of it behind when you pour almost all of it in a glass. And I will stand my homemade hard cider and skeeter pee against any store bought blech.
 
I don't force carbonate but imagine that it really works if you have the right setup. So far my volume of production hasn't justified such a setup as I tend to do separate 5 litre batches spread over time according to when my apples ripen. I will do a primary fermentation of a bit more than 5 litre in an open container so sucking up lees is easily avoided when transferring to a 5 litre secondary carboy. Yes, it means discarding a little bit of the primary cider, but this results in quite clear cider going into secondary.

I typically aim for about 2 volumes of CO2 by bottling then heat pasteurising at around 0.004 below the bottling SG. This doesn't result in much sediment if the cider is clear when it is bottled. I have found that using pectinase at the start of fermentation with SO4 results in very compact lees. So it is easy to leave any remaining settled lees behind when transferring from secondary to the bottling bucket or bottles.

If I give the bottles a slight shake before opening, the small amount of sediment resulting from carbonation is dispersed and not really noticed (unless I am "showing off" to someone). In reality I tend to do what Rick does, pour the clear cider and leave just a trace with any sediment in the bottom of the bottle.
 
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