Noobs: How to Carbonate Sweet Cider

I hope this gets stickied, because the question is asked between 5 and 12 times a day. It's a legitimate question... I don't mean to condescend.


How to Carbonate Sweet Cider:







Cambden Tablets do not stop fermentation.

Potassium Sorbate does not stop fermentation.


Sure, the French have their Kieving methods, and other advanced methods exist, but for the first-timer, this is intended to be a guide.


1: Pasteurization

See here...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/easy-stove-top-pasteurizing-pics-193295/



2: Force Carbonation with a kegging system

After cold-crashing and adding potassium sorbate, you can stabilize the cider and ensure fermentation doesn't restart. Neither cold-crashing nor sorbate additions alone will stop fermentation while it's still sweet, in most cases. Slow it down, yes.



3: Splenda

Let your cider go down to 1.000, totally dry, then backsweeten with an unfermentable sugar like Splenda and use the standard amount of priming sugar for the yeast to turn into CO2 in your bottles.




The attenuation of your yeast strain is irrelevant to the subject of cider. Consider any of your yeast options to have 100% attenuation. Do not be under the impression your yeast choice is going to 'poop out' at any particular gravity level.

For assistance in yeast selection, among 100 other items... see: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/results-juice-yeast-sugar-experiments-83060/

As to number 3, isn't it the action of letting your cider ferment dry to 1.000 that "stops" fermentation (no more fermentable sugar!), rather than the action of adding Splenda?

phishie said:

As to number 3, isn't it the action of letting your cider ferment dry to 1.000 that "stops" fermentation (no more fermentable sugar!), rather than the action of adding Splenda?

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Well, cider will easily go to .990. 1.000 is off-dry- not sweet but certainly not bone dry. If it's at .990, you can be assured that it's finished. If it's at 1.000, well, no.

Have you experimented with any other non-fermentables? I am about to back sweeten and bottle condition a woodchuck clone, and I've been reading up and It seems the reviews are mixed between the health nuts who think splenda is going to give them cancer, and brewers who feel it gives off a metallic taste (which I have experienced in crystal light type drinks). How about Lactose? I don't believe it is as powerful as splenda, meaning more will be necessary, but does it leave any after tastes?

adding k-meta followed by sorbate will reliably stop ciders at up to 1.008. I've done this on about 10 experimental batches. I didnt like the tastes of the sorbate, but it stopped the fermentation dead when used with the k-meta

Also, cold crashing can stop the ferment so that you dont have to add any stabilizers. It is definitely juice and yeast specific but it can be done, even by a noob if noob is lucky to have low nutrient juice.

The body and taste of lactose and splenda are just not right to me. They dont come close to apple sugar. If you have to backsweeten, the best sweetener depends a lot on how your juice finished out, so you might want to experiment with several different ones

Clyon1 said:

Have you experimented with any other non-fermentables? I am about to back sweeten and bottle condition a woodchuck clone, and I've been reading up and It seems the reviews are mixed between the health nuts who think splenda is going to give them cancer, and brewers who feel it gives off a metallic taste (which I have experienced in crystal light type drinks). How about Lactose? I don't believe it is as powerful as splenda, meaning more will be necessary, but does it leave any after tastes?

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Despite what organic nuts believe, Splenda will not give you cancer, it is safe.

So you want a new sticky that just links to the two other stickies and contains no new information?

Also the 3rd sticky, I thought I would share some info, covers this ground quite well.

Lactose is also an alternative to Splenda.

Also, I might suggest a title change to remove the 'Noobs' bit, higher chance of getting stickied.

Otherwise yes, legitimate question that I myself have answered uncountable times here!

phishie said:

As to number 3, isn't it the action of letting your cider ferment dry to 1.000 that "stops" fermentation (no more fermentable sugar!), rather than the action of adding Splenda?

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Yes, when the yeast runs out of sugar, it stops fermenting. To carbonate, you add just enough priming sugar to accomplish that. And for sweetness, use an unfermentable sugar such as Splenda.

Yooper_Brew said:

Well, cider will easily go to .990. 1.000 is off-dry- not sweet but certainly not bone dry. If it's at .990, you can be assured that it's finished. If it's at 1.000, well, no.

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It would only go that low if you added more than a little additional sugar, and then you are in apfelwein or mead territory. Maybe .998 at the lowest, which would still read 1.000 on the typical hydrometer.

Clyon1 said:

Have you experimented with any other non-fermentables? I am about to back sweeten and bottle condition a woodchuck clone, and I've been reading up and It seems the reviews are mixed between the health nuts who think splenda is going to give them cancer, and brewers who feel it gives off a metallic taste (which I have experienced in crystal light type drinks). How about Lactose? I don't believe it is as powerful as splenda, meaning more will be necessary, but does it leave any after tastes?

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No, I have not... yet. Search for Brandon O's Graff, it uses crystal malt in cider which has unfermentable sugars, there are hundreds of pages of discussion on the matter.

CvilleKevin said:

adding k-meta followed by sorbate will reliably stop ciders at up to 1.008. I've done this on about 10 experimental batches. I didnt like the tastes of the sorbate, but it stopped the fermentation dead when used with the k-meta

Also, cold crashing can stop the ferment so that you dont have to add any stabilizers. It is definitely juice and yeast specific but it can be done, even by a noob if noob is lucky to have low nutrient juice.

The body and taste of lactose and splenda are just not right to me. They dont come close to apple sugar. If you have to backsweeten, the best sweetener depends a lot on how your juice finished out, so you might want to experiment with several different ones

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"Lucky" is the magic word. There are certainly more advanced methods, you of all people know. On lactose, I haven't had it in cider but in a milk stout, it was very milky. I can't imagine that being good in a cider. I have used Splenda, and while it isn't the same as fructose, it's a good way to sweeten up a dry cider and bottle carb with priming sugar. A little Splenda goes a long way, in my experience. I poured a glass of a measured volume, then added splenda in small increments until the taste was right, then calculated for the full batch. I didn't take notes... or I'd say what the exact amounts were. But, it wasn't much. Just enough. SWMBO and my neighbor both swore they could taste the Splenda... but that didn't stop them from drinking it all. I've got one I stopped at 1.020 right now, I'm going to tell them I put Splenda in it and see how much they really think they know.

There is another method.

Add enough fermentables that the yeast reach their maximum alcohol tolerance before gravity reaches a level of dryness. Some mead makers do this where they keep adding more & more honey until the yeast can't eat any more, then the additional honey sweetens the mead.

Soperbrew said:

There is another method.

Add enough fermentables that the yeast reach their maximum alcohol tolerance before gravity reaches a level of dryness. Some mead makers do this where they keep adding more & more honey until the yeast can't eat any more, then the additional honey sweetens the mead.

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That is far too unpredictable to be an acceptable method, especially since we are talking about CIDER which has a final ABV between 4 and 7 %, which pretty much ALL yeasts are capable of.

We aren't talking mead/wine/apfelwein here. I'm talking about cider.


Not only that... but how are you supposed to bottle carbonate it once the yeast hit critical mass?

Fletch78 said:

That is far too unpredictable to be an acceptable method, especially since we are talking about CIDER which has a final ABV between 4 and 7 %, which pretty much ALL yeasts are capable of.

We aren't talking mead/wine/apfelwein here. I'm talking about cider.


Not only that... but how are you supposed to bottle carbonate it once the yeast hit critical mass?

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Yep, I didn't pay attention to which forum I was reading this in. Do I still get to be part of the sticky? lol

Fletch78 said:

It would only go that low if you added more than a little additional sugar, and then you are in apfelwein or mead territory. Maybe .998 at the lowest, which would still read 1.000 on the typical hydrometer.

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Please provide the reference for your information, as I've had plenty of ciders go to .990. My hydrometer is NOT 10 points off.

Fructose is very fermentable by wine, cider, and ale yeast. Perhaps some ale yeast would poop out at .998 or 1.000. But a wine yeast will take it to .990.

Soperbrew said:

Yep, I didn't pay attention to which forum I was reading this in. Do I still get to be part of the sticky? lol

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This isn't a sticky. We already have sticky threads with the same information, and there is some information in here that is incorrect. It won't be a sticky. You can play in this thread!

Well, I've been researching and calculating and you are right Yooper. A basic cider can get down to 0.985

tail tucked... walking away

Fletch78 said:

Well, I've been researching and calculating and you are right Yooper. A basic cider can get down to 0.985

tail tucked... walking away

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Heck, Fletch, no tail tucking necessary! We're all here to learn. I would hope that when someone gives information (however well meaning and thought out it is) that is incorrect, someone will give the correct information. Or, provide a reference to back up this information if it's disputed.

I've never seen anything under .990, but my hydrometer only goes down to .990 anyway. I'm older, and I've been around a long time. I've had too many batches of wine/mead/cider to count. Some were ok, some were not so good, a couple were astounding. I'm still learning as I go. (One lesson- 7 pounds of rhubarb per gallon is too much. 'nough said 'bout that).

To me, "bone dry" is .990. That's quite a bit lighter than water, but alcohol IS lighter than water so that's why you get low readings when there is no fermentable sugar left. At .990, you KNOW it's done. At 1.000, it might be done. That was just the point I was trying to make. It will NOT finish dependable at 1.000, because that's just not a place where the sugar is gone.