Sweet-her Cider Recipe

Ok fellas enough word play, down to business....I have been doing my research on ciders and have come to the following conclusions about a recipe for making a sweet, bottle carb'ed cider for the lady of the house:

5 gals apple juice
1-2 lbs of dextrose
S-04 or Notty yeast
(some sort of unfermentable sugar)

I need your help on completing the final piece of this recipe. From what I understand (which isn't much) I need an unfermentable sugar so that it will retain some residual sweetness after it has finished fermenting and still be able to be bottled carb'ed and not make bottle bombs.

But what should I use??? This is where I get confused.

Thanks in advance for all the help!!

Splenda.
Lactose (although that will certainly significantly change the taste of the product).

What about malto dextrine, extra light DME, or molasses?

And what would the effects be of the cider for each of these?

Is any better or worse for ciders?

I believe all three of those are ferment-able.

I use Lactose.

jezter6 said:

Splenda.
Lactose (although that will certainly significantly change the taste of the product).

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What short of change to the taste should I expect if I use Lactose?

RedHeadBrew25 said:

What short of change to the taste should I expect if I use Lactose?

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if you use lactose be careful how much you use. i used lactose in my apfelwein once and as it aged and the apple flavor came back out it started to get almost too sweet.

as for the taste it has kind of the same taste as splenda in my opionion

IMHO, nothing that you use to backsweeten is going to taste as good as the original apple sugar. Cider is more like wine than beer in that it tastes better still and natural than carbonated with additives. If you really want carbonated, think about getting a kegging setup. You can usually find them cheap on craigslist. For example: http://martinsburg.craigslist.org/for/1408987960.html

Also - dextrose is not neutral. It finishes a little beery tasting, which is why beer makers consider it to be neutral. If you want something that tastes more like apple sugar, use 2/3 organic cane sugar (light turbinado) and 1/3 dextrose

wcarter1227 said:

if you use lactose be careful how much you use. i used lactose in my apfelwein once and as it aged and the apple flavor came back out it started to get almost too sweet.

as for the taste it has kind of the same taste as splenda in my opionion

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Wcarter1227, how much lactose did you use? Or how much would be recommended for a 5 gal batch.

Or to pull a 180, would I better off going with a graff? How far off in flavor and visual appearance is a graff from a cider....just never seen it in a glass?

Anyone got some pics?

RedHeadBrew25 said:

Wcarter1227, how much lactose did you use? Or how much would be recommended for a 5 gal batch.

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i think i used 8 oz for a 5 gallon batch. it was drinkable but is very sweet. i making a hard cider right now, im gonna let it ferment dry and then sorbate it and back sweeten with concentrated apple juice.

Cvillekevin has a post about all of his cider experiments, im thinking about cold crashing my next batch having it still but leaving in the apple sugar to have more of an authentic taste, maybe someday ill buy some cornies and they forcecarb but for the time being i have no space.

you could always sorbate it and then backsweeten with apple juice and then use a carbinator cap to add some bubbles also

RedHeadBrew25 said:

Or to pull a 180, would I better off going with a graff? How far off in flavor and visual appearance is a graff from a cider....just never seen it in a glass?

Anyone got some pics?

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im also just brewed a batch of graff, its fermenting right now. i think if anything the malt adds some body to the cider and a bit of sweetness but ive heard some say that it still finishes about 1.01 or so.

So, if we want to make a cider that's both carbonated and sweet, it sounds like the main/popular methods use a yeast that will die in the bottle before using up the available sugar, use kegging equipment to charge it with CO2 after stopping fermentation with our preferred method (or back sweetening), or adding unfermentable sweeteners to the mix.

What about stopping fermentation in the bottle (before it uses up all the natural sugars) after it's captured some natural carbonation? An idea came to me yesterday & I wondered if anyone's ever tried it.

I'm using plastic soda bottles for mine, so I can feel when the bottle gets tight from carbonation. What if I put some sorbate on the inside of the cap somehow, and keep the bottles upright after filling them (with a bit of airspace in the neck). Then, after they have enough carbonation, I'd just tip the bottle over to let the sorbate mix in with the brew & stop fermentation. I haven't worked out how I'd get a tiny amount of sorbate to stick up inside the cap yet; I'm mainly just thinking aloud. And it would have to be bottled with a bit more sugar than you want in the final product to account for that used for carbonation- which would have to be worked out. But does it have possibilities?

sorbate leaves a discernable tasted in the cider. Some people are OK with it, but I'd recommend against.

Another option would be to heat pasteurize after the desired bottle carbonation has been reached. Dont know how that would work out tho.

CvilleKevin said:

sorbate leaves a discernable tasted in the cider. Some people are OK with it, but I'd recommend against.

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Yes, the above idea would have to assume that a person is OK with the sorbate taste. Myself, I don't have kegging equipment, or care for the taste of splenda or most other artificial sweeteners, so I was looking for another route. Haven't ever tried lactose (is that the one?) to know one way or the other.