Quick question about bottle-carbing cider

[Labradork]

Folks,

I'm to the point where I'm pretty comfortable making beers, but don't have nearly the experience or confidence with ciders. I'm hoping someone can help me out here since my previous attempts at making sparking cider led to some outrageous explosions with property damage involved and it took me drawing on all the luck I'll ever be entitled to to keep myself out of the emergency room. Here's my question: I'm in the process of making a quick, simple cider, actually a cyser, since it has honey in it. I put it together this afternoon, pitched some Safale W-04, airlocked it, and walked away. The OG was 1.072.

My plan is to treat it as I would a beer. I will transfer it to secondary after the bubbling is about done, maybe check the S.G. for few days to be sure, cold crash it, then bottle it with some coppertun priming drops. After about two weeks I expect it should be carbonated, and I'll stash it away for storage in a closet, taking a few bottles of my now sparkling cider out to chill down for consumption as the weeks and months go by.

Does that sound like a doable plan, or am I looking at more explosions and a sticky mess in my closet? Also, if anyone has experience with Safale W-04, where should I expect the F.G. to end up?

Labradork

 

[javalin]

That should work fine, though I can't tell you anything about your yeast. Were you trying to pasteurize your cider in your previous attempt? If you treat your cider like you would a beer you should be good to go.

 

[dkevinb]

I just put together what sounds like the same cider last weekend. OG = 1.070. I assume you mean Safale S-04 yeast?

I'm also mainly a beer brewer. I've only done a few ciders. I've always let mine ferment all the way out before bottle carbing. They've finished around 1.000 to 0.996. I leave them in primary for 4 weeks, then bottle. No bottle bombs so far. This is the first time I've used S-04 for a cider, but I presume it will finish about the same.

 

[CJ1]

No experience with S-04, but my cider ends up below 1.02 every time. Not sure how the honey would change it.

Sorry I can't help more.

 

[frettfreak]

I just put together what sounds like the same cider last weekend. OG = 1.070. I assume you mean Safale S-04 yeast?

I'm also mainly a beer brewer. I've only done a few ciders. I've always let mine ferment all the way out before bottle carbing. They've finished around 1.000 to 0.996. I leave them in primary for 4 weeks, then bottle. No bottle bombs so far. This is the first time I've used S-04 for a cider, but I presume it will finish about the same.

S-o4 was fantastic with my caramel apple cider i made.

ONLY time you should have issues with bottle bombs (pasturizing or not) would be if you plan to back sweeten with anything. I dont like a super dry cider so i do back sweeten, and honestly, kegging has been THE way to go for me. I have had a few bottle bombs when trying to pasteurize and that is a scary situation. I told myself i wasnt doing it again til i was able to keg. lol

 

[Labradork]

Folks,

Firstly, thank you all for your guidance. I very much appreciate it. As to the questions posed earlier: it is indeed Safale S-04 yeast I'm using, not the W-04 I mentioned earlier. My mistake.

The bottle explosions I had previously were after back-sweetening and trying to stove-top pasteurize. I am pretty sure the biggest mistake I made was using bottles that were not rated for pressure. They were 1-gallon Carlo Rossi wine bottles. I won't make that mistake again.

Last time I used a Champagne yeast and the cider went bone dry. This time around, I would like to have a sweeter cider. I am hoping the honey and molasses will not ferment out and will leave some residual sweetness. If it turns out too dry I might try back-sweetening with frozen apple juice concentrate until the yeast dies from alcohol poisoning - but I was hoping not to have that high an ABV. I could keg it and dispense into bottles with a beer gun, but I haven't had much luck doing that in the past. I would really love the convenience of just bottle conditioning with a coppertun drop. Does it sound like that should be possible, or is the cider going to go dry again and I'll have to back-sweeten?

Labradork

 

[Maylar]

Fermentable sugars will be eaten by the yeast, unless you stop it with cold crashing or pasteurizing. For the most controlled results I suggest sweetening with Xylitol (like Xylo-Sweet) and then priming for carb.

 

[frettfreak]

Folks,

Firstly, thank you all for your guidance. I very much appreciate it. As to the questions posed earlier: it is indeed Safale S-04 yeast I'm using, not the W-04 I mentioned earlier. My mistake.

The bottle explosions I had previously were after back-sweetening and trying to stove-top pasteurize. I am pretty sure the biggest mistake I made was using bottles that were not rated for pressure. They were 1-gallon Carlo Rossi wine bottles. I won't make that mistake again.

Last time I used a Champagne yeast and the cider went bone dry. This time around, I would like to have a sweeter cider. I am hoping the honey and molasses will not ferment out and will leave some residual sweetness. If it turns out too dry I might try back-sweetening with frozen apple juice concentrate until the yeast dies from alcohol poisoning - but I was hoping not to have that high an ABV. I could keg it and dispense into bottles with a beer gun, but I haven't had much luck doing that in the past. I would really love the convenience of just bottle conditioning with a coppertun drop. Does it sound like that should be possible, or is the cider going to go dry again and I'll have to back-sweeten?

Labradork

Here is what I was thinking but haven't tried yet. Stop you fermentation between 1.010 and 1.020. Sample the cider. If it's too dry you may still have to back sweeten. If not, you might be able to just bottle it at that point with the drops and call it good. That's what we do with beer and we don't over card those so in theory, it should work (again I have not tried this) . If that doesn't work or you want to back sweeten, kill the yeast with a Camden tablet and back sweeten. If you have the ability (and a beer gun) force carb then and bottle. I know its a pain kinda, but really, unless you stop the yeast some how, if you back sweeten, you will get bottle bombs and over carbed gushers.

 

[MindenMan]

Let your cider finish fermenting. Back sweeten to taste, and then add priming sugar. This is a pasteurize only method, as all the sugar could cause bottle bombs otherwise. When carbonation is sufficient, by testing with a PET bottle. Load bottles in BK, barely cover with water, and simmer. 140*F for 30 minutes, or 160*F for ten minutes. Just in case put a cover on the pan and set some canned food on the cover to hold it down just to be extra safe. I have only had one bottle explode while pasteurizing, so I am not gun shy about it all.