Cider not carbing

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vsusinga

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Hi everyone
Just last night I bottled my first cider. I have some concerns about it though. A month ago i racked it over to a secondary and added more juice to it to bring up the volume. There was no activity whatsoever so i had to buy more yeast, make a starter and dump it in. It worked fine after that. Last night i back sweetened with 3 cans of concentrate and bottled (i plan to pasteurize ). My concern is that now that i have bottled it, it may do the same thing and not carbonate. Has anyone else had this happen before?
 
Sorry but I am confused. You say that you backsweetened the cider so that suggests that you have stabilized it and yet you are hoping that it will carbonate... Aren't these two opposing processes. If I carbonate I cannot back sweeten and if I back sweeten then I work to ensure that there is no active yeast in the cider. If there is active yeast AND you back sweeten then you are likely to create bottle bombs. How do you control whether there will be 1 volume of CO2 in your bottles or 20 before you pasteurize? IMO you are playing Russian Roulette with your bottles.
 
I have not stabilized it.My plan is to let it carb for a couple days then pasturize so i will have a sweet sparkling cider. Im just going to check the carbonation by popping a bottle open. No biggie since it tastes great already. I just want to know if anyone else has experience and issue with bottles not carbing.
 
I bottled a cider at 1.010, about two weeks ago. My test plastic bottle still has give. Going to check a glass one tonight and pasteurize if needed. Maybe bad gravity reading.
 
None, didn't let it ferment completely. I cold crashed it for a couple days, took a reading of 1.010. Typically only 0.003 is required for carbing. Wanted a semi-dry carbed cider, so I figured 1.007~ would be fine but it doesn't seem like it's carbed at all.
 
What size is the batch you bottled, ie, gallons? Have you tried a soda bottle as a representative of carbonation? One plastic unopened soda, and one empty plastic bottle, so you can guess about how carbonated you cider will be. As far as I know or remember, one 12oz can of FAJC into 5 gallons will be enough to prime it. How about this... pour one of your ciders into a plastic soda bottle about half full, and squeeze the air out of it. If you have carbonation, the bottle will tell you what is going on. If the bottle stays flat, no carbing up. If bottle starts to carb itself up, bingo!, you have carbonation.
 
What was the starting gravity? What was the yeast you used? I like to use QA 23 or 71B and it sometimes takes more than a month for my cider to carb but that usually happens when I ferment the cider dry allow it to age three months or longer and then add 1 oz of sugar per gallon before I bottle. I generally store my cider after bottling in the basement which during the winter months does not get much above 63 F
 
Starting gravity was 1.050. I use S04 . After a few weeks i racked it over onto more juice. there was no activity so i added lalvin wine yeast. Started 4/10. Racked over on 5/3. ( i think the gravity ended up being 1.004) Bottled 5/27 with three cans of concentrate. I will check for carbing. If it doesnt carb soon im just gonna have to pasteurize it still because i may not have time to do it later. What could cause it not to carb?
 
Not to derail the thread, but since it's pretty similar...
Mine was 1 Gallon batch. 9 glass bottles, 1 plastic water bottle filled which seems somewhat hard but still not rock hard. Just placed it in the fridge. I'm going to do what Mindenman suggests as it makes sense to me.

Vsusinga, assuming 5 gallons, that should put your gravity around 1.019 from my math which should be way more than enough to carb. Did the juice you racked onto have preservatives? Concentrate have preservatives?
 
No preservatives. I dont know why i had to add yeast to secondary. I just hope the same thing doesnt happen with my bottles
 
Well ale yeast should floc more than expected, may have compacted when you went to secondary and not been enough to noticeably ferment the racked juice. Should be enough to carb in either case. I just pasteurized my 9 bottles, and the plastic one did have some carb when opened.
 
Well ale yeast should floc more than expected, may have compacted when you went to secondary and not been enough to noticeably ferment the racked juice. Should be enough to carb in either case. I just pasteurized my 9 bottles, and the plastic one did have some carb when opened.

How long did it take to carb?
 
Yeh i just popped one open and there was a tiny bit of fizz noise when i popped the cap so i thinks its working. I popped open one that i pasteurized still to make sure there wasnt a similar sound ( probably means i did it correctly lol )... I drank that one cuz, even still, it was good :-D. I will probably check again tomorrow
 
I just carved a batch of skeeter pee..it didnt look like it was carbing up at all..but a squeeze test on my plastic test bottle said differently. After one week I had nice carbination. I used a cup of dextrose for a five gallon batch
 
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