Carbing Cider/Alcohol Content

Northern Brewer General
1

I have been letting 4 gallons of hard cider sit for about 5 months now and I am ready to bottle.

I bought another few gallons of frozen cider that has now gone a little alcoholic on me. As they defrosted the bottle seams ruptured an the bottles inflated in the fridge. When I opened it, the cider was fizzy. The cider that I started with months ago was about 1.056 OG, this cider with the CO2 was 1.030 about.

I was going to prime with honey to make the cider about 3.0 vol. CO2, but now I am concerned that 1) how do I figure out the sugar in the cider that I am going to add, 2) will the CO2 that is already in the cider cause problems with bottling and carbonation?

2

  1. Most cider has enough sugar to give a 5-6% ABV product.

  2. I wouldn’t worry too much about it, although if you use a bottle priming calculator like found on tastybrew.com you can account for the residual carbonation in the beer/cider, which depends on the ferm temp/storage temp.