Fresh Apples in Secondary

Hi everyone,

I've seen some threads similar to this one, but not with any clear answers, so I'm hoping that some of you can share your experiences using apples in secondary for a cider.

I'm using Trader Joes bought, pasteurized Apple Juice with mulling spices in primary. In an attempt to avoid adding sugar, I'm planning on adding apples into secondary. My thought is to use peeled, quartered, frozen and re-thawed apples in secondary to add the desired sweetness and a little extra apple flavor. I've also heard from people that they've used pureed apples or apple sauce. Anyone have any input from personal experience?

Any sugars you put in the secondary will ferment, that includes fructose from apples. Since I keg, I back-sweeten with concentrate and chill immediately.

Right, but I'm planning on using an Ale yeast that only supports 8-10% abv, so any sugars above that won't ferment out.

If you're starting with unsweetened juice, it should be about 1.05 SG or so, which will only ferment down to about 7%.

I don't trust the yeast alcohol tolerance to control fermentation with simple sugars. I've had ale yeasts take ciders well beyond 10% and below 1.000, they wouldn't carb, but the finished product was dry.

The best way to get true apple flavor is the most difficult...give it time. The difference in apple flavor and aroma in a year old bottle is much better than at 3 months.

For your case I think that you could add quality concentrate to get the SG to the point you find acceptable like 1.07 or so.

If might be worth researching fermenting on pommace.