Hard Cider Backsweetening with soft Cider

Hey guys and gals,

I made a simple apple juice and yeast cider that is about ready to be bottled.

Can I use soft cider to back sweeten and if so, will it also carb the bottles?

I have searched for this thread but the answers were not very specific.

I have 2.5 gal in the carboy.

Thanks!!!

The yeast will likely consume all the sugar. You vuld use some sort of non fermentable sugar sweetener like splenda or xylitol I suppose. But be careful, I've heard of cases of butt blowout when using them.

I myself will be kegging a cider, neutralizing the yeast, and backsweetening with apple juice concentrate.

Good luck!

Thanks!

I'm not a fan of splenda or butt blowouts =P

I have a second question then. Could I neutralize the yeast and then add Cider?

Cttrible said:

Thanks!

I'm not a fan of splenda or butt blowouts =P

I have a second question then. Could I neutralize the yeast and then add Cider?

Click to expand...

Yes.

Can i still carbonate it for bottling
?

Can i still carbonate it for bottling
?

Click to expand...

Not if you kill the yeast.

I use xylitol to backsweeten because I'm paranoid about bottle bombs, and I don't want to deal with pastuerizing. It works good and none of my friends or family have had digestive issues with it. At least not that they've told me!

A friend that brews uses a trick that his grandad taught him.
Single raisin soaked in rum, vodka, sugar, etc... Goes into each bottle.

Slightly carbonated and slightly back sweetened or back flavored.

Dark rum soaked was my personal favorite.

Downside was occasional bomb, but he only had one or two in five years.
Stored them in the garage for safety.

I make cider constantly. What I like to do is backsweeten with honey(brings out the apple flavor) and the juice of my choice. From there they should be carbed in about 3 days so make sure to open one every other day. Once carbed put all the bottles in a cooler and fill it up with 165f water, close the cooler, and leave for 10mins. At that point its pasteurized and carbonated. By doing the pasteurization in the cooler you can do the whole batch, or close to it, at once and if any bottle bombs occur no one gets hurt. I've easily made 50+ gallons of cider this year and it works like a charm every time.

You can back end sweeten it, then follow this thread to to kill the yeast once the bottles are carbonated

Be really careful for bombs.

I'm glad I got keg gear. Makes life easy.