1st time carbing cider

Cider
1

I have 4 gallons of cider that I am about to bottle after 2 months. 1 month in primary, 1 month in secondary. I used 4 pounds on honey at the start. OG was 1.070, 4 weeks in it was .996.

I would like a high carbonated cider, I am thinking 3.0 volumes of CO2. Using http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/ it came out to 5.65 oz of honey to use.

  1. Should their still be enough residual yeast to carb at this point?

  2. I am considering heating a little bit of new cider to dissolve the honey. For the small amount should I worry about added sugars that would add to the carbonation?

2

  1. There will be yeast present, that wont be a problem. What might be a problem though is the alcohol tolerance of your yeast. What is their max ABV compared to what your cider already is? If thats maxed out, your yeast are done, regardless of whats left. Also, if the yeast are already maxed out there still may be sugars in your cider they weren’t able to convert, this means any new yeast you add could easily produce bottle bombs. Unless you have some way of being sure all those sugars the yeast can eat are finished, I would hesitate to carb your cider in this fashion.

  2. See my comments above.

The best way to carbonate your cider safely is it neutralize the yeast (potassium sorbate works well) and then force carb your cider with CO2.

Without knowing your cider content and yeast though its hard to say more. If your yeast ABV tolerance is well over what your current ABV is, then the sugars are likely all eaten, and you could add priming sugar in order to accomplish your goal… but unless your very careful about ensuring that everything is copacetic, you could easily have some bottle bombs on your hands.

Be careful, and keep making great cider :slight_smile:

3

My ABV is about 10%, I am rounding up (although slightly) to be safe. The yeast tolerance is 12-14%.

I don’t have the means to force carb, but hopefully will down the road :slight_smile:

For now I will give the honey a shot and see how it goes. Maybe I will go with 2.0 CO2 and add less honey so I don’t push it. I am not sure the make up of the cider.