First Time Cider Maker Question

Is making cider as easy as it sounds? I have been making beer for a year and cider seems relatively easy compared to that.

Is it as easy as getting apple juice, heating up and dissolving in sugars until you get to desired OG, pitching yeast, let it sit until FG is reached, carb in keg and then enjoy?

My main concern is making sure the FG is in a decent range (between 5.5 and 6%) and it tastes somewhat decent.

That leads me to my final question...

What is backsweetening all about? Is it just to get your final product to taste better after fermentation is done?

If you only want a 6% cider dont add any sugar. Store bought apple juice has a SG of 1.050 which will give you alittle ove 6% This is a good site to learn from http://makinghardcider.com/index.html

Thanks, it looks like the only option to 'sweeten' to taste is to add an extract flavoring or a non sugar sweetener?

I want to do a semi-sweet cider so I imagine I would ferment and then add some sweetener to the desired taste?

barhoc11 said:

Thanks, it looks like the only option to 'sweeten' to taste is to add an extract flavoring or a non sugar sweetener?

I want to do a semi-sweet cider so I imagine I would ferment and then add some sweetener to the desired taste?

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Do you want it carbonated also? You could sulfite/sorbate and sweeting with sugar then force carb if your Kegging. Your only other option is to watch the fermentation and when it gets down to about 1.010 bottle. Then heat pasturize the bottles killing the yeast and leaving some carbonation and residual sweetness. I think thats a bit risky though

I want to keg the cider, what is the purpose of sulfite/sorbate AND adding sugar?

I prefer a more natural sweetener such as regular sugar, are you saying I could add normal sugar and then keg? I assume that if I added regular sugar, kegged and lowered the temperature to serving temp, the yeast would go dormant and I would not have to worry about producing too much carbonation?

Sorry for the newbie questions, I just don't want to screw up my first batch.

Thanks

barhoc11 said:

I want to keg the cider, what is the purpose of sulfite/sorbate AND adding sugar?

I prefer a more natural sweetener such as regular sugar, are you saying I could add normal sugar and then keg? I assume that if I added regular sugar, kegged and lowered the temperature to serving temp, the yeast would go dormant and I would not have to worry about producing too much carbonation?

Sorry for the newbie questions, I just don't want to screw up my first batch.

Thanks

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The Potassium Sulfite would weaken the yeast and the Sorbate stops them from reproducing. That way when you add the sugar the cider wont start fermenting again. I suppose you could just chill it and the yeast would go dormant since you are kegging and kepping it cold.

Thanks for the info Chaos, I did not realize that was possible

barhoc11 said:

Thanks for the info Chaos, I did not realize that was possible

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NP. I just started making beer, but have been making wine for about 2 years. In wine making you use sorbate and sulfites in backsweetening. I just started a cider up this past weekend. What yeast are you going to use? Might i suggest a beer yeast over a wine yeast. Nottingham is a good dry yeast also I like any of the english/british ale liquid yeast by White labs. Oh and if your using a temp controlled fridge or freezer dont forget to cold crash that bad boy. That in conjunction with the high flocculatting english yeast will leave your cider Crystal clear

ChaosStout said:

NP. I just started making beer, but have been making wine for about 2 years. In wine making you use sorbate and sulfites in backsweetening. I just started a cider up this past weekend. What yeast are you going to use? Might i suggest a beer yeast over a wine yeast. Nottingham is a good dry yeast also I like any of the english/british ale liquid yeast by White labs. Oh and if your using a temp controlled fridge or freezer dont forget to cold crash that bad boy. That in conjunction with the high flocculatting english yeast will leave your cider Crystal clear

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I am reading up on the Ale versus Wine/Champagne yeast now and I am leaning towards the ale yeast, what differences do you notice between the two?

I plan to cold crash like I do my beer, it helps a lot in my final product, just like creating a starter has helped.

Thanks Again!

barhoc11 said:

I am reading up on the Ale versus Wine/Champagne yeast now and I am leaning towards the ale yeast, what differences do you notice between the two?

I plan to cold crash like I do my beer, it helps a lot in my final product, just like creating a starter has helped.

Thanks Again!

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Wine yeast have a different flavor profile then ale yeast. The wine yeast will give it a dry white wine type of taste or so ive noticed. It all depends on the yeast really. This is a great post by a member who did a ****ton of yeast experiments with cider https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/results-juice-yeast-sugar-experiments-83060/