A little sweeter cider?

[GlobularDuck]

I've been poking around reading articles on cider, I'm trying to make mine just a little sweeter. My current recipe is really simple, it's tart and bone dry which I like, but I thought I'd try to make something sweeter. All it is, is 3 gallons of Simply Apple, one pack of champagne yeast, and then a quart of tart cherry juice as the priming sugar. This time around I used a SafAle S-04 for the yeast thinking the lower attenuation might leave behind more residual sugars. It did not, finished out at 1.000 FG and while tasty, is dry. I've back sweetened mead, but I made that still and it was after I had killed fermentation. Is there a simple way of leaving some residual sugars behind or is back sweetening my only option?

 

[DBhomebrew]

S-O4 has a lower attenuation in beer wort. It can't metabolize the longer chain carbohydrates like maltotriose or dextrins. With cider, it can handle all the simple sugars with no problem.

You can backsweeten with a non-fermentable such as xylitol. Or pasteurize. Or mix in some dry malt extract. I've made some nice off-dry carbonated mead with DME. Very nice, didn't notice the malt flavor. About a pint of 1.040 wort added to a gallon of mead must as a whole-pitched shaken starter.

 

[GlobularDuck]

S-O4 has a lower attenuation in beer wort. It can't metabolize the longer chain carbohydrates like maltotriose or dextrins. With cider, it can handle all the simple sugars with no problem.

You can backsweeten with a non-fermentable such as xylitol. Or pasteurize. Or mix in some dry malt extract. I've made some nice off-dry carbonated mead with DME. Very nice, didn't notice the malt flavor. About a pint of 1.040 wort added to a gallon of mead must as a whole-pitched shaken starter.

Thanks, I might try the DME and see how that turns out. This is my easy go to cider recipe so I'm really trying to find the simplest solution if there is one. Otherwise, I'll just keep enjoying it dry.

 

[Chalkyt]

See my reply to Mikeymike 929 via SnyderCider earlier today. I often use S04 which can stop above 1.000 if the must is low in YAN (yeast nutrient), but in many cases especially if you have added something to the apple juice there will be enough YAN for the S04 to go all the way.

If this happens, I will add sugar up to 1.010 or so, bottle let fermentation restart in the bottle then hot water pasteurise at 1.006 for a slightly sweet carbonated cider. If you don't want the carbonation, just add sugar to 1.006 and pasteurise. Roughly, soaking the bottles in 65C water for ten minutes will do the job. SG 1.006 is about 10 g/L sugar which is the equivalent of 1/2 teaspoon of sugar in a cup of coffee.