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KevinJ · 08-23-2009, 07:46 PM

I have some bone dry 3 month aged cider. I plan on aging it much longer probably 6 months or so. How can I back sweeten it? I do not want it very sweet but it needs to have some sweetness. I do not like artificial sweeteners. They just taste like chemicals to me and they do not age well? I also do not have a dedicated refrigerator to cold crash it. What are my options? Do people really drink cider when it is bone dry. I like Strongbow dry cider but this stuff is even more dry. I used S04 in one batch and EC1118 in the other.

Thanks
Kevin

Freezeblade · 08-23-2009, 08:25 PM

I love my just how you're describing it, the 1118 maybe not so much, but the s04 totally.

As for sweetening options, if you're got a kegging system then you're all set, just sorbate/camden the cider, backsweeten with apple concentrate or sugar and force carb it. If you have no kegging setup, you don't have any options for a sweet carbonated cider without using any artificial sweeteners (or natural unfermentables like lactose/setevia)

If all else fails, the taste of dry cider really grows on you over time, and the apple flavor comes back with aging.

jcobbs · 08-23-2009, 08:44 PM

It's a matter of personal taste, but I would NOT recommend stevia for cider/apfelwein. I tried it and it pretty well ruined a good batch for me, at least for my taste. The first swallow is OK, but the aftertaste is awful. I wish I had just left it dry. Since I do most of my batches in gallon jugs, I have to pour off a bit of the juice anyway to make a little headroom and room for any added sugar. So this last batch I just put the extra juice in the fridge and I'm going to add it back at bottling time. When I first started making hard cider and apfelwein I thought I would not like the dry taste (hence the stevia screwup), but I have discovered that I really prefer it that way. When I get it right it's dry, but not tart--very refreshing and I much prefer it to dry wine from grapes.