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Bottling Cider: Priming With Fruit Syrup?
Hi,
I am wondering if anyone can help me. My first batch of (hard) cider is about to go in to my secondary fermenter and i started to think about bottling!
My question is can i prime the cider and flavour it at the same time using a fruit syrup, like the stuff you can put into coffee?
The syrup is made from cane sugar and fruit concentrate/flavouring. It has 12.5g of sugar per 15ml. which i guess is about 4 g per teaspoon.
Would 1 teaspoon be enough to flavour and prime a 750ml botttle?
I don't want exploding bottles!
Thank you!!!
Hell I wonder if you can prime beer with the same stuff and still get a good amount of flavor.
I have no idea about your priming rate question for cider though.
What size batch are you making?
I'd say for priming, just figure out how much sugar you would normally use, then figure out how much syrup contains that much.
The amount of flavor, excuse me, flavour, would depend on the syrup. Remembering that you will lose the sweet taste when the sugar ferments.
Try it, & tell us.
Well i've got two different lots going. One 5 gallon which is still fermenting (primary) which i used ale yeast which apparently produces a more fruit and english style cider. Then i've got two 1 gallon carboys using a dry wine yeast which i just put into the secondary.
I'm from england and the ciders i've tried here are usually too sweet (most use the wine yeast) so thats why i went with the bigger batch of ale yeast cider.
I was planning on just using a teaspoon or two which would be the equivalent of using about 1 !/2 teaspoons of table sugar per pint I think!
I was going to put it in some of the bottles and see if it was ok. I just wanted to know what kind of quantity i could put in without them exploding.
I understand that for a normal beer you would put in a teaspoon of table sugar per bottle. I do have some Homebrew store priming sugar (dextrose?) as well for the rest. And some i was going to leave 'flat'.
Does any of this sound reasonable? If the fruit flavour doesn't come through i'll try something else i just don't want to blow up any bottles.
Thanks for the speedy responses by the way!!
Al
I normally use 1 oz. of priming sugar to 1 gal. of brew. Not Imperial gallons, Yank gallons.
FYI, There are a few scientifics among us, but most of the folks on this side of the pond don't function well in Metric. At least I know that I don't.
Are you planning on putting the priming sugar into each bottle, or dissolving it first & adding to the fermented cider? I strongly suggest the latter.
I think that it sound totally reasonable from a bottle bomb stand point. Just review your math a couple times to be sure you aren't overdoing it. But you sound on target thus far.
Thanks again!
This is what i'm basing my math(s) on:
From most home brew sites and things i've read you can use 1 to 1 1/2 teaspoons of table sugar(sucrose) or 'normal' priming sugar (dextrose) to a pint/bottle. A teaspoon has about 5g of table sugar (sucrose) in it and the syrup has about 4.2g per teaspoon.
I think i'm going to put a teaspoon of the syrup in a handful of the bottles before the cider goes in. The syrup is liquid so should mix quite easily. I'll dissolve some 'normal' priming sugar in water and add that to some bottles and i'll leave some flat.
I know this is a bit fiddly and it would be better to just add it all before bottling but this way i can get a range of flavoured, sparkling and still ciders and see which way i prefer the cider and repeat that next time. if some don't come out very nice then i'll have to live with that!
I'll let you know what happens in about a month, unless anyone else has any other suggestions or thoughts...
just a though: ale yeast will quit fermenting before a wine yeast. so your ale-fermented cider will have more residual sugar, meaning it will be sweeter. the wine yeast will ferment more of the sugars out, giving you a product with a higher alcohol content that will be more "dry".
you mentioned in your post that most english ciders are too sweet for you, so i thought i might mention it. before you bottle your 5-gallon batch, you might want to taste test it. if it is too sweet for you, you can add a more alcohol-resistant strain and get it to eat down some of your sugars.
fyi, white labs english cider yeast has given me the best tasting cider in my experiments. it gives leaves the most apple flavor and nose of all the cider, ale, and wine yeasts i have experimented with.
good luck, let us know how it turns out, and welcome to the boards.
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