Gushers?

[ealu-scop]

Ok here's what I did:

-1 gallon fermented for 3 weeks (I didn't measure OG)
-1 can apple juice concentrate added to bottling jug
-racked 1 gal to bottling jug
-bottled almost six 16oz plastic bottles
-left out on counter for around 3 days until bottles were firm, slight give to the squeeze
-put in fridge


Now that I'm thinking about this...was that crazy?

Do you think these suckers will gush when I open them?

 

[Maylar]

Yup.

 

[ealu-scop]

Think I should be worried about bottle bombs even if they're in the fridge?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Nope.

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

I'll play Devils Advocate here and say yes to question two. By putting them in the fridge hasn't he just slowed fermentation down not stopped it?

 

[RPh_Guy]

I'll play Devils Advocate here and say yes to question two. By putting them in the fridge hasn't he just slowed fermentation down not stopped it?

Yes, but:

• Plastic bottles can withstand a very large pressure.
• Cold temperature drastically reduces the pressure of a given volume of CO2.
• I'm assuming he's going to start drinking it in a reasonable amount of time (not wait months).

 

[Chalkyt]

That all sounds sort of O.K.. After three weeks I would expect it to be down below 1.010. (I generally find that two weeks in primary gets it somewhere like that, then another month in secondary takes it closer to 1.000). I like to leave mine a lot longer for maturing, but "horses for courses" as you can get a quick cider in your time frame.

You were maybe a bit quick with the bottling as it may have still been above 1.000, plus AJC would bump the SG up so you might have bottled at 1.005 or above which could give a champagne like carbonation.

If you haven't got one, buy a hydrometer and use it to tell you what the SG is a bottling time and this in turn will tell you how much carbonation you are likely to get. As a very rough "rule of thumb" 0.001 of SG will give about 1 atmosphere of pressure so bottling at 1.002 - 1.004 gives beer or mineral water level carbonation (2-3 atmospheres). You can use the hydrometer to monitor the effect of adding the AJC so you can tailor the bottling SG to the carbonation that you want.

The plastic bottles getting firm after only three days seems a bit quick suggesting that you still had some enthusiastic fermentation going on, but putting them in the fridge should cold crash and stop (or slow) any further CO2 generating fermentation. From your description you might have around 3 atmospheres of pressure. Quite fizzy but not excessive.

You could get a "mini volcano" so try one, and if you have screw caps on the bottles just release the pressure if it is too much.

Others might have different views but it all sounds to be roughly in the ballpark to me.

 

[RPh_Guy]

As a very rough "rule of thumb" 0.001 of SG will give about 1 atmosphere of pressure so bottling at 1.002 - 1.004 gives beer or mineral water level carbonation (2-3 atmospheres).

When you're talking about atmospheres (pressure) you need to specify temperature.

It makes more sense to take about carbonation in units of "volumes of CO2" because that is independent of temperature.
0.001 of s.g. consumed gives 0.51 vol CO2.

 

[Brett_Bellmore]

Yes, but:

• Plastic bottles can withstand a very large pressure.
• Cold temperature drastically reduces the pressure of a given volume of CO2.
• I'm assuming he's going to start drinking it in a reasonable amount of time (not wait months).

I used to make fermented sodas, and that was pretty much the protocol for carbonating those. They'd be good for about a week in the fridge, after that they were too highly carbonated, and you'd get a mess when you opened them. Of course, that was with capped beer bottles; The screw top soda bottles you could always unscrew just a tiny bit, and bleed off the excess pressure.

 

[RPh_Guy]

Not sure why you quoted me ..?

 

[Brett_Bellmore]

Didn't mean to.

 

[Chalkyt]

Wow, in the half hour or so that I took to write the above post over breakfast... five replies! We are about 12 hours (and six months) out of whack with you.

Yep, RPh Guy is right about the relationship between pressure and temperature and it is worth making that point.

My 2-3 atmospheres was based on Jolicoeur's table 15.3 at 25C, which is sort of where people might bottle although it maybe a bit cooler than this in late Autumn (Fall).

At the moment I have "atmospheres" on the brain as I am waiting for a pressure gauge to arrive because I want to set up a trial of stovetop pasteurising and measure bottle pressure during this to see if it gets anywhere near bottle bomb territory.

Although this is an entirely different topic, the idea is to bottle storebought juice at something like 1.007 (we are six months away from having apples), then pasteurise when the test bottle is 2 atmospheres to give a medium sweet petillant cider (sounds good in theory but not sure how it will work in practice, hence the pressure gauge for safety... any comments and experiences are more than welcome!)

Normally I don't fuss too much about how much carbonation I get , as my cider is for me (and friends) to drink, not for commercial purposes. So in the temperature range that I might bottle and drink at, with all other things being equal, the carbonation could vary by as much as 30%. But do I really care if it is 2.0 or 2.6 volumes of CO2... it still tastes good.

 

[Maylar]

Don't most folks use 1 can of fajc for 5 gallons?

 

[ealu-scop]

Just wanted to follow up.

I had zero gushers. Far from it. It probably could have been carbed a bit more. Were I to do it again, I might have left the bottles out of the fridge for a couple more days.

I might even go 1 and 1/2 can of ajc next time...

 

[teddyearp]

Just curious ealu-scop, what yeast are you using? What temp for carbonating?