Backsweeten with sugar?

Hi guys new cider maker here,

I just did my first batch of cider and it turned out great. My only problem was it was a little sour for my tastes as i am use to angry orchard and other sweet ciders. so i talked to my brew shop and got some potassium sorbate and my question is now can i backsweeten with table sugar? I know some people have said apple juice concentrate but i am just wondering if sugar is an option. any help would be greatly appreciated.

vemeron said:

Hi guys new cider maker here,

I just did my first batch of cider and it turned out great. My only problem was it was a little sour for my tastes as i am use to angry orchard and other sweet ciders. so i talked to my brew shop and got some potassium sorbate and my question is now can i backsweeten with table sugar? I know some people have said apple juice concentrate but i am just wondering if sugar is an option. any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Sure, you can sweeten it with anything you want. Honey, sugar, molasses, brown sugar, etc. I'd dissolve any addition in a little hot water (or heat up a sample of the cider and dissolve it in that) and then add that to the whole batch.

vemeron said:

Hi guys new cider maker here, I just did my first batch of cider and it turned out great. My only problem was it was a little sour for my tastes as i am use to angry orchard and other sweet ciders. so i talked to my brew shop and got some potassium sorbate and my question is now can i backsweeten with table sugar? I know some people have said apple juice concentrate but i am just wondering if sugar is an option. any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Remember you can always add more but you can't take it out once it is in. I'd make a small test subset and record measurements until I find the mix and them scale it up from there.

I sweeten my hard ciders with equal. Yeast won't eat equal. I use one packet for two 12oz bottles. I think it's perfect. I have done gallons and gallons of hard cider with plenty of crappy ones so I know what works. Peace

Wayneh said:

I sweeten my hard ciders with equal. Yeast won't eat equal. I use one packet for two 12oz bottles. I think it's perfect. I have done gallons and gallons of hard cider with plenty of crappy ones so I know what works. Peace

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Maybe the yeast know something you don't.

Because no one has asked it- are you kegging the cider? Or serving it still?

If you're kegging, then you can use potassium sorbate/campden tablets and backsweeten with whatever you want. Same thing if you want to bottle it but don't want carbonation.

If you are bottling and want it carbonated, the potassium sorbate is a bad plan. You will not be able to carbonate it. If you want it bottled and carbonated without having to carbonate in a keg first, you'll either have to backsweeten with something unfermentable (I use Splenda) or carefully monitor the carbonation, and then pasteurize all the bottles once you reach the right level of carbonation. There's a thread on it here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/. If you really want to use sugar that'll be your only option, otherwise you'll end up at best with bone dry highly carbonated cider, at worst exploding bottles.