So I brewed the Apple Cider AHBA put up, only I used priming sugar, and bottled it. When I bottled it, I added in extra fresh apple juice to reduce the sourness, and now I have this “film” in the bottom of my bottles. Its been a few weeks, and it wasn’t there after a week, but is now. It basically looks like wet toilet paper floating in all of my bottles. Is this mold? I have a link to a couple pictures below. I tasted it, and it taste fine, I even tasted the white stuff, and it just tasted like the cider. Could it be undissolved sugar? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
My guess is yeast. By the way, I’d be super concerned about bottle bombs if you used both juice and priming sugar at bottling. The yeast is going to eat both the priming sugar and the sugar from the juice. Check for over carbonation and take bottle bomb precautions if necessary.
+1 yeast
+100 potential bottle bombs. How much sugar did you use per gallon? Do you know the sugar content of the juice you added?
The usual 5 oz per 5 gal and no. So its safe to drink? I can deal with over carbonated beverages.
How much juice did you add an what was the sugar content of the juice? You may be fine, just be careful.
Just 1 liter and I’m not sure.
Yeah, I think your fine. But it will ferment out drying it back out. Ciders take time. In a year they will be awesome.
I think overcarbonation is pretty much a guarantee. Bottle bombs will depend on the quality of your bottles, but I think you run a real risk.
Here’s my quick, back-of-the-envelope calculation:
A) 5 oz per gallon of priming sugar generally gets you to the upper end of the preferred carbonation range. The exact amount depends on your fermentation temps, but my guesstimate is 2.8 volumes of CO2 from the priming sugar alone.
B) A conservative guesstimate for the OG of your apple juice is 1.040
C) Divide 40 by 20 (5 gallons = 19L, plus 1L of juice), means you’re increasing your gravity by about 2 points
D) Each point equals roughly 0.5 volumes of CO2. This puts you in the ballpark of 3.8 volumes of CO2. Unless you’re using belgian or hefe bottles, this is definitely in the “risk of bottle bombs” territory.
Check your carbonation levels frequently. As soon as they hit the carbonation levels you want, get your bottles in cold storage. Continue to monitor them frequently, and as soon as they start to show signs of overcarbonation drink them as soon as you can.
I think Eric could be easily right. 1 liter doesn’t sound like much at all in the grand scheme of things, but in doing the math…
Yeah, its surprising how little sugar it takes to make a difference when it comes to bottle carbonation.
if it’s highly carbed now and tasty, chill the rest and enjoy. If it is still moderately carbed, go ahead and keep checking every few days if you like. The others are right in that you really shouldn’t just leave this sitting around at the carb level you could potentially reach.
So chilling could reduce bottle bombs (carbonation) but its still a risk?
This batch is also the first recipe out of my comfort zone. It looked stupid simple, only took a carboy so I could keep brewing my stout, and my wife likes apple cider. I guess I just didn’t take into account the extra sugar from adding the apple juice. Thank you for all the replies guys. You are all very helpful.
chilling with slow the yeast down so they will not generate as much co2. They will however keep working slowly so even in a fridge you have continue to monitor. How long has it been in bottles?
Chilling doesn’t reduce carbonation that’s already there. It just slows the yeast’s metabolism way down. They will eat the remaining sugars and produce additional CO2 much more slowly than if they were left at room temp.
Actually pressure and temperature are related directly. The bottles will be more explosive when warm than when cold.
Note that I am not an engineer, but I have been on a train.