A question on making Sweet cider

[tigerpie]

Hello, I have been reading a bit on cider brewing and was wondering if this woudl work.
Using store bought apple juice, say a 3 ltr container. I add a litre of water and then about half a kilo of dextrose. this should up the SG to about 1.085 (give or take). I then add my yeast and seal it up with an airlock.
I wait about 2 days.. so it is still fermenting / bubbling but not very quickly.
I try and time it so the SG is about 1.020 > 1.030
I then bottle the cider into 6 x 500 ml bottles, and add carbonation tablets.
I leave it in the fridge for a week or so, maybe longer.. and then drink.

I believe putting it in the fridge to stop the fermentation process is cold crashing. Would that be correct?
When I do this I try and time it so when I put in the fridge it is still sweet because not all of the sugars have been fermented.
I add the carbonation tablets to give it a fizz.

Any thought on whether this could work?

Cheers guys

 

[madscientist451]

Yes, its going to work, but a few adjustments will make it better.
-Cider isn't brewed, there's no cooking involved
-Don't add any water
-Don't add any sugar for your first batch, that can come later, If you add sugar and ferment too fast and at too high a temperature, you will end up with a "hot" rocket fuel kind of taste.
-Choice of yeast is important, different yeast will deliver different flavors.
-waiting two days is totally unrealistic, I ferment my cider in the high 50's to low 60's and the fermentation phase lasts for months sometimes. Going slow and using a low temperature will preserve the apple flavor/character. Fermenting fast will make a cider without much apple taste and perhaps unwanted yeast flavor notes.
-Bottling the cider at 1.020 could lead to over carbonation and exploding bottles.
-refrigeration may slow down fermentation, but not stop it. If you buy fresh pressed cider and keep in in the fridge for a length of time, it will eventually kick off and start fermenting.
So let the cider go until its done fermenting, since this is your first batch, forget about bottling/carbonating. Sweeten in the glass as you drink it with a teaspoon or so of frozen apple juice concentrate, or it may be ok just as it is without any additional sweetener.
Good luck

 

[TheCrackpot]

Also, I don't think carbonation tabs just make the beverage fizzy. They are sugar pills basically and they require active yeast to consume them and convert them into CO2. Adding them right before you refrigerate the bottles probably won't result in carbonation but will increase the sweetness (as long as the bottles stay cold).

 

[Maylar]

That is a bad plan. Bottling at 1.020 - 1.030 before fermentation stops will give you exploding bottles even cold crashed. Better to ferment dry, rack to secondary, and when it's totally clear sweeten to 1.020 and bottle. When carbonated to your preference, then do the fridge. Most of the yeast will be gone by then, so cold crashing can be effective at least for a while. I do this all the time.

 

[ChemEng]

The only way i know of to do this correctly is to pasteurize the bottles at the desired sweetness level to kill the yeast and prevent bottle bombs.

Search for cider pasteurization and you can find the process. If you have a canning setup you probably already have the equipment.