Priming and pasteurization?

[Waterfowler]

Hey guys!

I've been reading and learning all that I can about brewing and I figured I'd begin with a hard apple cider. It is about at the end of fermentation and I am preparing to bottle this first batch but had a few questions?

I am looking to bottle a cider that has a similar taste to a woodchuck, so I was planning on sweetening with concentrated AJ to achieve some of that apple flavor (Right now has a sort of light beer taste, possibly due to using nottinghams?)

I have read to use dextrose to prime the cider before bottling to achieve my desired carbonation, but wouldn't the concentrate I added achieve that same purpose?

I was planning on using the pasteurization method that is a sticky here on the forum, but a question I am trying to wrap my head around is if I add to much concentrate to my brew before bottling to achieve desired taste how will this effect the time frame to which the bottles will carb? (Faster or no effect?)

Sorry for all the questions, I am still trying to learn and expand my knowledge...

Thank you in advance for the help!

 

[smegger]

Yes. The concentrate CAN be used for priming. But if you've only added enough to give the flavour you like, you may lose a little bit of that sweetness when it carbs up. But probably not all of it if you plan to pasteurize.

You'll need to keep a close eye on it to ensure it doesn't over carb before pasteurizing tho.

 

[Waterfowler]

Good deal thanks!

Would it be advisable to use the concentrate to taste then continue to add a priming solution to account for the sugar lost in the carbing before pasteurization?

Thanks again for the help!

 

[ts9125]

Hey waterfowler, i'm an ale brewer but recently brewed up a nice batch of apple n elderflower cider.

i had a similar problem, i wanted it to be backsweetened ( without artificial non-fermentable sugars) AND to be carbonated.

i sweetened with apple juice, plus about 95g of cane sugar for priming which is what i often use for my more carbonated beers (IPAs etc). I added to the juice to taste, took a grav reading, then added the priming sugar, and bottled it all up. so as you say, i reckon you'd be fine adding your concentrate to taste, then an appropriate amount of priming sugar (it worked for me!).

only thing to note, i bottled up about 10 small 100ml PET plastic bottles and used them as carbonation testers. I was thinkin the carbonation would take a couple weeks but it was pretty much where i wanted it to be within a week, so i stove top pastuerised them. I'm not 100% about this, but i think that giving the yeast so much more sugar than they would normally have really increases the rate of carbonation so be prepared to pasteurise them pretty soon, and bottle up a few plastic drink bottles if you havent already, it really helps gauge the level. doing this i found i could turn a really dry and puckering still cider into a delicately elderflower flavour, medium sweet sparkling cider, just what i was after!!

i' no expert but give me a shout with any questions as i have just gone through the same process (about a week ago) a might be able to help!.

 

[Waterfowler]

UPDATE

After letting my cider ferment to completion I backsweetened with some dextrose and 5 cans of juice concentrate to taste. I had to bottle some of the brew one night and the other half the next day due to a shortage of clean bottles...

Anyways after trying to monitor the carbination using a plastic bottles I decided to pasteurize a little too late... After painstakingly releasing the pressure of the secondary bottling round I began to pasteurize the first round... 5 minutes into the process I heard a PING!!!! of course I investigated and found one of the bottles had popped its top... so I figured casualties of war and let the other 5 bottles in the pot go. 2 minutes later a KABOOM!!!! Then another 30 seconds later..... I waited until the total time was up and moved the pot outside to cool...

Sure enough two bottles exploded one cap flew off...

I reread the thread to make sure everything was good then I realized I had some of the bottles too full which made some pop and others not. After getting my fill levels in the bottles about right the pasteurizing went great...

My finished product is a semi sweet cider and is just what I was gunning for...

Things I learned from this first attempt...
-Dont overfill bottles
-Keep lid on pasteurizing pot
-Keep a close eye on carbonation
-Be careful releasing pressure in bottles
-Be careful drinking your brew... my OG levels told me it would be about 7% however I think its much higher than that

As always thank you for your help!!!

 

[johnny5000]

Anyways after trying to monitor the carbination using a plastic bottles I decided to pasteurize a little too late...

How long between bottling and pasteurizaton for you?

I want to do something similar (without the exploding bottles, of course!)

 

[Waterfowler]

They were bottled for 4 days, probably will go for 3 next time or sacrifice some smaller plastic bottles to open around that second day to get a better gauge of where they are at.

 

[HAREEBROWNBEEST]

The thing I do is after adding my AJC to my bottling bucket for carbing and sweetening is to leave 1 plastic bottle along with my capped glass bottles out around 70* for a few days, once plastic bottle is rock hard I know the other bottles are good to go. I then place the bottles on my fridge. Done deal. I've tried the bottle pasteurization too and had the bottles explode on me twice. No fun.