How to make sweet bottle carbed cider?

[forgetaboudit]

I've never made one yet but I'm planning to soon. I read to the beginner's guide and didn't clearly see anyone speak of how to bottle their fermented cider after sweetening it, but then bottle carbonating it so that they don't explode because of the added "Sweet"
Does anyone care to elaborate?

 

[RPh_Guy]

Options:
1. Bottle pasteurization.
2. Non-fermentable sweeteners.
3. Force carbonation (bottling from a keg or directly carbonating bottles).
4. More complicated methods (not for beginners).

 

[ebbelwoi]

I use 1.5-liter plastic soda bottles, a CO2 tank, and a carbonation cap. Before carbonating, I add potassium sorbate and backsweeten with juice. Most people don't care for the idea of putting cider in PET bottles, but it works like a charm for my purposes.

 

[Kent88]

Going along with RPh_Guy.

This is for entertainment purposes only, I do not recommend actually doing this. I found an old post of mine where I was giving some ideas to someone who wanted to make 'chemical-free' cider, and there might be some overlap:

Get some cleanish, empty bottles, your biggest kettle, a thermometer, a stopwatch, and some safety glasses (hey, by the way, I'm not liable if a bottle explodes). Fill up your bottles with water but don't cap them. Keep them in the same space as your cider until you are sure the temperatures are the same. Fill the kettle up with enough water to almost completely immerse a bottle (or a few) that is standing upright in the kettle. Heat the water in the kettle on the stove to boiling. Put your safety glasses on. Start standing some of the open water-filled bottles (1-3 at a time) in the kettle, start the stopwatch, and keep a close eye on the temperature. When that/those bottle(s) reach 161F (or maybe it is 180F, I'm not 100% sure), stop that stopwatch, add 16 seconds to it, and record that. Then pretty much repeat the process with the capped cider bottles, put them in the kettle, wait as long as it took before, and pull them out.

And hopefully nothing explodes. Again, I'm not liable if something explodes and injures someone. You could've just used campden tables, so don't blame me.

Make your cider, sweeten it, bottle it, start opening one per day a little before you think it might be carb'd, take notes on how carb'd it is until you get the right amount of carbonation, then open a second on the day you think it is right, just to make sure, then follow the steps above.

And remember, this is risky. Tell someone nearby what you are doing when you start this, so that if nobody hears from you for a while, they'll know to check. I am not liable whatsoever if this causes injury or property damage. I can't stress enough that I really don't recommend it at all.

 

[ebbelwoi]

Or you could spend $100 on a sous vide cooker and get the exact temp you need.

 

[RPh_Guy]

I use 1.5-liter plastic soda bottles, a CO2 tank, and a carbonation cap. Before carbonating, I add potassium sorbate and backsweeten with juice. Most people don't care for the idea of putting cider in PET bottles, but it works like a charm for my purposes.

Thanks, forgot about that. Edited my earlier post.

 

[gvhorwitz]

I use 1.5-liter plastic soda bottles, a CO2 tank, and a carbonation cap. Before carbonating, I add potassium sorbate and backsweeten with juice. Most people don't care for the idea of putting cider in PET bottles, but it works like a charm for my purposes.

How long does it take to carbonate a bottle? I recall reading “somewhere” that it’s pretty quick.

 

[ebbelwoi]

How long does it take to carbonate a bottle? I recall reading “somewhere” that it’s pretty quick.

It's drinkable immediately, but I try to leave the cap on overnight or longer.

 

[MarkKF]

Depends. How much yeast is still viable and the temp.

 

[Maylar]

Depends. How much yeast is still viable and the temp.

They're using CO2 and a carbonation cap. I have a couple of those and have carbonated lemonade with them.

 

[MarkKF]

Nevermind

 

[dmf38]

I recently bottled 5 gallons of cider, mixed with 1 gallon of crabapple cider. I dissolved 3 cups of Erythritol in a pint of boiling water. And dissolved 190 grams of corn sugar in another pan, with a pint of boiling water. I let it cool some and added the erythritol and corn sugar to the cider and stirred, then bottled it. That worked out just fine. I would never bother with pasturizing and all that business, so I just use erythritol instead of sugar. I think it tastes just like sugar.