Newbie here, looking for advice please

[Higstone]

Hi everyone ,

Just made my first batch of cider, everything has gone smooth so far following advice I've seen on this forum, so thanks!
I am struggling with the final process of bottle carbonation.
I am after a medium sparkling cider, so after fermentation I had a F.G of 0.998, I moved the cider to a secondary tub and added 12oz castor sugar to 13ltr of dry cider. I placed 1/2 tsp sugar in the bottles and then racked the cider in glass 500ml bottles (I also did this with 1 plastic bottle to determine when carbonated). My aim is to wait until the bottles are carbonated and then pasturise to kill the yeast, thus stopping extra fermentation in the bottles.
However, after only 24 hours the plastic bottle is solid as a rock, I opened a few glass cider bottles and it is like a volcano eruption, does anyone know what I'm doing wrong as I've read carbonation like this can take up to 4 days?
Apologies for the long post, would appreciate the help, thanks.

 

[kelper]

Too much sugar! I use 85 to 100g for 23 litres of beer. OR a teaspoon in each 500ml bottle. But NOT both!

 

[Higstone]

Is that what's caused extreme carbonation to occur within 24 hours? As I said my aim was to have a sweeter cider so i was going to cut off further fermentation by stove top pasturisation.

I managed to salvage the cider and recap it for a second attempt, but now I've noticed white floating bits in the test bottle, any idea what this could be?

 

[Arcs]

Carbonation does not affect sweetness. That bit is done in the FV bud.

 

[Higstone]

Thanks for the reply, apologies I must not of explained properly.
From my limited understanding the sugar will only affect the abv if there is active yeast present, therefore backsweetening is normally done by using artificial or non-fermentable sugars when bottle carbonating.
However, due to the chemical taste of artificial sweeteners I wanted to use "real" sugar, knowing the yeast would convert this in the bottle (possibility of bottle bombs over longer time), my plan was to slightly oversweeten the brew, let the yeast convert a little bit of the sugar creating co2 to carbonate, and then kill the yeast by using pasturisation. I would then have a brew that was carbonated, and sweetened with sugar and not sweetener.
My issue is this, the test bottles were gushing once opened after only 24 hours of bottling, is this due to the excess of sugar perhaps the yeast is working a lot quicker? Or could it be due to something else?
Thanks

 

[Arcs]

I refer to my good compadre Kelper on this, it's been over carbonated, 7g of sugar or one teaspoon is ample. Which means, when you did bottle it, there's a good chance it will have been still fermenting.

This will cause the gushing problem as there is still active yeast in the brew when you racked it. You will find this out for yourself when you brew a beer and find that it is erupting from the FV and use PET bottles to save it and give the wort a chance to ferment better with some decent head space in your FV - emptying those back into the FV once fermentation has settled you will see for yourself what I am talking about. The saved beer is positively efforvescent!

The same will occur when bottling with active yeast still in the FV. I am guessing a bit more patience is required before bottling

 

[terrym]

@Higstone
Usually any sugar added to fermented out beer/cider will restart a fermentation and the yeast will consume what sugars are available. The quantity of priming sugar you used is fine for carbonation, but its the 12 oz of sugar you added on top of that which has caused the bottles to pressurise as your yeast gets going again. You have the potential for a serious incident in my view and should empty the bottles back into the FV as soon as you can as safely as you can, then allow it to ferment out again, back sweeten with sweetener eg Cologran from Lidl then rebottle using half tsp sugar per 500ml.
Oops. Edit to correct the reprime to half tsp sugar per 500ml not 5000ml.

 

[An Ankoù]

If it were me, I'd approach those unopened bottles with safety goggles and I heavy towel to throw over them while uncapping them. I'm being serious here, just for once. Do it now, as the pressure is building up all the time you leave them sealed. You'll lose some, due to gushing, but that's life. Then I'd do what terrym suggests, above.

 

[Higstone]

Thank you all for your replies, yes I have opened the bottles with care , had gushers but luckily no explosions, and put back in the fermenter. I am going to pass on the pasturisation technique and just use a sweetener once fermentation has completed again , and have an extra strong brew!
Thanks again,
Cheers

 

[An Ankoù]

Thank you all for your replies, yes I have opened the bottles with care , had gushers but luckily no explosions, and put back in the fermenter. I am going to pass on the pasturisation technique and just use a sweetener once fermentation has completed again , and have an extra strong brew!
Thanks again,
Cheers

I tried home pasteurisation once and once only. The cider tasted like stewed apples. Drinkable, but not really cider.

 

[GerritT]

Lidl Cologran is a nice artifical sweetner, some brewers mash a handful of crystal malt @75º to get infermentable sugars.

 

[Justin Dean]

Be careful. I use 3/4 teaspoon sugar for 330ml bottle and full level for 500ml. Nice carbonation. Glass bottles