Opinions on my Recipe Modification?

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adrock

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Hey everybody, I'm brand new to the forum; decided to join because it seems like you folks really know your fermentation, and that's the kind of knowledge I'll need as I get more and more into this homebrewing thing.

I am currently making my first batch of cider, and I wanted to see if the recipe I'm using is destined for greatness, or garbageness (not a word, I know).

I'm using EdWort's Apfelwein recipe, but I've taken a few liberties with it (sorry EdWort). I used the best quality apple juice I could find; "Simply Apple." I added ~200g of lactose to the 5 gal batch, to attempt to sweeten it up a bit since the original recipe admittedly comes out dry. I needed the sweetener to be a non-fermentable because I want to carbonate it, and have to do that with the yeast due to my lack of kegging equipment. My question is will this amount of lactose be enough (or too much?), and will any of the flavors of the cider be thrown off by adding it?

I also used a cider yeast smack-pack as opposed to the montrachet wine yeast......I thought that might help to produce a cider with more apple tones.

Opinions? Don't be gentle; I can take a good slam if it's in order. Particularly if I've potentially messed up a perfectly good recipe.
 
Well not sure if its necessarily wrong, but most people who sweeten their brews do it once fermentation is complete. Than backsweeten with a non-fermentable sugar to taste at that point, you could take a measured sample, add a measured amount of sweetener and than multiply to add the same amount to the whole batch.

Also, the sugar (dextrose) in his recipe is to raise the abv of the brew. Your's, with only cider and no added fermentable sugars should net you a abv of between 6 and 7 % I believe.
 
I failed to mention that I added both the 2 lbs. of dextrose specified in the recipe + 200g of lactose. One of my buddies told me he found on a site somewhere that 10g/L of lactose nets a semi-sweet brew, and 20g/L nets a sweet brew........I went with 10g/L. So ideally I should get a high abv sparkling cider that has a little sweetness to it.
 
adrock,

We'll have to get together and compare our EdWort brews - I've got mine going in the basement right now - except a yeast difference from his original recipe.

alow
 
Just a quick update..........I bottled this cider last sunday and drank a couple "still" bottles immediately. It's pretty darn good, if i do say so myself. Very crisp, appley(?) flavor, but the dry edge is dulled by the lactose. I imagine it will be even better after carbonation!
 
Splenda is non-fermentable... I'd take a sample and mix up a small batch of sweetened cider once it finishes. I think you'll probably end up using between a half cup to two cups of splenda per 5-6 gallons. Prime and bottle as usual.

If you are kegging this stuff and force carbonating, after fermentation stops and the cider clears, rack to secondary, put in campden to kill some of the viable yeast still in suspension, put in potassium sorbate to prevent the remaining yeast from multiplying, add in whatever sugars you would like back into the cider. It may be a good idea to take a couple samples through this batch so you can get an idea of what gravity you would like the end product to be. So if you take a sample at 1.010 and it tastes perfectly sweet, you will be able to calculate how much sugar to put back in after you stop the yeast as described above.
 
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