5 Day Cider Finishing, Bottling, and Pasteurizing

[Tantalus]

I've started a 1 gallon recipe of 5 Day Cider to try my first cider, I've just got a few questions that I can't figure out:

1. I'm going to rack my cider to another glass 1 gallon jug, how much sugar should I add to prime it for carbonation?
2. I read the thread on bottle pasteurizing, should I make any changes for pasteurizing my jug-of-cider?

Thanks.

 

[GinKings]

I would not carbonate in a glass gallon jug. They are not designed to hold pressure.

 

[Tantalus]

Any recommendations on easy containers to bottle into?

 

[rumbler]

20 oz plastic soda bottles work great because u can feel by squeezing how much carbonation has built up...just be sure and clean and sterilyze good.

 

[Tantalus]

It seems strange that glass 1 gallon jugs won't withstand carbonation but plastic soda bottles will. Any explanation for why that happens?

 

[GDRMaille]

Plastic stretches, glass doesn't. As the pressure builds, the plastic bottles "tell" you how much... You'll have no idea with the glass, as it is made different ways with different materials. Best example is a champagne bottle vs. a ketchup bottle. One is built to handle a lot of pressure, the other, not so much.

 

[Tantalus]

Has anyone ever reused a sanitized champagne bottle? That seems like it would work if you could cork it properly.

 

[dinnerstick]

it's also weird that you can drop a plastic soda bottle on the sidewalk but it doesn't go as well with a glass jug
champagne bottle re-use is fine, you can easily get plastic corks and knock them in with a mallet, but you will also want the wire cages to prevent premature ejaculation

 

[Pickled_Pepper]

This is just off the cuff, but since we're only talking about a gallon of cider, couldn't you just put it all into plastic soda bottles, leave them out to carb and then crash them in a really cold fridge? Just skip the pasteurization all together and drink them from the fridge. We're only talking about a 6'er of 20 oz Coke bottles. Sounds like a fun Saturday evening to me.

When you move to a 5 gallon or more batch, just use beer bottles and caps.

 

[Tantalus]

That's probably what I'm going to end up doing depending on what kind of bottles I can get my hands on tomorrow. Can't imagine a gallon of cider lasting long enough to require pasteurizing.

 

[LeBreton]

Has anyone ever reused a sanitized champagne bottle? That seems like it would work if you could cork it properly.

I do. Mine are a dark green to reduce light penetration and are rated to withstand 5vols of pressure. No bottle bombs here when I pasteurize though I still wear eye protection every time. The larger 750ml size allows me to bottle a 5 gallon carboy into 25 bottles and since they take crown caps this goes pretty quickly.

Also they look more traditional.

 

[docg]

Just cap the champagne bottles as you would a beer bottle. I pasteurize at 190 for 20 mins and have yet to have any problems .........Pat