Fermenting carbonated (non-alcoholic) apple cider.

Newbie here, been lurking around a while since a friend recommended this site.  Pretty excited to find you guys!  Really appreciate all the information ya’ll have shared.  

Been posting online since the internet began. I’m Patience, Machinist’s kid.  Hoping to reconnect with old friends here and meet new ones too!  Read the “how to post photos” so I am going to be brave and jump right in with this!

Making fermented, carbonated apple cider at our place!  Didn’t find anyplace that looked like a good fit for non-alcoholic fermented beverages so I started this as a new post.  Please let me know or move this if it would be better elsewhere?

Using a gallon of fresh, cherry flavor apple cider from a local orchard.  Best fizzy cider ever!!!  Working on the perpetual ferment theory, added sugar over time instead of all at once.  Shooting for peak flavor and fizz by Thanksgiving day and this approach seems to be easier to control timing for us.  We like it creamy, just on that edge between sour and sweet.

Added sugar every day or two.  Three spoonfuls plus a quarter cup of our ginger bug in each half gallon jar the first day.  (The starter is optional with a fresh apple cider.). Added two more spoonfuls of sugar when it no longer tasted sweet.  Another spoonful when it got a little sour again.  Lots of vigorous stirring to work air into the liquid two-three times a day.  

This morning it had come to a head!  Little fizzy right out of the jar.  We have carbonation!  Bottled and capped.  We have the flip-top glass bottles but washed out soda pop bottles work fine too.  Just needs to be able to take the pressure.  

Don’t fill pop bottles too full if that’s what you have to work with, leave a few inches empty and squeeze the bottle a little, cap it tightly and watch for it to expand back out.  Crack the lid every day (over the sink preferably) to “burp” the pressure.  

By evening we got a little “pffft” when the lid was opened.  Let it sit on the counter overnight and it should be ready to refrigerate by morning.  Started it last weekend, pretty sure it was Sunday morning?

Had some apple cider ferment left.  Usually guzzle that right down, going to let this batch run and see if it goes on to the alcohol side.  It is in the pint and a half jar on the left.  Coffee filter secured with a rubber band over it.

Patience Lilpop wrote:
Working on the perpetual ferment theory, added sugar over time instead of all at once.  

I have read about beers using honey and other sugars after the start of fermentation. Years ago I read a PhD dissertation on continuous fermentation of mead (honey wine). What type of sugar are you using?

T Blankinship wrote:

Patience Lilpop wrote:
Working on the perpetual ferment theory, added sugar over time instead of all at once.  

I have read about beers using honey and other sugars after the start of fermentation. Years ago I read a PhD dissertation on continuous fermentation of mead (honey wine). What type of sugar are you using?

I would love to read that dissertation!  Just using granulated sugar from the grocery store for this.  It is only intended as a fun beverage for a holiday meal.  Very popular!  

The continuous fermentation process comment is about our pet ginger bug, now nearing ten years old!  It feels like a living family member at this point and tasting and caring for it every day has been kind of profound for me.  

I am not sure if quoting you to reply is the best way, and I would sure appreciate any tips on this?