Novice question about bottling sg

[Mike Euphrat]

Hi All,
I have a crab apple cider I pressed in 2024.
It started out around ~19 brix, osg:~1.075.
Press date:10/14/24

On 11/15/24 it was at 16 brix and ~1.060

On 11/21/24 obvious signs of spontaneous fermentation had stopped so I pitched some 71b to see if I could get it going again.

On 9/17/25 sg:1.021

Now on 5/5/26 I’m measuring the same sg.
No signs of fermentation (bubbles rising..)
Cider has cleared nicely.

Taste is good.
Very tart but pleasantly so and definitely less so than last I tasted (months ago).

My question is can I bottle this cider without making bottle bombs.
I understand that the sg is still much higher than is usually recommended but given how long it’s been sitting with no obvious signs of fermentation I was curious to hear from folks who may have more experience.

I have many champagne quality bottles.

I would like to bottle without sulfur but am not 100% opposed to adding a small dose if that’s what I need to do to feel safe about storing these bottles for a long time to let the acid mellow.

Thanks for any advise!


Mike

[Jason Cassidy]

Hi Mike - 

I think it's a very bad idea to bottle this cider without trying to stabilize. I'm sure you've done some calculations yourself, but if you bottle at that SG, the potential pressure that could be generated is crazy high and way higher than any bottle could handle (at least one you could purchase!). It only takes 1 yeast cell and time, and there is just a lot of risk involved with bottling at that high of an SG. 

Have you given stove-top pasteurization a thought? You could easily bottle this cider still (which it sounds like you wanted to do) and then do a sub 160F pasteurization run and get plenty of confidence that it won't referment in the bottle without impacting flavor, as long as you get enough PUs and don't go to hot. A sous vide machine and a canning kettle are pretty cost-effective and I've done this many many times at home with sweetened ciders without re-fermentaiton in the bottle. 

Hope this helps,

Jason

[Patrick McCauley]

Hi Mike. It's probably still a little bit early to bottle, especially at that high of a gravity. Temps are rising in my cider room, and I suspect some of mine will be picking up again, so I'm always a little leary of bottling high gravity ciders this early. I've bottled some in June and July that seemed stable, and they continued to ferment for a full year after pressing. Perhaps you should do a couple test bottles like Claude recommends in his book? Bottle them and put them in a warm place for a couple months, then continue to observe the main batch. See what they do. If they have a lot of carbonation, you should be very cautious about when to bottle the remainder. Good luck!

Pat McCauley 

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[Patrick McCauley]

Sorry for the quick reply, I didn't realize it had been stuck like that for a year! You probably are safe, but the recommendation of doing some test bottles still stands. I wonder if you'll get any carbonation at all?

Pat

[Claude Jolicoeur]

There are quite a few unknowns in the situation you describe.

- Temperatures? If under 8C all that time, it is very possible that fermentaion will pick as T rises.

- Do you have a precision hydrometer? How many points between graduations? We can easily make a reading error of +/- one graduation, so if your graduations are 2 points, that makes +/- 2 points of gravity on each reading and you may have had a 4 points gravity drop since September...

- Were your SG measurements corrected for temperature? If temperatures were different in September than they are now, this can introduce another point of SG difference.

If the true SGs are effectively the same now as they were in September, and if the temperatures were high enough not to deactivate the yeast, then you are quite safe to bottle. I would add a micro dosage of yeast and DAP if I wanted a bit of fizz in the bottles. Something like 4 ppm of each...

And yes, a test bottle would be a good thing to do. One bottle, brought to 25C for 2-4 weeks, and if no change in SG, this would confirm fermentation cannot go any further without some additions of yeast and/or DAP.

[Jeremie Reinhart]

Use a plastic coke bottle to test. Leave at room temp...It will tell you very quickly 😁

Jeremie Reinhart

"Hard work beats talent, when talent doesn't work hard"

“Today I will do what others won't, so tomorrow I can accomplish what others can't”

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[Mike Euphrat]

Thank you All for your responses!

Just ordered a precision sg hydrometer. 

I will gather more data and proceed with caution as to not blow anything up :)

I’m very excited about the prospect of this cider being good and worth waiting for. I wasn’t sure initially (and at many stages of its progress) if it was worth holding onto/working on. But it is already getting really good with the time I’ve given it in the carboy. If I can get it to a safe point of bottling I’m hoping it will mature nicely. Otherwise I’ll bust the whole carboy out for a party someday. 

Mike 

On May 6, 2026, at 11:32 AM, Jeremie Reinhart <jerem...@gmail.com> wrote:



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[Terry Chalk]

Interesting problem! I agree with all of the above comments but would add the question whether the yeast had stopped fermenting because of lack of nutrients or lack of sugar. I don't know if yeast would still be viable after a year, but you never know. If you look in Claude's book (The Yeast Nutrients starting P223) it gives you quite an insight into nutrient depletion and stalled fermentation as well as stabilization racking (P234). I have come across this problem around SG 1.012 - 1.015 and found that adding the appropriate amount of DAP got things going again.

This might be a bit of "rough arithmetic" (feel free to shoot me down if it is wrong) but at OG 1.075 I would expect the juice to have something like 160g/L of fermentable sugar and 35g/L of non-fermentables, all of which affect SG. As you are now at SG1.021, the "sugar" should be around 40g/L, but since the original non-fermentables were 35g/L and are still there, I would expect them to have the most effect on 1.021. If this is correct, you might only have a small amount of fermentable sugar left (say up to 10g/L) which is a quite normal priming level for most bottles. So, worst case after bottling you could end up with a nice fizzy beverage instead of a bomb.

Cheers!

[Mike Euphrat]

That’s interesting. 

Thanks Terry. 

I’ll look into it. 

My main concern is getting the batch bottled in a safe way. Less concerned about getting it “dry”. With the amount of acid on this batch of crabs ( which has mellowed a bit) it actually needs a little sweetness for balance. 

Mike 

On May 7, 2026, at 8:13 PM, 'Terry Chalk' via Cider Workshop <cider-w...@googlegroups.com> wrote:

Interesting problem! I agree with all of the above comments but would add the question whether the yeast had stopped fermenting because of lack of nutrients or lack of sugar. I don't know if yeast would still be viable after a year, but you never know. If you look in Claude's book (The Yeast Nutrients starting P223) it gives you quite an insight into nutrient depletion and stalled fermentation as well as stabilization racking (P234). I have come across this problem around SG 1.012 - 1.015 and found that adding the appropriate amount of DAP got things going again.

To view this discussion, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cider-workshop/2053866e-3137-473a-8e98-0fb4c6a9a5e2n%40googlegroups.com.

[Terry Chalk]

Yep, I understand your concerns about bottle bombs. The last one I had caused the cat to leave town for a day or so! Having said that, the coke bottle test is worthwhile if you don't want to drink the cider for a while. You do seem to have a lot of indicators that the yeast has expired.

To give you some comfort, most bottles are pressure rated well below their bursting point. I hot water pasteurise lightly carbonated cider in beer bottles generally rated for filling to around 4GV (about 60psi), however these are usually batch tested to over 200psi during manufacture. Even with 2.5 volumes of C02, in-bottle pressure during pasteurisation rarely exceeds 100psi which returns to normal (45psi when cool), leaving a good safety margin. Mind you, if you did have 40g/L of fermentable sugar that would turn into something like 10 volumes of C02, close to the limit for most bottles and very fizzy and exciting when opened. Again, good luck, it is all part of the adventure.