sweetening and priming cider

I want to use brown sugar to prime my 5 gallon batch of cider. I have read to use 3/4 cup just like I would with corn sugar. When baking something, the measurement of brown sugar is when it is packed into the measuring cup. Is brewing the same way? Should I use 3/4 cup of packed brown sugar on a 5 gallon batch?

I also have some splenda that I am going to put in to sweeten the cider. Seems like some people say splenda is not fermentable and some say it is. How much splenda and brown sugar should I put in?

Instead of putting it in each bottle I plan on dumping the brown sugar and splenda in the bottling bucket like I would normally do for beer.

Any help for a born again homebrewer?

First off, just from a cooking/brewing standpoint, you should weigh any powders instead of using volume measurements.

Next, I don't think you should just dump the solid sugar in the bottling bucket. You may want to warm up a couple cups of cider or something with the brown sugar until it is dissolved.

Can't really suggest how much sugar to add. Kind of a preference thing.

Yeah I didn't mean to just dump the dry sugar in the bucket. When I said like I would normally do I meant to heat some water with the priming sugar and dissolve it then dump it in.

I have a good scale. How much brown sugar and splenda should I add by weight? I understand it would be a preference thing but I don't want to create bombs.

What kind of a cider are you looking for? Sweet but still? Sweet and carbonated?

If going for carbonated, you will have to backsweeten, let carbonate, then pasteurize when you are happy with the carbonation. (look up stove-top pasteurization to get an idea.)

I don't make still cider but I think after fermentation is done, you add campden tablets for 24 hours to kill the yeast, then sweeten and bottle. I could be wrong on this so please research this more if you are going this route.

Either way, you have to kill the yeast at some point to prevent bombs. If you add more sugar when the yeast is still alive, it will eat it and fart more CO2. I would start at 1/2 lb for 5 gallons. This is a total guess on my part. You may want to check out other cider threads and see what others are doing. Hope this helps. I usually use brown sugar to ferment, then just add 3 cans of apple juice concentrate when bottling, and pasteurize when the carbonation is right. This gives me a nice sweet/dry carbonated cider.

Good Luck!