to bottle or not to bottle

[JDengler]

I did a cider back on april 5th.
3 cups Light dried ME
3 cups table sugar
4.5 gallons apple juice - no preservatives
boiled these ingredients and than cooled added yeast

Safbrew t-58

after about 20 days fermenting i racked to secondary added one can of concentrated apple juice.

3 more days and i added potasium sorbate to stop the yeast

since then I have added one more can of the concentrated apple juice.

Now I'm wondering how I can bottle the thing. I don't have kegging equipment yet. If I use priming sugar won't that start the yeast again, and cause bottle bombs? Should I use a pinch of yeast in each bottle and carbonate in each bottle?

 

[rsmith179]

How long has it been since you added the concentrate? Is the gravity stable again on the batch? If so, you can bottle. If it isn't, I would personally hold off until that stops fermenting and then bottle. If you want the cider to be carbed, you will need to prime the cider to the desired level of CO2 using priming sugar.

 

[JDengler]

It's been about 4 weeks since I added the last concentrate. Can I use DME for primer?

 

[JLem]

3 more days and i added potasium sorbate to stop the yeast

since then I have added one more can of the concentrated apple juice.

I'm confused as to why you added the potasium sorbate and then later added more juice. If you wanted to stop fermentation, why add more juice? If you wanted to keep fermentation going why add the sorbate?

I've only done one batch of cider (still bulk aging), so I'm not familiar with all the techniques. What are you attempting to do with this technique?

 

[seabeefrantz]

I believe hes trying to backsweetin it. If you dont kill the yeasties they'll eat the new sugars you add for flavor.

 

[gregbathurst]

You can't backsweeten AND carb in bottles, it has to be kegged, or so I believe.
Don't use DME to prime, plain sugar is best.

 

[Yooper]

The point of sorbate is to inhibit yeast reproduction, so the cider can be sweetened without refermentation. I'm not sure that's what happened here, though. Usually sorbate won't stop an active fermentation, so if fermentation wasn't finished when you added the sorbate, you wouldn't have stopped it.

I wouldn't bottle yet. I'd take SG readings at least twice over the next week, to ensure that it's really stopped.

If the sorbate did kick in, you won't be able to bottle carb the cider. It's the yeast that carbs the cider, so if it's been inhibited, then it won't work to carb up the cider.

 

[JDengler]

When I sample and read the cider it has a bit of carbonation to it already straight from the carboy.

I added the sorbate to stop the yeast and back-sweeten.

Thinking that adding yeast to the individual bottles was the only way to carbonate in the bottle, I sampled 3 bottles with 3 different amounts of yeast in them. Added Cider, and I've been letting them sit for about 3-4 weeks to see which one will carbonate in the bottle best.

I'm sure this is the hardest way to get from point A to B. I just was winging it on this brew. So next time I'll take a much more simple route.

 

[Yooper]

When I sample and read the cider it has a bit of carbonation to it already straight from the carboy.

I added the sorbate to stop the yeast and back-sweeten.

Thinking that adding yeast to the individual bottles was the only way to carbonate in the bottle, I sampled 3 bottles with 3 different amounts of yeast in them. Added Cider, and I've been letting them sit for about 3-4 weeks to see which one will carbonate in the bottle best.

I'm sure this is the hardest way to get from point A to B. I just was winging it on this brew. So next time I'll take a much more simple route.

If it's already got a bit of bubbles to it, it could very well mean that fermentation hasn't stopped. Sorbate doesn't "stop yeast" so I wonder if you're going to have bottle bombs. That's my concern.

If the sorbate worked, it won't carbonate in the bottle. That's the whole point of sorbate- to get the yeast "sterile" so it won't reproduce and ferment. It doesn't work well without campden (sulfite), though, and it doesn't wort to stop an active fermentation. It works when you add it along with sulfites to a FINISHED fermentation, and then backsweeten.

Without hydrometer readings, I think you've got a 70/30 chance of bottle bombs. Hopefully, when you winged it, you used plastic bottles.