Priming Bottles

[deanjlandi]

So I have about 15 gallons of cider that I would like to transfer into growlers. This is a first time for me and I'd like to prime them to give them a little sweetness as well as carbonation. Can anyone help me out.

 

[bernardsmith]

People on this forum will suggest you pasteurize the bottles after allowing the yeast time to convert some of the sugars to CO2 but IMO , you have virtually no control over that process. Better might be to sweeten with non fermentable sugars and then simply add about 25 g of sugar /gallon to prime OR stabilize the cider with K-sorbate and K-meta , sweeten with any sweetener and then force carbonate (as you might carbonate a beer keg).

 

[Icarus9414]

Growlers aren't really designed for the pressures associated with bottle conditioning. You might have a nasty, sticky mess on your hands if you use them. I'd suggest using grolsch style (flip top) bottles. They don't hold the volume that growlers do, but you can bottle condition with them and not have to worry as much about bottle bombs. The only growlers that I've ever seen that could hold the pressure are made with metal. If you store them long term, your brew can end up having a metallic taste to it. IMHO, I would only use a growler to transport homebrew to a friend's house. Otherwise, it is right out of the keg into a glass or into a grolsch bottle.

 

[MindenMan]

Sweet and fizzy cider in a bottle is not the easiest thing to do. You say you have 15 gallons, is it already kegged? I would not use glass growlers for anything except traveling from point A to point B; glass grenades are really scary. I missed a face full of glass one day by 5 seconds, literally 5 seconds; as soon as I turned around and got 10 feet away, a chunk of glass landed 2 feet behind me.