Using Stevia to back sweeten cider

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dmulligan

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I wish to use stevia to back sweeten my cider. I don't want to use lactose as I am partially intolerant and a good friend of mine is lactose intolerant as well. I also don't want to use an artificial sweetener such as splenda. That leaves me with stevia.

Stevia appears on the shelf in different forms. Some suspended in glycerin, some in alcohol, and others in powder forms with and without maltodextrin. I found a pure powdered leaf that I am thinking of using but now I am thinking that it may just cloud my cider. Which one should I use?

Once I have decided on which one to use, how do I decide how much to use? I have a 11L batch of cider that I want to sweeten. The cider has a final gravity of 1.004 and it tastes like a very dry warm white wine. I would like it to turn out semi-dry. Somewhat less sweet than Strongbow. I plan to add sugar to carbonate it along with the stevia to sweeten it. Do I just add to taste? Of course the cider is warm and uncarbonated so I am worried that going by taste will not translate easily to the end result. Are there any tips for back sweetening?

Thanks,
David
 
My one and only experience with stevia was also my only ruined batch of cider. It left an aftertaste that was just undrinkable. I used concentrate drops. I don't know whether they were suspended in alcohol or glycerin. Maybe one of the other forms would be better, I don't know. Are all wine conditioners made with lactose? Maybe you could use a wine conditioner for sweetening. Or sweeten with apple juice concentrate if you're going to carbonate anyway. Just my two cents worth...
 
I have been using Stevia (Truvia brand) on and in everything that needs sugar for the last 7-8 months...my wife and I are both trying to lose some weight and get back into shape, and we cut out sugar from our diet. I tried them all, and like you said, most man made sweeteners taste like crap, and leave a horrible aftertaste. I have found the powdered Truvia to not leave any nasty aftertaste in my mouth. I put it on my cereal, oatmeal, in my tea, cookies, etc etc. I really like it. I can't say how it would taste in a hard cider, but I think it would be fine in moderation. Again, it's the ONLY sweetener I like the taste of.

Dan
 
I will be bottle priming and not forced carbonating. This means that I cannot sweeten with apple juice or anything else containing fermentable sugar.

How much stevia did you add and to how much cider?
 
I want to bring this thread back up again.

i just decided i want to back sweeten 5gal of cider. i'll prime using corn sugar, but i need a non-fermentable and stevia is my preferred choice. i cannot use lactose as my wife will not be able to have any.

can anyone guess how much stevia would be needed to do the job? i was thinking of adding it during bottling and keep adding some until i'm happy. Anybody have a starting point for a measurement? i'll likely use the alcohol drops for sanitary reasons.
 
Draw off a pint & sweeten it to taste with the stevia. Then do the math & add the proper amount to the remaining batch. Regards, GF.
 
I made a 1 gallon test batch with stevia. I can't remember how much, but I didn't add a lot, only enough to add a subtle sweetness. I used pure stevia extract powder. I dumped it. Like jcobbs said, it was undrinkable. I've noticed that stevia sweetens best, with little aftertaste, if it has some real sugar along with it. Since stevia was the only sweetener, it had too strong of an aftertaste.
 
I've done it before, and it worked fine. I add the Stevia, get the desired sweetness, and then prime it, its translated well for me in the past.
hope it helps :)
 
I've backsweetened with Truvia and bottle carbed with dextrose, no problems, no after taste. Like Gratus said, do a small quantity to taste then do the math and apply to the larger quantity. Good luck.
 
it is possible. pure stevia can easily ruin a batch if over done. the rest of my post is referring to pure stevia powder. it comes in a small tube at whole foods or similar places.

start at 1/4 tsp per five gallons (!!) of the pure powder. going to even a teaspoon can be gross. after that it just gets completely terrible.

make up a sweetener test batch by mixing 1/8 tsp pure stevia powder with 1/2 cup water. then add 1 tsp of the mix to 12 oz cider. if you like the sweetness here, stop, you're done. if not, keep adding 1/2 tsp of the mix to your cup until you are happy. take small drinks.

if you like 1tsp per cup, that equals 1/4 tsp stevia per five gallon batch
if you like 1.5 tsp per cup, that equals 3/8 tsp stevia per five gallon batch
if you like 2 tsp per cup, that equals 1/2 stevia per five gallon batch
and so on

i find that beyond 3 tsp per cup (equivalent to 3/4 tsp per five gallon batch) becomes unpalatable and after that it just gets grosser and grosser.

i hope this helps. i'm working through a couple recipes that i'll post on this forum when they're ready. i'm floating around 1/2 tsp per five gallons.
 
Thanks progmac for giving us the math on tastings to amounts in the full batch....

Something I think I'm noticing on this thread, the post that say they're using pure stevia are mentioning the bad after taste. Others that mention the brand Truvia are saying the after taste isn't as bad. I've been surfing the web looking at info on various "sugar alternatives" and just an FYI I found that those back sweeting with stevia/truvia may be interested in. The brand of sugar replacment Truvia is actually a blend of sweeteners that is mostly erythritol along with some stevia. There's a third ingredient too but I forget what it is. Anyway, this might be what is making the difference in the after taste some of you have mentoined with pure stevia and others using Truvia. Anyway, right now I'm leaning towards trying truvia to back sweeten and bottle carb my cider (not wanting to mess with pasteurization to stop fermentation and just use real sugar either). Anyone tried splenda or xylitol, looking for opinions on taste and how much to use (as in comparison to amount of regular sugar one would use to get a similar sweetness). Thanks!
 
SevenBirch said:
Thanks progmac for giving us the math on tastings to amounts in the full batch....

Something I think I'm noticing on this thread, the post that say they're using pure stevia are mentioning the bad after taste. Others that mention the brand Truvia are saying the after taste isn't as bad. I've been surfing the web looking at info on various "sugar alternatives" and just an FYI I found that those back sweeting with stevia/truvia may be interested in. The brand of sugar replacment Truvia is actually a blend of sweeteners that is mostly erythritol along with some stevia. There's a third ingredient too but I forget what it is. Anyway, this might be what is making the difference in the after taste some of you have mentoined with pure stevia and others using Truvia. Anyway, right now I'm leaning towards trying truvia to back sweeten and bottle carb my cider (not wanting to mess with pasteurization to stop fermentation and just use real sugar either). Anyone tried splenda or xylitol, looking for opinions on taste and how much to use (as in comparison to amount of regular sugar one would use to get a similar sweetness). Thanks!
Click to expand...

I use Xylitol (Xylo-Sweet brand, from sugar alternatives in health food stores). It's about the same sweetness as table sugar and will raise the SG slightly less than sugar will. For my tastes, 3 TBSP per gallon is semi-sweet.

Xylitol is an organic sugar alcohol, made from birch trees or corn cobs. Despite it's chemical sounding name, it's not an artificial sweetener. Nobody hates diet soda more than I do (trust me on that), and Xylitol leaves no after taste.

As was mentioned earlier in this thread, temperature has an effect on our perception of sweetness. Sweetening "to taste" at bottling time should be done with cold cider - I usually put my taste samples over ice.
 
SevenBirch said:
Thanks progmac for giving us the math on tastings to amounts in the full batch....

Something I think I'm noticing on this thread, the post that say they're using pure stevia are mentioning the bad after taste. Others that mention the brand Truvia are saying the after taste isn't as bad. I've been surfing the web looking at info on various "sugar alternatives" and just an FYI I found that those back sweeting with stevia/truvia may be interested in. The brand of sugar replacment Truvia is actually a blend of sweeteners that is mostly erythritol along with some stevia. There's a third ingredient too but I forget what it is. Anyway, this might be what is making the difference in the after taste some of you have mentoined with pure stevia and others using Truvia. Anyway, right now I'm leaning towards trying truvia to back sweeten and bottle carb my cider (not wanting to mess with pasteurization to stop fermentation and just use real sugar either). Anyone tried splenda or xylitol, looking for opinions on taste and how much to use (as in comparison to amount of regular sugar one would use to get a similar sweetness). Thanks!
Click to expand...
i would chalk it up to overdosing on the stevia, which is incredibly easy to do. some of the amounts that other people have indicated they used (eg multiple teaspoons per gallon) would be absolutely disgusting.
 
I've used stevia in tea and coffee previously. Its not sugar, but it works okay if going super light.

In my one experience using it to back sweeten a fermented out cider, it was pretty bad. The cider itself wasn't great to start with mind you, but it deffinite made it worse (I tried using about 1/8tsp in 2 gallons and it was bleh).
 
I used a stevia brand xylitol that is a mixture of the two. I used half cup for 5 gal. I liked it but it was not very sweet and I like dry ciders. Gonna try a full cup next keg.
 
Anyone know where you can get actual Truvia in bulk (larger quantities than the 4-6 oz)?
 
Just ruined my second batch of cider due to over sweetening using Stevia. I had emailed Brewers Best (this is me getting my feet wet in cider making) only to receive no response. I wanted to know the sweetener that came with the kit as I wanted to lighten the flavor while keeping the sweetness and raising the ABV of the original kit. I mistakenly added a whole 2 oz bottle of the liquid extract. Killed my 6 gallon batch. Totally disappointed. I will never use stevia again.
 
I've been thinking about getting some bulk Sucralose (not Splenda which has maltodextrin added for bulk, but uncut Sucralose) and making up a liquid concentrate. To add one or two drops to my glass of cider if it needs sweetening. Not sure I would want to sweeten a whole batch just in case I add too much.
 
ChuckBowen said:
I had emailed Brewers Best (this is me getting my feet wet in cider making) only to receive no response. I wanted to know the sweetener that came with the kit as I wanted to lighten the flavor while keeping the sweetness and raising the ABV of the original kit.
Click to expand...

If you're talking about the cider house kits, they use acesulfame potassium, also known as AceK. the cider from that kit tasted great, but expensive since i can make it from applejuice and a yeast pack for half the cost on my own, but i can't for the life of me find that sweetener anywhere (Amazon).

I've made 2 ciders so far, and a 3rd in the fermenter right now. 1st was the kit, 2nd was from local orchard cider that i added a can of frozen concentrate to after fermentation (i keg and chill, then added it asumign yeast would be dormant from cold). haven't decided what im going to do for this 3rd, but i have the apple "extract" to flavor if needed.
 
bleme said:
Jet.com and Rakuten.com (formerly Buy.com) both carry 5 pounds of Ace-K for $67 shipped.
Click to expand...

well, im proven wrong. and now that i look again, its on amazon.

if i ever get the kit again, ill take note of the amount thats given in the packet. their directions are basically to add whatever amount you want. I'd guess it was a less than a tablespoon, but again im only guessing.
If i do end jup ordering this, I'd probably do 1 full teaspoon for 5 gallons and call it good.
 
I use Splenda often.

If I don't say that I used splenda in my wine my bride doesn't notice but if I say I used it, she complains about an aftertaste.

I add it weeks before bottling usually during a racking. Not sure it doesn't add a little bit of cloudiness, it might. I've used it in my ciders and various grape wines.

I might add more at bottling time after a taste or three.
 

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