Help Entering Cider Competition

[TMannion87]

Hi all,

My girlfriend and I brewed a Raspberry Cider awhile back that I would like to enter into a upcoming local BJCP competition. I've only entered beers before, so I'm having trouble with some of the classifications. The cider finished at 1.000, but then we backsweetened with apple juice concentrate. Would it still be classified as "Dry" according to the BJCP? Here are the classifications:

Dry: below 0.9% residual sugar. This corresponds to a final specific gravity of under 1.002.

Medium: in the range between dry and sweet (0.9% to 4% residual sugar, final gravity 1.002 to 1.012). Sometimes characterized as either 'off-dry' or 'semi-sweet.'

Sweet: above 4% residual sugar, roughly equivalent to a final gravity of over 1.012.

Also, what is the difference between Petillant and Sparking carbonation? I will be carbonating via forced c02 to our desired volune. Any suggestions or ideas would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

 

[phug]

Measure your current gravity to tell you where the dryness level is. The gravity before sweetening only counts for telling you when it was done. Carbonation levels are tricky to translate into vol or psi of co2. Extra tricky when the beer and cider/wine are described differently... Sparkling vs medium high to high. I'd say sparkling is in the region of 2.5 to 3 with champagne like in the region of 4 or more, and petillant being lower than 2.5

 

[TMannion87]

Ah, that makes total sense. I think we're shooting for the "sparking" range then. Thanks!