Backsweetening cider with frozen sweet cider

benjita · 01-04-2009, 02:15 AM

Apologies in advance. I know this has to have been asked before but I couldn't find anything.

I just racked 6 gal to secondary and am starting to think about how I want to finish the cider. After tasting it before going into secondary, there seems to be very little "apple" flavor. I have 1 gal of frozen unpasteurized sweet cider that I was thinking about using to add apple flavor and backsweeten. Are there any guidelines on quantity to use.

lapaglia · 01-04-2009, 03:44 AM

Are you planing on bottling it still or conditioning it in the Bottle. If you are going to bottle condition than you cant add more sugar, apple juice, it will just ferment out again.

benjita · 01-04-2009, 06:12 AM

I'm going to go for still. Would 1 gallon added to 6 gallons be enough to impart apple flavor? I guess I could also add some concentrate but I wanted to stick with as much natural flavors as I could.

homebrewer_99 · 01-04-2009, 06:24 AM

If you add more sugar to the cider it will just ferment out. You need to add some Potassium Sorbate and let it sit a day or two to work.

I backsweetened a batch with 1 C honey and 1 frozen can of concentrate which made the cider taste fuller and more appley tasting.

benjita · 01-04-2009, 06:50 AM

Right. I will add Potassium Sorbate in order to halt fermentation. My question is whether 1 gal of sweet cider is enough to impart the appley taste.

EvilTOJ · 01-04-2009, 07:52 AM

Yep, it should work fine.

**jkarp** · 01-04-2009, 12:04 PM

I do one can of frozen concentrate per 3 gal batch of cider. Still plenty tart with just a hint of sweetness.

curbdawg · 01-04-2009, 01:14 PM

I used 2 cans of frozen concentrate to a 5 gallon batch that was stripped of apple flavor and now is quite fine

homebrewer_99 · 01-04-2009, 03:11 PM

curbdawg says he used 2 cans...I used 1 because it was enough, but would have used more if I thought it was necessary.

If you add 1 gallon of cider you'll "water down" your alcohol percentage. I'd stick with the concentrate.

benjita · 01-08-2009, 01:34 AM

Good point. I'll add 1 or 2 cans of concentrate.