Sugars for Carboanting Cider

[c0nsumer]

Hey everyone... I'm going to be bottling 10 gallons of hard cider that I've made soon, and I'm trying to figure out which sugars to use. My initial thought is to use 125g of corn sugar, which ProMash reports as giving about 2.5 volumes of CO2.

However, I'm not sure I want to use corn sugar... I've also been thinking about using honey... So the question is, what would you use?

[Derekt2]

Either is fine, you cane even use apple juice concentrate, but I'd go with sugar for ease of use. Besides, it won't do much to the cider and avoids hassle, imo.

[gallowd7]

I'm going to slightly hijack this thread...
I just used corn sugar to carbonate my 5 gallon batch and put it directly into the fridge. Is 40 deg. to cold to carbonate?

[c0nsumer]

Originally posted by gallowd7
I'm going to slightly hijack this thread...
I just used corn sugar to carbonate my 5 gallon batch and put it directly into the fridge. Is 40 deg. to cold to carbonate?

Pretty much, yeah.

[Dextolen]

I found this in my midwest supplies.com catalogue yesterday. This is for bottling 5 gal. beer, mind you.

Corn Sugar - 3/4 cup
DME - 1 1/4 cup
Honey - 1 cup
Maple Syrup - 1 1/4 cup
Molasses - 1 cup
Brown Sugar - 2/3 cup
Cane Sugar - 2/3 cup

[bruin_ale]

HHmm..I'll pass on the cane sugar, but I wonder what the difference would be if using honey, maple, molasses, etc. Anybody ever tried anything besides corn sugar or DME and care to share? I think I remember someone saying they used honey, but could you taste the honey or notice a change in the body at all?

[Trogger]

One consideration, from what I've read, is that corn sugar is 95% fermentable and produces no unusual off tastes, or adds any flavor. As far as the other ways of carbonating, they are not 100% fermentable, so some taste/sugar will be left in them. That taste will most likely be small. Other affects include the type of sugar that makes up those products, which produces certain off flavors due to the chemical reactions during the fermentation of different sugar types. My personal preference, as I’ve stated before in this forum, is to use corn sugar due to the lack of any flavoring added to the beer. Flavoring should be decided when mashing/boiling/fermenting/aging, IMO, not in the physical carbonation process.

[bruin_ale]

That makes alot of sense Trogger, I force carbonate most of my beer anyways, so tend to agree that the flavor/body/etc should be there before you get to the carbonation stage. But I was thinking that some of those things, when added during the boil or anytime during primary fermentation might have their flavors scrubbed away by the yeast. Honey is a good example, I was thinking that maybe using the bottling stage as a sort of dryhop for honey or maple would keep the aroma where it belongs.

Just an idea, although as you pointed out, the amount you'd add for priming is probably not enough to impart any flavor anyways.

[Trogger]

Yeah, adding desired tastes is always a dilema, I agree there.