Question on cider sweetness

So I bought Muntons Gold Berry Fruit Cider for the hell of it on my way out of the beer store to give it a try.

When making cider, are you supposed to let ferment out completely or stop it prematurely to give a sweeter taste such as ciders like red apple ale or angry orchard?

I dont know if its "designed" so that yeast could never fully ferment all the sugar so even though you let it ferment out all the way so there is still some sweetness left over, or if you are supposed to stop it at some point to retain some of the sweetness.

I guess in my case its what i prefer but, i was just wondering for future purposes.

Well I let it ferment out completely, then stop the yeast with campden and potassium sorbate. Then, sweeten to taste. If you dont stop the yeast, it may continue to ferment with further sweetening.

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Juice from pressed apples is likely to have a gravity of around 1.050. Even if you add sugar (chaptalize) you are not likely to add more than 1lb /gallon so that the starting gravity is not going to be much higher than 1.090. Wine yeasts can easily ferment that (although many folk here choose Nottingham and I don't know what tolerance that yeast has for alcohol - I tend to use 71B) , so it is easy to ferment dry , stabilize the yeast and backsweeten to taste. Trying to stop the yeast in midferment is a lot like stopping your car by cutting the fuel line. It will stop but you are likely not to stop at the point you planned /hoped... Fermenting to dry means that you are absolutely in control of the sweetness...

My cider has been in the primary for 2 weeks now, racked it last night...
og was 1.080 and its at 1.014 now...so the yeast has almost capped out at 82% attenuation, thats about all you can expect from US-05. ..that makes it 8.66%...so im guessing it will finish soon at 9%. Its very nice rite now, still some nice sweetness left...not boozy tasting...it just needs to clear...then I will kill the yeast and back sweeten just a touch with frozen apple concentrate...about 2 more weeks im guessing then keg it.

i wont have to add much (if any) to back sweeten it...it tastes pretty damn good now...i will pick something up to help clear it tho...well after i give it 2 more weeks on its own

Do most let it ferment out, let is clear up, then kill the yeast, then back sweeten OR let it ferment to your desired alcohol % and sweetness then kill yeast and finally put it on cold storage?

Maybe a little of both?

brewd00d said:

Do most let it ferment out, let is clear up, then kill the yeast, then back sweeten OR let it ferment to your desired alcohol % and sweetness then kill yeast and finally put it on cold storage?

Maybe a little of both?

Click to expand...

Most people do seem to let it ferment out and backsweeten. I, like a few others, am an exception to this. I have it in my head (and it may be completely psychosomatic) that leaving some of the original fructose in the batch makes it more interesting, or at least, palatable to me. I usually decide ahead of time what sweetness I want and cold crash a few points before my desired level; not exact science but I get close enough. After I cold crash the primary for a few days, I transfer to secondary, pitch my kmeta and ksorbate and return to the cold crash for a week or so. Then I port off to the keg and force carb; so far I have not been disappointed. Sometimes I add a couple of ounces of natural apple flavor to fortify the apple taste a bit. I really don't care that much about clarity, but it does clear further over time.