Advice before bottling up my first cider batch please??

[Bootcutboy]

Hi all

I have 40 pints of homebrew cider (brewmaker deluxe kit) in fermentation bin to bottle up tomorrow as the SG is steadily reading 1002 and doesn't seem to be dropping any further. I have been saving up kopperberg and bulmers bottles and bought a capper and caps so will have enough for the 40 pints my questions are:

what is the best way to sterilise these bottles? I have some campden tablets or i also have some Vinclasse steriliser & cleanser. How long do i need to sterilise for? I need some good instruction for this step please.

Also how much sugar do i want in each empty pint bottle in order to give my cider some fizz?

Thanks a lot for any help you can give chaps!

 

[chojo]

All about sterilising viewtopic.php?f=36&t=33843
As for priming i've never made cider but i believe 5g per 500ml bottle is the norm.

 

[LeithR]

If you have a spare Fermenting bucket then you might like to fit a tap to the bottom of it and use it as a bottling bucket. It can be used for both activities so not to worry. Then to prime your brew just multiply the 5g up by the amount of litres in the whole batch dissolve in cooled boiled water and mix with the brew in the bottling bucket.

Now that I have re-read chojo's response I go for 5g/1L, so for a 23L batch I add 115g of sugar in a little water into the bucket before you syphon in the cider. Fit a short length of Vossey's syphon tube ( 1Foolt would do) to the bottling bucket tap and you are ready to bottle.

That's the easiest way I have found and do this for all my brews.

Good luck with whatever approach you adopt. :thumb: