Priming cider with AJ

[Gambler]

Anything I should be aware of?

Looks like a win win to me.

No watering down of flavour

An extra 2l or so of cider from my 30l batch for no extra effort

Most people dont seem to do it though, so whats the catch?

 

[RobWalker]

sugar won't water down your cider, it'll just add a tiny amount of alcohol. the effect is really really minimal, which is why most people don't prime with anything other than sugar. the extra 2L sounds like a good incentive though, providing you've calculated the sugars correctly and stirred thoroughly.

 

[Gambler]

Yeah, the extra 2l sounds like quite a bonus to me.

My main concerns were

- when using the sugar indicated on the nutritional values to calculate how much to use. How much of that is fermentable? I'm guessing the vast majority of it. Probably accurate enough for our purposes anyway considering a lot of us prime in teaspoons and half teaspoons lol.

- maybe I'll get some extra sediment in the bottom of the bottle? I'm not going to loose any sleep over it though.

Fag packet maths were.
Grays (I think) figure of 7g per L.
AJ has around 10g sugar per 100ml.
2l of AJ is 200g sugar / 30l = 6.6666g sugar per L. Which Is close enough for me.

EDIT - I guess I should factor in the volume of the AJ aswell, but its my first TC, so it doesnt matter if I hit a magic figure. As long as I roughly hit the ballpark so I can see if thats my kind of fizz or not, and adjust future ones appropriately

 

[oldbloke]

Should be fine.
You're basically saying, let's use AJ throughout, for a yield of 5 to 6.5 % depending which AJ, we'll just hold the last bit back so as to use it for priming.
Most AJs are a little over 100g/l so you want 50 to 100 ml AJ for priming, per bottle, depending on how fizzy you like it.
At the top end, putting 100ml AJ into a bottle then filling with only 400ml cider might seem weird, but it ought to work and maybe will keep more apple flavour in too.
In fact I may try it myself, next batch.

 

[Gambler]

Should be fine.
You're basically saying, let's use AJ throughout, for a yield of 5 to 6.5 % depending which AJ, we'll just hold the last bit back so as to use it for priming.
Most AJs are a little over 100g/l so you want 50 to 100 ml AJ for priming, per bottle, depending on how fizzy you like it.
At the top end, putting 100ml AJ into a bottle then filling with only 400ml cider might seem weird, but it ought to work and maybe will keep more apple flavour in too.
In fact I may try it myself, next batch.

Bit of an old topic now

But I take it you mean 50 to 100ml per liter rather than per bottle?

 

[oldbloke]

Should be fine.
You're basically saying, let's use AJ throughout, for a yield of 5 to 6.5 % depending which AJ, we'll just hold the last bit back so as to use it for priming.
Most AJs are a little over 100g/l so you want 50 to 100 ml AJ for priming, per bottle, depending on how fizzy you like it.
At the top end, putting 100ml AJ into a bottle then filling with only 400ml cider might seem weird, but it ought to work and maybe will keep more apple flavour in too.
In fact I may try it myself, next batch.

Bit of an old topic now

But I take it you mean 50 to 100ml per liter rather than per bottle?

Um...
I use about 5gm sugar per 500ml bottle, for priming, which is, um, about 50ml of typical AJ, yes. 100ml in a 500ml bottle would be way too much.

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

Should be fine.
You're basically saying, let's use AJ throughout, for a yield of 5 to 6.5 % depending which AJ, we'll just hold the last bit back so as to use it for priming.
Most AJs are a little over 100g/l so you want 50 to 100 ml AJ for priming, per bottle, depending on how fizzy you like it.
At the top end, putting 100ml AJ into a bottle then filling with only 400ml cider might seem weird, but it ought to work and maybe will keep more apple flavour in too.
In fact I may try it myself, next batch.

Bit of an old topic now

But I take it you mean 50 to 100ml per liter rather than per bottle?

Um...
I use about 5gm sugar per 500ml bottle, for priming, which is, um, about 50ml of typical AJ, yes. 100ml in a 500ml bottle would be way too much.

I did 100ml in 1pt (568ml) bottles once. Opening them was like uncapping a geyser.

As a guide, if you're priming with juice it should be roughly 1/10th of the total volume. Mixing in the juice before bottling is by far the easiest option, as long as you have the space. Priming a load of bottles with sugar is a lot of work, especially if you're dealing with 5 or more gallons. You'll double the workload again if you're priming that many bottles with juice, which I did yesterday.

 

[Gambler]

so in conclusion 25 - 50ml per bottle?

 

[Tim_Crowhurst]

For 500ml bottles, you need 50ml, give or take 5ml. Too much and you'll lose half our cider up the walls when you open it. Too little and you won't get much fizz.

 

[Gambler]

Wanted to bump this to say that priming with the AJ was a massive success!!!

The fizz is just right for me. Pretty damn fizzy, but I like that, and no gushing or disturbed yeast.

Only problem is I cant quite remember if I used 2l or 3l of juice in the end.... grrrrrr

EDIT - Its gotta be 3l I recon :)