I thought my sparkling cider came out flat. Then I noticed that everywhere I looked, the amount of sugar recommended for priming in cider is about half that of beer. Is this just traditional or is there another reason cider is prepared with less carbonation than beer? Is there any reason I shouldn't prime cider the same as for beer?
Sure, but then the question is what style of beer? Belgian Golden? British Mild? German Weizen? I've had both cider and beer that was all over the place carbonation-wise (except for still beer).
Generally, both beer and cider are fermented completely out, i.e., the yeast have no more sugar to work with. Then it's primed (additional sugar added) just before bottling, so the CO2 that is formed from the yeast activity on the additional sugar results in carbonation. So Bob, it shouldn't matter what the final gravity is, the same amount of CO2 should be generated regardless. And Monk, the source of the sugars for the initial fermentation phase doesn't matter-- it's what put in the bottle/keg after complete fermentation that matters.
The point was, that if you normally expect fermentation to be over when it gets down to 1.010 or something, you could bottle too early because cider goes further.
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