Bottling

I finally got this cider into bottles. I decided to "backsweeten". I did keep some pure but in the other bottles I experimented with honey (just to taste) and fresh local pressed cider from Orondo Cider Works ($5 for a half gallon). It has no preservatives and is just UV treated.

The hardest part about bottling was swirling the cider carefully to mix the honey but not to splash it and introduce oxygen.

My plan is to open them every day to check how well they are carbing up. This will happen because the yeast will activate with the addition of sugar and produce carbon dioxide. At the point that I like them I can bottle pasteurize them to stop the yeast.

Here's a photo showing how much hard cider I filled them with before adding the juice.

From left to right: campden treated still cider (nothing added), no campden still cider, honey sweetened and honey sweetened (both of the last ones also were from the "no campden" batch).

Here's a close up of the two still ciders. On the left is the one from the batch treated with campden tablets. I just wanted to see if I could taste a difference or not.

I am going to check with the people on Home Brew Talk to see what they think about bottle pasteurizing in these bottles.

I'm actually really relieved to have this bottled up. I think it was worrying me having so much headspace after I had first racked it.

Well, I'll get back to you once I have some results from tasting.