Cider is dry & sour after racking..

So I've had my 5 gal of hard apple cider fermenting away for a little over 2 weeks, bubbling slowed so last night I racked it to my secondary... It's going to be pretty strong, ABV is currently around 11.9% I gave it a little taste and think something's a little 'off'.. It was sour, almost "dry" tasting like a red wine if that makes sense.. I think the intense fermentation has eaten all the sugars and now it doesn't really taste anything like cider.. Is there a good method to back-sweeten it? I used 3.5 lbs of brown sugar in the recipe, I'm thinking that may have not been enough?

BTW, OG was 1.083, reading last night was 0.992..

That is some strong stuff. From what I have heard, the more alcoholic it is, the longer you will want to age it. Also as it is .992 that is some extremely dry cider, I would suggest back-sweetening and see how that changes the taste.

Adding sugar at the beginning does not mean you will end with a sweet cider without intervention. It just means that there is more for the yeast to eat so what you have done is just bumped up the ABV. Without intervening by stopping fermentation earlier or backsweetening afterwords, you will end up with a product like you described.

You are correct that you will need to backsweeten it then. I have heard that 2 to 3 cans of concentrate to taste will both lower your ABV a little by the simple fact you adde more non alcoholic liquid and also sweeten your cider as you desire.

Thanks - what kind of concentrate, just like regular Motts apple juice concentrate or something like that?

I too would be happy to hear what people recommend. I'm sure you can use whatever you like (as long as there are no preservatives?) but hopefully others can answer your question.

I'm a cheapa$$......I use Walmart's Great Value frozen concentrate with good results. You will need to stabilize your cider before backsweetening or your yeast will just eat up the additional sugars unless they have met their ABV tolerance.

If you want carbonated it gets more complicated.....you need to backsweeten then pasteurize once proper carb levels are met. Don't stabilize!!!!

roadymi said:

I'm a cheapa$$......I use Walmart's Great Value frozen concentrate with good results. You will need to stabilize your cider before backsweetening or your yeast will just eat up the additional sugars unless they have met their ABV tolerance.

If you want carbonated it gets more complicated.....you need to backsweeten then pasteurize once proper carb levels are met. Don't stabilize!!!!

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I do want to carbonate it.. could you provide a little more info on how I'd backsweeten (what's a good amount to use), and how would I pasteurize after carb levels are met? I don't have a keg and usually bottle-carb.. I'm not particularly worried about pasteurizing it.. When I backsweeten (and want to carbonate it) what prevents the new sugars from being eaten? I mean, at 12%ABV how much oomph could they really have left?

So, took another reading last night and did some experiments with back-sweetening..

My gravity reading now is at a surprising 0.989. That's an ABV of like 12.3%, this stuff is strong - too strong. Like an apple moonshine. My wife joked that it would make her go blind. The stuff has a great color though and is crystal clear.

So I tried apple juice concentrate and water.. about 4 tsp of both per cup of cider made it drinkable. That means I'm going to need 4 cans of concentrate and the same amount of water. I was still left with a bit of a headache after drinking a total of about 3 cups of it during my experiments.. definitely felt tipsy as well. So do I have any other options? Dilute it further? Or just drink in extreme moderation?

Needless to say this is not exactly what I was going for with my first cider... next time I'm going to try stopping the fermentation prematurely.

Ok lots to answer here......

At 12 + % alcohol you are more in the apple wine category than cider. It will need at least 6 months aging to be good. Would be even better in a year. The headache likely comes from fusels that should mellow out with time.

Whether your yeast is nearly done depends on what yeast you used and how it's been treated. Most wine yeasts will go to 14-18%. Ale yeasts can go 12 and higher with proper nurturing.

I wouldn't water it down but that's just me, I'd sweeten to taste (1.015-1.020 for me) and let age.

I'm not a fan of premature yeast demise either. I think you end up with better product by letting yeast do their business than backsweetening. You can end up with yeasty flavor if yeast arn't finished. I typically use 3-4 cans of frozen concentrate per 5 gallons for a cider that has finished dry.

If you want a more authentic cider use very little if any additional sugars. Probably SG no higher than 1.06. The more sugar the more aging time required. Most commercial ciders are in the 5% abv range.

You asked about backsweetening and carbonating and maintaining your sugars.........That is what the pasteurization is for. You add the sugar, let it carb to desired level than pasteurize to kill the yeastys. Some get away with just cold crashing and keeping refrigerated but you have to monitor for bottle bombs and it takes a lot of fridge space.

3 cups (what size) could be quite a bit when your talkin 12%+ alcohol. 3 pints would be like 6 pints or more of your avg beer .......that would make me tipsy.

nullvalue said:

So, took another reading last night and did some experiments with back-sweetening..

My gravity reading now is at a surprising 0.989. That's an ABV of like 12.3%, this stuff is strong - too strong. Like an apple moonshine. My wife joked that it would make her go blind. The stuff has a great color though and is crystal clear.

So I tried apple juice concentrate and water.. about 4 tsp of both per cup of cider made it drinkable. That means I'm going to need 4 cans of concentrate and the same amount of water. I was still left with a bit of a headache after drinking a total of about 3 cups of it during my experiments.. definitely felt tipsy as well. So do I have any other options? Dilute it further? Or just drink in extreme moderation?

Needless to say this is not exactly what I was going for with my first cider... next time I'm going to try stopping the fermentation prematurely.

Click to expand...

It's not at .989, as that's simply not possible. But .998 is entirely possible!

Don't forget to stabilize with sorbate and campden to prevent refermentation when sweetening.