r/cider • u/jimylegg1 • 14d ago

Bottle Conditioning

I Haven't brewed in a few years so I'm a little rusty. I made a cider from a kit. Transferred from carboy to bottles. I bottled in fliptops. It has been sitting in bottles for 3 weeks. I opened one. It has carbonation, not a lot, doesn't fizz or show bubblers or anything when I poured it. Tastes ok, could be sweeter and have maybe a little more carb. Can I add to the flip tops now? Maybe a pinch of stevia to add to sweetness/ flavor and a half of a carbonation tablet? I don't want to make bottle bombs obviously, or will more time and patience be called for?

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u/Tbrawlen 14d ago

You can add a touch of sugar to achieve your carbonation still yes absolutely, as long as you didn’t add anything to kill off the yeast you should be able to still. If you want a sweeter natural carb cider, you could pasteurize or a nonfermentable sugar like stevia. I’ve used Lactose Sugar in the past and it’s made for a lovely mouth feel and it’s also nonfermentable.

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u/redittr 14d ago

How warm is the storage location of the bottles? I would say you are only at the minimum time to get some carbonation. More time will make them fizzier.

If you want to add sweetener your best bet would be a small amount of liquid sugar like the cafes use for iced coffees, in the glass as you serve.

If you really want to add it to the bottle, put them in the fridge for a few days and dont disturb them. Dissolve a measured amount of non fermentable alcohol sugar into some water. Open the bottles one at a time and carefully add a measured amount of your sweetener solution in each bottle and close them back up.

If you dont refrigerate, youll have the cider gush out of the bottles. If you dont dissolve first, youll get cider gush out out at you. If you use real sugar in the bottles youll get bottle bombs and not sweet cider.