5 replies to this topic

[Fatman]

A few weeks ago, my parents dropped off a gallon of unpasteurized cider from back home. I slapped a santized airlock on top and let it ferment out. Now I'd like to get it carbed and into bottles. Which is easier/more reliable - natural carbonation in the bottle, or force carbing with a carboy cap?If I force carb, do I need to use Campden tabs?

[strangebrewer]

The best/easiest is to natural carb in the bottle with priming sugar. If you force carb, there is no need to use Campden.

Unless you are planning to keep it around for a looong time then there isn't much of a need to add campden (KMETA) in either circumstance. Definitely don't add any if you want to bottle carb as KMETA would knock out the wild yeast and it would never carb.

[Fatman]

Cool - I'm gonna give the natural carbing a try (with the kegerator/beer gun around, I haven't done that in almost 3 years!)Do you folks worry about Oxygen in your cider? Should I shoot the bottles full of CO2 first, or will that stop the yeast from working?

[strangebrewer]

I don't worry about that when I bottle anything else, but it doesn't mean I'm right. Putting a layer of CO2 will not hurt anything, but in my opinion is too much effort.

+1If I had a beer gun I'd flood with CO2 first just because it's easy and available. Normally though I bottle with a bottling wand and gravity. I bottled a Belgian Quad for the first time in years myself this past September with the intent to bottle condition. I was happy to see that bottle carbing does in fact still work

[Fatman]

Bottled, primed and ready to sit! I was surprised with how yellow and clear the liquid had become after sitting in the jug for 1 month. I guess I have a dry cider - FG was around 1.000 (jug was tough to get exact reading), and the bit of left over after bottling tasted quite dry. I poured a bit of the yeast cake back into the clear liquid to make sure I had some yeast for carbonation.How long should I sit on it now to carbonate? How long should this natural fermented dry cider need to age to its peak?

[Fatman]

Well, it's been almost 6 months and this stuff is great! It's clear, tart, and lightly carbonated. Thanks for the advice - I'm gonna do a bigger batch this fall.