Bottling keeved cider

[Alex Pegge]

Hello, I’m hoping to bottle 500litres of keeved cider this week using lightweight 750ml champagne bottles with 29mm crown caps with a bidule. I have used these caps and bottles for bottle conditioning other cider but at much lower sg (generally between 1008 and 1005). The cider I want to bottle was keeved in December then cold racked several times to slow down fermentation. It was sg1023 end of Feb, and sg1022 end of March when I racked it into container with less headspace. It’s now at 1019 so fermentation rate has possibly increased due to rising temps on the last month. Or could the lower pressure and warmer temp of today affect the gravity reading by a couple of degrees? I’d like to bottle without pasteurising (don’t have time and also think it might affect flavour). But I’m concerned it will explode if the fermentation has restarted. It’s very clear but got some fizz to it if that gives any indication as to fermentation activity. My question is whether I should wait and see if it stabilises or whether I should go ahead and bottle and hope for the best. I’m going away so next time I could bottle would be in three weeks.

Thanks

Alex (the new cidermaker at Barleywood orchard)

[Claude Jolicoeur]

If you are bottling at SG 1.019, you need to be extremely precise in your measurements of SG to be able to predict the behavior of the cider. This implies the use a precision hydrometer and to make the appropriate temperature corrections. If you haven't done so yet, you should read about FSU in my book. In my experience, at the SGs you are mentioning, you can bottle safely if your FSU (normalized at 10C) is less than 15 when the cider is well clarified and you would get a nicely sparkling "pet-nat" cider. With FSU at 20 or abobe, this is getting very risky. The lower the FSU is, the less fizz you will get.

The safer alternative is to rack and make sure it is well stabilized, and then at bottling add a micro dosage of nutrients and/or yeast.

[Mark Warnett]

Hi Alex

For what it's worth I'd wait. We have this dilemma every year. I can't imagine it would ferment to dry in 3 weeks, and if it does you be glad you didn't bottle it anyway because that would create an unsafe level of pressure!

I'd guess in about 3 weeks you might be at about the desired sg.

Cheers

Mark

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[Patrick McCauley]

I bottle many ciders in the 1.015-1.020 range, and never have explosions. Once in a while, I do get some gushing. Sometimes it's not even the whole batch, but individual bottles within the batch that gush, which is weird. For this reason, I would definitely be cautious, and as Claude said, use the FSU calculator from his book. I've never had issues with a cider being completely flat/uncarbonated, so waiting a bit longer can't hurt. The cider is still pretty young if it was keeved in December, and the way you describe it, it sounds like it's still fermenting. You may want to give it another month or two. With a couple of my gushing batches, I wish that I had waited a little longer, and perhaps racked one additional time. I think that it would have made a big difference. 

Pat McCauley

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[Alex Pegge]

Thanks so much all for your quick responses and fantastic advice.

I racked the cider and finding very little lees at the bottom of the tank, and having calculated an FSU of 8 from Feb to now, and 13 from March to now, I figured the fermentation rate was just slow enough. I was keen to preserve the brightness of the flavour and noticed a slight mist on the surface which I fear was the beginnings of a film yeast so decided to bottle it. I have also conferred with a cider making friend of mine who has made many sweet pet nat ciders, and he suggested that the carbon dioxide will poison much of the few remaining yeast cells. 

What a great resource this ciderworkshop is! Thanks again,

Alex