Turbo cider priming

[marcarm]

I have made a TC using the following:

4l Tesco apple juice
1 bottle raspberry syrup
yeast nutrient
cup strong tea

It's getting close to being finished and was wondering how much I should use to prime.

I made something similar last year and for some reason it was way over carbed, so much so that when I opened a 330ml bottle, the froth nearly hit the ceiling!

I am keen to avoid this happening again, I also haven't tasted it yet so not sure how sweet it is.

I'm looking for something along the lines of Bulmers, I have another bottle of syrup I can prime with, as well as Tesco sweetener to backsweeten if needed.

Thanks

[Pinto]

Do you prime the bottles or batch prime ? I find the perfect fizzy cider comes with 1 level tsp sugar per bottle, and if backsweetening is required, 1 level tsp of stevia or sucralose. If you want to be more scientific about it. or if you batch prime, I'd recommend using a carbonation volume calculator; ciders need to be in the 2-3 volumes range.

Whilst drinking a pint of commercial cider the other day, it came to me how much like "high juice" apple squash they tasted - which got me to thinking....

I have 12l of AJ ready to go and this time, im going to boil up (becuase it contains sulphites) a litre bottle of NAS high juice apple squash and add this to the cider - it does contain some sugar, which I can add to for priming, but it will hopefully give me a shot of the intense "apple" TCs are sometimes lacking, as well as adding sweetness throught the "NAS" part.

I'll report back on my findings.

[WalesAles]

I have made a TC using the following:

4l Tesco apple juice
1 bottle raspberry syrup
yeast nutrient
cup strong tea

It's getting close to being finished and was wondering how much I should use to prime.

I made something similar last year and for some reason it was way over carbed, so much so that when I opened a 330ml bottle, the froth nearly hit the ceiling!

I am keen to avoid this happening again, I also haven't tasted it yet so not sure how sweet it is.

I'm looking for something along the lines of Bulmers, I have another bottle of syrup I can prime with, as well as Tesco sweetener to backsweeten if needed.

Thanks

marc,
Did you add Yeast as well as the nutrient?
45gr sugar for 5Lts works for me for priming.

WA

[marcarm]

Yeast used as well.

So if I work out how much syrup contains 45g of sugar, add that to my brew all should be well?

[Pinto]

Yeast used as well.

So if I work out how much syrup contains 45g of sugar, add that to my brew all should be well?

Indeed. Be careful with those syrups - thats how I ended up with a batch of 48 bottles that were all carbonated to NINE volumes ! - they're interesting to open....

[marcarm]

I've just racked this to a secondary and tested the gravity. It's down to 1002 from 1072, giving about 9%. I didn't want it this strong which is why I didn't add any sugar at the beginning, is there anything I can do to reduce the alcohol content?

I was thinking of adding no sweetener to back sweeten before carbonation, and adding Apple juice to the glass when serving. This way it wouldn't be too sweet and will retain the flavour, unless any one has any other ideas?

[Pinto]

I've just racked this to a secondary and tested the gravity. It's down to 1002 from 1072, giving about 9%. I didn't want it this strong which is why I didn't add any sugar at the beginning, is there anything I can do to reduce the alcohol content?

I was thinking of adding no sweetener to back sweeten before carbonation, and adding Apple juice to the glass when serving. This way it wouldn't be too sweet and will retain the flavour, unless any one has any other ideas?

If you want to drop the ABV, then dilution is your only real option. For all intents and purposes, you can ignore the ABV contribution made by priming sugar as it'll be less than 0.5% - but non fizzy cider isnt something I enjoy myself; not a scrumpy fan....

I'd take you back to my suggestion - use a concentrated NAS squash thats been boiled, then diluted 2:1 with boiled/chilled water and knock the cider back with this. That way, the ABV will be lower and you'll hopefully retain the "appleness" of the cider AND have carbonation. Are you sure on that OG of your juice you used ? in general. carton apple juice is normally around 1040 neat !

[marcarm]

I'm pretty certain on that og, would make sense as I added a bottled of that syrup which is packed full of sugar.

I like the sound of your suggestion, would you do that before bottling or mix in the glass?

I did want to prime with the syrup as there is not a huge raspberry flavour there, but looking at the sugar content I wouldn't need a huge amount to get the right carbonation.

Thanks for your help.

[Pinto]

You can dilute on serving if you want, or as I said when priming. I didn't notice you'd added the bottle of syrup to the primary - no wonder the OG was immense ! I think the diluted apple squash at bottling will be best as at 9% already, your yeast is really going to struggle with carbonation.

In future, I'd use a raspberry juice instead of syrup in the primary, and then use the syrup to prime the mix instead. The raspberry flavour and aroma is a volatile compound so was most likely driven off during the primary ferment.

Something like this maybe ; http://www.princes.co.uk/our-products/f ... erry-juice

[marcarm]

Just an update that I managed to save it

Thanks for the advice, I added a bottle of diluted NAS apple squash, and also primed with 7ml of raspberry syrup per 500ml bottle.

The first one I opened ended up gushing everywhere, so I thought I had overprimed, even though the sugar content of that 7ml would be about 5g.

The next one I chilled in the fridge for a while and it was perfect.

I poured over ice and it is really nice, not too sweet or strong, even the SWMBO who doesn't drink that much liked it.

All the bottles are now in the garage waiting for the summer BBQ that we hold every year.

[Pinto]

Nice one how would you rate the "appleness" ? Like a commercial cider or more subtle ?

[marcarm]

I've not had a commercial flavoured cider for a long time, but there is a definite tang from the apples lurking behind the raspberry.

I'd be quite happy to drink this over a bulmers.

[Pinto]

Good news looking forwards to "squashing" my full 25l batch fermenting right now - sound like the results should be what I'm after