bottling

[WillG3]

I currently have my cider fermenting in a large vessel with an air lock and it will hopefully have finnished within the next few days.

I am completley new to all this, and was wondering if somebody could give me instructions on bottling the cider, and times for it to settle and mature etc. and if i need to add chemicals to make it fizzy or kill the yeast etc as i have received different advice from the limited sources i have.

cheers

 

[Eric_S]

No chemicals needed! Prime and bottle - how much sugar for priming will depend on your bottle size, and batch priming may be easier if you've made a large quantity (5 gallons rather than a single demi).

But roughly 1 teaspoon for 1/2 litre (at least that's what I do).

 

[PD]

cider takes time so dont be in a rush to bottle, give it a good 2 weeks in the Fvessel before you decide to either put it into another vessel for a week extra to help the debris to drop. or to bottle. If you just prime with sugar at bottling time the yeasts will just start to work again and it will go cloudy so when its finished working, kill the yeasts with campden tablets and some Pot Sorbate first. leave a few more days then you can prime with sugar and bottle.
Or you can just leave it as it is for a dry ( very ) cider.
Or even just sweeten it to taste with a non fermentable sugar like Splenda.

 

[WillG3]

how long between bottling with the small amount of added sugar and drinking? :grin:

cos i'm needing something drinkable in a hurry as some friends and me are going camping in the october holidays and i need something to impress the birds with

 

[Stanleythecat]

cider takes time so dont be in a rush to bottle, give it a good 2 weeks in the Fvessel before you decide to either put it into another vessel for a week extra to help the debris to drop. or to bottle. If you just prime with sugar at bottling time the yeasts will just start to work again and it will go cloudy so when its finished working, kill the yeasts with campden tablets and some Pot Sorbate first. leave a few more days then you can prime with sugar and bottle.
Or you can just leave it as it is for a dry ( very ) cider.
Or even just sweeten it to taste with a non fermentable sugar like Splenda.

Surely adding both campden and pot sorb kills the yeast and no fermentation can occur to create the fizz? I thought I had a grasp of this carbonation lark!

 

[oldbloke]

What I do is:

Leave in primary until it clears
Bottle it with 1tsp sugar per 500ml/pint bottle
Leave it somewhere warm for 2 weeks
Leave it somewhere cold for 2 weeks
See how long I can resist sampling it.

Once it's cleared, adding more sugar (for priming) doesn't seem to make it cloud again, and there's enough yeast left for carbonation
Campden wouldn't necessarily stop carbonation, but would at least delay it, and is unnecessary
Sorbate and Campden together probably would stop carbonation.
But I like a bit of fizz.

Caveats: I don't use any real fruit, it's all juice; I like it dry - if I wanted it medium or sweet I'd add Splenda or similar at some point.