I have a gun (Blichman) and I'm gonna use it.

AzOr · Jan 31, 2016

Hello,
I recently got a Blichman gun and want to use it to bottle a batch of cider. I want to backsweeten the cider with a touch of honey and FAJC.
The cider is about 4 mos old and has been racked twice. Soon to be 3 rackings because it was bentonited about 4 days ago.

I plan to rack off of bentonite into a corny, where I want to stabilize and backsweeten.

What is the most effective way to stabilize (I've searched the forum but came up w an array of plausible answers)? I don't want to heat pasteurize. I would prefer to use sorbates or other chemicals.

How long does it have to sit after being treated, before I backsweeten?

What level of carbonation is best for cider?

Any tips from people who have used the beer gun for cider?

Thanks for reading

Maylar · Feb 1, 2016

Stabilize with crushed Campden tablets (1 per gallon) or 1/4 TSP of K-Meta for 5 gallons, plus potassium sorbate (per instructions). Wait 3-4 days before sweetening. Ciders typically are 2.4 - 2.6 volumes of CO2, some go as high as 3.

Never used a beer gun but I'm sure it will work. I have a new fangled "Last Straw" filler that I'm dying to try out.

Bent-Brewer · Feb 1, 2016

Just used my BeerGun for the first time on Jan 29 and it went really smoothly. First time setup took a little longer than anticipated while I arranged my workspace, but after that, it was a breeze.

Standard approach is to rack onto k-meta and sorbate. You likely won't see much sediment drop out at this point because your prior rackings, but I'd still give it a couple days after stabilizing.

AzOr · Feb 1, 2016

Thanks for the info.

Bent-Brewer- did you bottle a cider or a beer? The reason I'm asking is because I'm expecting less foam from the cider vs bottling a beer.

Once I bottle , I'll report back on the experience.

Bent-Brewer · Feb 2, 2016

AzOr said:
Thanks for the info.

Bent-Brewer- did you bottle a cider or a beer? The reason I'm asking is because I'm expecting less foam from the cider vs bottling a beer.

Once I bottle , I'll report back on the experience.

I actually did both - a porter and some graff, both set to the same pressure. There should typically be more head on beer, but I took some liberties with the graff recipe and went against the given advice. I may have (translation: definitely) went overboard on the flaked wheat for head retention, and on the first pour, I learned why people said to only add 1oz. Chalked it up to a learning experience.

One thing about the process was that I was one ball lock disconnect short for the CO2 portion of the gun. Not sure if it just was accidentally left out or if they assumed people had extras (which I definitely thought I had). I resolved it by daisy-chaining it across another keg. It worked, but wasn't the most graceful operation until I got rolling. Word of advice: always have spare parts.