Bottling Day: Cider batch 3

I had the opportunity in my busy schedule to bottle the 9 gallons of cider I brewed. Step 1 of bottling is always sanitation. I wanted to put my cider in beer bottles this time instead of plastic jugs since the bottles carbonated the drink better. Also, my empty bottle stockpile had grown too large, so I needed to use some. My limiting reagent here was bottle caps; I only had 64. Even though we had several 22 oz bottles, I like to save those for beer.

A nice collection of empty bottles

Sanitation took me a while, even though I selected those bottles we had previously delabeled.

Soaking in the bathtub

Bottling was pretty straight forward; the process went without any major incidents. There were a few minor spills, but nothing out of control. I now have (60) 12 oz bottles, (6) 22 oz bottles, and (3) 1/2 gallon jugs of this cider bottled. It needs at least 1 week to bottle condition before I take my first sips. I guess I won't need to buy beer for a while....

Getting ready to fill

Other bottles (and bucket) on standby

A fully stocked shelf

Once this was carbonated, the cider flavor was very good. It tasted somewhat like pale ale, which I liked. My housemate said it tasted like soy sauce, but I don't know if I can trust that. The brown sugar must have caused those flavor notes.