How much wine conditoner to back sweeten

[Jukas]

I have a cider that's sitting just under 8% abv and finished at 1.002 that's very dry and tart. I'd like to back-sweeten it up a bit, but I can't find any estimates of the specific gravity of the wine conditioner.

Most wine conditioners state to add 1-4oz per gallon but don't list their sg. I want the cider to stay a bit tart so I'm not really sure how to determine how much to add to this 5gal batch.

If I wanted to add approximately 15 points to this cider to get a medium-sweet final taste.

 

[Elkobrewer]

Put a little bit in give it a shake if still to dry repeat process

 

[Jukas]

Yeah, I get the whole "taste, sweeten, taste, adjust" option. I was just hoping for something a little more mathematically based that doesn't require multiple small additions to the batch which would provide a vector to contamination.

 

[Yooper]

Yeah, I get the whole "taste, sweeten, taste, adjust" option. I was just hoping for something a little more mathematically based that doesn't require multiple small additions to the batch which would provide a vector to contamination.

That wine conditioner stuff is hard to use like that. It has a "set" amount of sorbate and sweetener in it so it's hard to sweeten to taste with it.

What I would suggest is pulling out a sample, and sweeten THAT to how you like it. Then, use sorbate and campden to stabilize and sweeten the whole batch to the SG you liked.

If you're totally set on using the wine conditioner, I think the only way to do it is to use it and then taste. Repeat. I don't know how else you'd guestimate the SG and the dilution of the substance without a real problem.