Back Sweetening Splenda Vs. Lactose

highjumphero · 12-12-2011, 10:38 PM

I am thinking about back sweetening a cider, but I am unsure if I should go with splenda or lactose. Anyone have a taste preference? I don't want it to taste like diet soda (I have had a few diet sodas and had a NutraSweet taste in my mouth the next day) , but I would like to bottle carbonate some rather than keg it all.

ACbrewer · 12-12-2011, 11:21 PM

take a look at this sticky/link about stove top pasturizing and consider using sugar.
http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/

From what I've read
Lactose - pro -yeast can't digest it. Con can give a milk/creamy flavor and those who are lactose intollerant might have issues. Very good in your chocolate milk stout, but perhaps a cider would suffer.
Splenda - pro yeast can't digest it and it doesn't take like milk... con it tastes like splenda... Same with any other artifical sweetener. So the flavor could come through depending on how much you use.

highjumphero · 12-15-2011, 07:52 PM

Thanks ACbrewer!
That would work great, I will probably just back sweeten with apple juice in my bottling bucket keg most of it and bottle the rest and pasteurize the bottles when they are ready.

highjumphero · 02-03-2012, 06:33 PM

I ended up back sweetening it with 1 gallon of apple juice. Turned out great! I kegged most of the cider and bottled the rest. When the bottles carbed up I threw them in the dishwasher to pasteurize. The kegged cider is better, pasteurizing made the alcohol flavor stand out more in the bottled cider.