What sweetener do YOU use for back sweetening?

I am about to do my second and third cider ever. I have an apple cider going and a pear cider going.....

I'm going to backsweeten and I am curious what YOU like to use as sweeteners....

So, what are your favorite sweeteners for ciders?

I keg mine, I take 1 cup of water, 1/2 Cup Splenda, 1/2 Cup clover honey and simmer. I take 2 cans of frozen apple juice concentrate, dump them into the sanitized keg, pour the still hot mixture in, swirl to mix, then rack the cider in. I immediately chill my cider and force carb.

My favorite sweeteners for cider are: frozen apple juice concentrate and table sugar. The concentrate give a little more flavor and sweetness and the sugar is cheap!

Of course, you'll want to stabilize it to prevent any further fermentation.

Apple juice concentrate here as well. I would also think a nice brown sugar like a light\dark Muscovado sugar would work well as it would add some good flavors.

I've never tried any of those artificial sweeteners\non-fermentable sugars but I hate those in every other product I find them so I definitely recommend using a sweetener you like as is. For me its concentrate since it increases the apple taste (fermentation removes a lot of it) and makes it deliciously sweet. BTW stove top pasteurizing is stupid easy for stabilizing...check out the sticky

I use more cider, for the same reasons that others seem to use concentrate. It increases the cider flavor and adds sweetness/tartness/complexity.

You do need to factor in the fact that you will be reducing ABV a bit when using my method. I calculate this when creating the batch (I.e. create a 10% batch when shooting for 8% final product)

I use honey

more apple juice

WilliamSlayer said:

You do need to factor in the fact that you will be reducing ABV a bit when using my method. I calculate this when creating the batch (I.e. create a 10% batch when shooting for 8% final product)

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If you're adding more sugar isn't there some residual yeast there to eat it and why would your alcohol volume go down?

Pappers,

I'm fermenting my cider dry, want to back sweeten with raw cider, bottle condition and pasteurize per your thread. But I'm a little unsure about how much to back sweeten to (to what gravity?) to get a light sparkle from bottle conditioning and hopefully end up with a final gravity (in the bottle) around 1.010. I was thinking of back sweetening to 1.013-1.014. What do you think?

Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

BadgerBrigade said:

If you're adding more sugar isn't there some residual yeast there to eat it and why would your alcohol volume go down?

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if you don't stabilize or pasturize, yes there is some yeast left.

your ABV goes down when you back sweeten because your total alcohol remains the same and your batch size goes up.

Hedo-Rick said:

Pappers,

I'm fermenting my cider dry, want to back sweeten with raw cider, bottle condition and pasteurize per your thread. But I'm a little unsure about how much to back sweeten to (to what gravity?) to get a light sparkle from bottle conditioning and hopefully end up with a final gravity (in the bottle) around 1.010. I was thinking of back sweetening to 1.013-1.014. What do you think?

Any thoughts you have would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

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Should be spot on.....normally .003 carbonates fine.

BadgerBrigade said:

If you're adding more sugar isn't there some residual yeast there to eat it and why would your alcohol volume go down?

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I use potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate (in combination) to stun, then neuter the yeast. After that, backsweetening won't re-ferment. The ABV is reduced as I add volume to the batch (I.e. a 5 gal batch that is increased to 6.5 gal through backsweetening).

WilliamSlayer said:

I use potassium metabisulfite and potassium sorbate (in combination) to stun, then neuter the yeast. After that, backsweetening won't re-ferment. The ABV is reduced as I add volume to the batch (I.e. a 5 gal batch that is increased to 6.5 gal through backsweetening).

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Woow..... A gallon and a half to sweeten? Isn't that much?

BadgerBrigade said:

Woow..... A gallon and a half to sweeten? Isn't that much?

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Yup, did that with my last Hard Cider. It brought the gravity from 0.990 back to 1.012. Very nice flavor, not too sweet.

WilliamSlayer said:

Yup, did that with my last Hard Cider. It brought the gravity from 0.990 back to 1.012. Very nice flavor, not too sweet.

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Just curious, did you use a chaptalization calculator to figure out the volume of cider to add to back to back sweeten from 0.990 to 1.012? Or did you just add enough juice till you hit 1.012?

Hedo-Rick said:

Just curious, did you use a chaptalization calculator to figure out the volume of cider to add to back to back sweeten from 0.990 to 1.012? Or did you just add enough juice till you hit 1.012?

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Good question.... I'm learning and was wondering that as well

Hedo-Rick said:

Just curious, did you use a chaptalization calculator to figure out the volume of cider to add to back to back sweeten from 0.990 to 1.012? Or did you just add enough juice till you hit 1.012?

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I actually took test samples and backsweetened each with different ratios. My wife liked a ratio a bit sweeter than I did, so we comprimised and went for a middle ground for that batch. After I had the ratio, it was simply a matter of scaling up!

I took the gravity reading to give myself more info as to what that level of sweetness translated into gravity wise.

I like frozen concentrate best so far. Caramelized sugar is good too. Gonna try malic acid tonight!

For the benefit of the viewers can you guys please put the quantities of what you use for back sweetening along with what you use?

aubiecat said:

For the benefit of the viewers can you guys please put the quantities of what you use for back sweetening along with what you use?

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I would if I knew... I'm just going to do it to taste during bottling time

I use Old Orchard brand 100% juice concentrate, it comes in apple/cherry or apple /raspberry flavors. It's a nice addition to a cider IMHO.

I have used a sugar and stevia mixture, I couldn't give you the ratios because it was a pre-mixed baking mix I got from the grocery store. Next batch I'm going to use concentrate and stevia.