Backsweeten cider w/ Fresh Fruit

[durbo]

I've had a go at doing a cider and it turned fairly bad as I stuffed up the back sweetening process. Apple Juice concentrate is really hard to find in Aust so I just used Orange and it turned out awful. This isn't my question.

Anyway, I want to give it another go and want it to end up quite sweet. If I was to put a bunch of fruit in a blender/juicer and use this in place of concentrate, then pasteurize as normal after a couple of days, what kind of effect would it have? Would it need a bit of sugar to get it over the sweetness line?

I've done a search on here/Google, but came up with nothing. Has no one thought of this before? (doubtful.) Or am I missing something? Hopefully you can see my train of thought with this. Any comments would be great.

 

[hammertym]

Hey mate,

I'm looking at doing the same thing. looking at trying to get something similar to these rekorderlig-strawberry.

I've got 4 GAL of apple juice from Costco in Melbourne and 2 kgs of raspberries...

Would love to hear some peoples thoughts on how I can combine them for the end result of a sweet fruity cider.

Seems like doing a primary fermentation with the apple juice for about 2 weeks, then draining into a secondary and adding the raspberries (blended) for a few days and then heating for 70c for 20 minutes to pasteurize it might be the go.. any thoughts?

Would love other people to chip in as well.

 

[ThePickle512]

I made a simple cider, 5 gal apple juice, 1 lb honey, 1 lb brown sugar, 2 cinnamon sticks, 12 cloves, 1/4 tsp nutmeg, and 5g Nottingham Ale yeast. Two weeks in the primary, then split it to experiment different flavors. One case regular apple, one peach nectar back, one black cherry back, one maple backed. They are all drinkable and around 8%.

 

[hammertym]

Have did you back sweeten them with, fruit or alcohol extract? Sorry still a newbie.

Also did you bottle carb? How much sugar did you add to do that if so?

 

[durbo]

I would be more inclined to leave the frozen berries in secondary for almost 2 weeks to really let the flavours soak in. Only thing is I don't know how sweet this would make the cider though and would probably need something extra. Perhaps a bit of dextrose? And then I would bottle carb and stovetop pasteurize 2 days after bottling. Would love to hear suggestions of how anyone else has done something similar.

 

[rocketsan]

I made a simple cider, 5 gal apple juice, 1 lb honey, 1 lb brown sugar, 2 cinnamon sticks, 12 cloves,

12 cloves wasn't overpowering?

 

[ThePickle512]

12 cloves wasn't overpowering?

No, I tried half the amount the first time and it didn't come through that well, so I doubled it and it's been working great. I just bottles 5 gallons of peach apple cider and waiting for it to carb up so I can pasteurize it. Tried some last night and it's real good. Around 6%, but I could have let it go another day. Using 2 gallons of peach nectar really adds a sweetness, but real smooth and not over powering.

 

[Redking]

I would be more inclined to leave the frozen berries in secondary for almost 2 weeks to really let the flavours soak in. Only thing is I don't know how sweet this would make the cider though and would probably need something extra. Perhaps a bit of dextrose? And then I would bottle carb and stovetop pasteurize 2 days after bottling. Would love to hear suggestions of how anyone else has done something similar.

I agree with this. Adding that blended fruit before bottling would make your cider less clear and would all collect at the bottom of the bottle, which could be a lot of sediment depending on how much blend you use. Racking onto the fruit for a week or two would probably infuse a good bit of the flavor, also depending on how many berries you use, but since there is sugar in the fruit the yeast would chomp it up.

Maybe you could try doing that, then add some sugar before bottling (maybe you could make a high concentrated sugar syrup solution)...so that would give you the fruit flavor + the sweetness.