Sweetening choice

Hey guys,

I have been persuaded to get a turbo cider on the brew to give me something to feast on, in aid of prolonging the life of my beers so they get a better chance of reaching maturity!

After reading a few posts I randomly decided on the following recipe:

24l supermarket apple juice
1.5kg sugar
6 blended Bramleys
Strong pot of 7 teabags
S04 yeast

Gave OG 1062 (so expecting around 8% or so...)

Anyway, I figure this is likely to come out dry and I would like to bring it up to medium. I have searched the posts on sweetening cider and there are a lot of options. I would like to keg this but don't yet have the facility to crash cool or accurately force carb, so there are two simple options that appeal to me the most:

1) Add half a kilo of lactose (or some other sweetener)

2) Sweeten with apple juice or syrup on serving

Is there anyone who has tried both of these and can recommend one over the other?

Given that lactose isn't particularly sweet, would I have to add a ridiculous amount to bring it up to medium? For sweetening at serving, is apply juice or syrup better? If using apple juice, what proportion is needed to bring up to medium (I aim to condition with a light fizz, would adding apple juice completely flatten it)?

I appreciate similar questions have been asked before, but I can't find a comparison between these two simple approaches, so any input would be appreciated!

Mark

i much prefer wine yeast (cuvee is my favorite because it needs no nutrient, has no krusen so I can fill carboy 100%, and is 50 cents a pack). I add potassium sorbate and k-metabisulfate to shut down fermentation and then add concentrated apple juice or cherry juice to sweeten. Then force carb 36hrs at 30psi @ 4 degrees C...if you can keg this is the best option.

if not I'd sweeten with concentrated apple juice when serving...just test until you are happy...the carbonation will be fine.

fyi - time is your friend. cider get way better with age so i always recommend starting another batch asap...

I would like to know which tastes better as well. Maybe a direct comparison is called for. You could ferment it as usual, and when it slows down pour yourself a couple samples then sweeten each differently. Choose the one that seems best.

I don't think adding apple juice upon serving will completely flatten it, though adding apple juice concentrate (or other condensed liquid sweetener) would probably flatten it less. (You could carb at higher volumes to compensate, like 2.5 - 3.) Alternatively you could sweeten with a carbonated sweet beverage like gingerale or 7-up, etc.

However it would probably take longer for this turbo cider to taste great than your beers. Since you want something to quench your thirst until the beers are mature, the quality of this young cider might be compromised beyond any significant improvement of one sweetener vs the other. I'd go with whichever is easiest and cheapest.

DrJerm said:

Since you want something to quench your thirst until the beers are mature, the quality of this young cider might be compromised beyond any significant improvement of one sweetener vs the other. I'd go with whichever is easiest and cheapest.

Click to expand...

Haha yes, I realise I have probably been researching this a bit too deeply for its purpose! I'll probably go for the juice option as I think it will work out cheaper and will make the keg go a little further! I will probably bottle a small amount to see how it would have turned out given a bit of time though!

I would still be interested to hear from anyone who has done both, may come in useful once I have the stockpile to allow for slower/quality ciders!