I’d hesitated decanting this month’s batch of cider in hopes that I could find a better way of storing the secondary fermentation.  I started with initial idea of using another 3 gallon water bottle and just sealing it till it was ready. But as time went on I felt more and more un certain that the waterbottle would withhold the internal pressure.  I tested it a few times and it seemed to swell up in just an hour or so at first, though by late saturday I had tested it for a full 6 hours and there was no sticky mess to clean up in my house.

I talked to Doyle about it and he had some method for measuring PSI that sounded like it would work, but in the end I just had to have faith and decant the cider off to another water bottle, add some honey for flava, and close the lid.  I bottled two bottles as insurance, and took the whole lot out to my garage.

I put the bottle in an empty plastic tub so if it does split open the resulting wave of cider will be contained.  Not that it won’t hurt my feelings when that happens!

I did a lot of research on the home brewing websites and barring a discovery of one of those huge ceramic jugs some place most people bottled and dealt with the occasional explosion. OR they had much more high end set ups than I have, some including a ‘kegarator’ that can cost 1000’s.   Sort of what I was after when I tried to find a fridge that would hold the bottles or one big bottle as in this case.

Pretty much at my limit for cider making unless someone starts donating apples.

OH darn, i was going to do that this fall. Look for some crab apples to crush up for flavor.  Might be an october batch but at this point I doubt it.