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Sparkling Cider

I have a small batch of apple cider going. Brought it up to 1.095 w/ corn sugar. Want to make it sparkling. The question,,,Can I put enough sugar in it to carbonate it and have sweet sparkling, I used Champaign yeast so I will need 15% alch. to kill it.If I add sugar to bring it to

17%, and the yeast dies at 15% the rest of the sugar will still be there. I am going to carbonate it in the screw top plastic soda bottles. Any comments as to whether tis will work??? Any ideas would be appreciated... Bud
Reply to
s
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that is not cider, that is apple wine.

cider is fermented juice, no sugar added.

You can do it that way....that is in essence how traditional champagne is made, but you will have to bottle it in chapagne bottles or have them blow up. Just trying to guess when the yeast will quit is NOT a good idea for a beginner.

Look up "La Method Traditionelle". You can force the yeast to quit, by removing them from the bottle. they do this by riddling the bottles (storing them upside down and shaking the yeast into the neck). then you freeze the wine inthe neck and disgorge it. it is not for the beginner or timid, but it is how you get naturally carbonated sweet wine with no sediment.

Reply to
Droopy

Not exactly. They ferment dry, add a little sugar and ferment again in bottle to create the carbonation, let the yeast die and settle, then remove the yeast and sweeten with a mixure of sugar and wine. They do not rely on the yeast dying from the increase in alcohol.

Yeast will not just shut down because the package says it has a 15% alcohol tollerance. They can't read the package.

To the OP, if you do this in soda bottles, you can do what you suggest but crash cool everything once the bottle become rigid indicating it's carbonated but you really don;t know how sweet the wine will be or how highly carbonated it will be. Each bottle will probably be a little different. On top of that, even at refrig. temps, the yeast may still continue to ferment but at a slow pace. If allowed to warm up, they very likely will start fermenting strongly again. I've kept yeast at fridge temps for a year with viable yeast remaining.

Andy

Reply to
JEP62

Just to add to that - I have some whites outside on the balcony with temps around 2-3 C right now (about 35F), and they're still fermenting. That's colder than most fridges are normally set. I set the carboys out about 2 weeks ago to preserve some residual sugar and am surprised how tenacious the yeast is.

Pp

Reply to
pp

Ok Guys, thanks for the info....Guess I will let it ferment out, and clear, and then add some sugar syrup/ yeast and bottle in the soda bottles for the second ferment. Then when thats done I will get it really cold and decant it into new bottles with a dose of SO2,sugar syrup and a small dose of Calvados... thanks again for the help...

Bud

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s

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