My Cider is too dry

My first Cider turned out too dry. I used 4 gallons of organic CIder from my local grocery, and white labs English cider yeast. It tastes ok, but just too dry.

Could I use Lactose to sweeten it up a bit? How much should I use?

Is there another way to add sweetness that would not ferment out over time?

Thanks,

Matt

Yup, lactose is perfect for back-sweetening. To determine the amount, pour yourself a glass, add lactose by measured amounts until it suits your liking, then scale that amount up to sweeten the whole batch.

Example:
Pour an 8 oz glass of cider
Assume 1/4 oz of lactose is enough to sweeten it
5 gallons = 80 8 oz glasses
1/4 oz * 80 glasses = 20 oz of lactose

You could also use Splenda - it won't ferment, either.

Most of the time 8-12 oz. of lactose is plenty, but there is a much wider variation in how people detect lactose than for sucrose.

Thanks guys.

I will use the method Yuri spelled out.

Do I need to boil the lactose before adding it to the keg?

Matt

It helps to boil an amount of water about equal to the amount of lactose you're using, take it off of the heat, and dissolve the lactose in that. Let it cool a little before pouring it into the keg.

For Splenda would you use about the same amount as lactose? I'd assume you'd boil it as well?

I tried both methods last night and I came to 2 conclusions:

- I can barely taste the sweetness from lactose, and it took 4-5 teaspoons to get the
desired sweetness

- splenda is far too sweet, and it lingers in your mouth like only artificially sweeteners
can.

Is there a way to kill the yeast, and back sweeten with table sugar or DME? Seems like I read somewhere there are tablets for this purpose.

Matt

to kill the yeast add 1 campden tablet(potassium metabisulphite) per gallon and 2/3 teaspoon
of potassium sorbate per 5 gallons* after stirring vigorously to release the c02
let sit for a week or two, rack off the yeast ans sweeten with sugar or another can of apple juice concentrate.
i will be doing this to my cider in another 2 weeks.
good luck

* i got this info from a previous post and hope it is correct

psymn said:

I tried both methods last night and I came to 2 conclusions:

- I can barely taste the sweetness from lactose, and it took 4-5 teaspoons to get the
desired sweetness

- splenda is far too sweet, and it lingers in your mouth like only artificially sweeteners
can.

Is there a way to kill the yeast, and back sweeten with table sugar or DME? Seems like I read somewhere there are tablets for this purpose.

Matt

Click to expand...

If you don't want to carbonate it by priming the remaining yeast then use campden and sorbate as Rod mentioned and then sweeten with sugar/apple concentrate - NOT DME. Malt and cider don't mix well.

I have a cider that is too dry also, and I have already added about 8 oz of lactose. It has been sitting in a keg in the fridge at about 40 degrees for about 3 weeks, and I was wondering if the yeast is dead by now, and if I can just add regular sugar now to sweeten it. So does anyone have an idea if the yeast would die after that amount of time. I was very surprised how dry my cider turned out, I used Ed's recipe, but used an Ale yeast with it.

Ah yes, but my recipe calls for Montrachet wine yeast. My Apfelwein is dry, crisp & refreshing. It's an acquired taste to some and requires about 2-3 glasses.

I tried Splenda on my first batch, but stuck with the original recipe. It gets better as it ages. My latest keg is 7 weeks old and is the best tasting so far.

Mine turned out a scant dry as well, but I was considering bumping up the apply nature and adding some body by mixing in a little apple concentrate after stablizing the cider.

I've got a gallon going on, so in theory, how much should I use to improve the flavor without doing too much damage?

Hermish said:

I have a cider that is too dry also, and I have already added about 8 oz of lactose. It has been sitting in a keg in the fridge at about 40 degrees for about 3 weeks, and I was wondering if the yeast is dead by now, and if I can just add regular sugar now to sweeten it. So does anyone have an idea if the yeast would die after that amount of time. I was very surprised how dry my cider turned out, I used Ed's recipe, but used an Ale yeast with it.

Click to expand...

Chilling your brew won't kill the yeast (scroll up), it will just slow it down (dormant, not dead). See post #8, this thread, about adding campden and sorbate to kill the yeast.

I am having the same problem. I followed a recipe from cornell and they said add 1lb of sugar for every gallon of yeast and one packet of champagne yeast. So i did that about 6 weeks ago. Fermentation was complete in two weeks. Then about four weeks ago I added a pound of raisins, on the advice of my local brew supply store. But it didn't really help, fermentation is done again (sg same for 5 days in a row). This is like drinking vodka straight, that is what it tastes like to me. I would really like to create a sweet hard sparkling cider, is there any chance I can save this? Or should I just give this one over to the compost pile?