Alcohol tolerance of yeast and backsweetening

[jacobh]

I have six gallons of orchard bought cider that I have been fermenting for about three weeks now. I used notthingham yeast and added about 2 lbs of sugar at the start. The sg reading now is at 1.01...based on my initial reading it should be at around 8% alcohol, which is about the limit for the yeast I used.

I tried some last night and it was good, but a little bland. I would like to put in some concentrate in order to bring back some of the flavor but I don't really want to pasteurize it on the stove.

So my question is...why do you have to stabilize the cider first before back sweetening if the yeast is at its max alcohol tolerance? Technically, the yeast won't ferment any new sugar if it can't tolerate a higher abv?

Thanks!

 

[Warthaug]

You must stabilize before backsweetening. Despite what is written on the packets, notty goes well above 8%. Even above their tolerance levels yeast ferment; its just slower and the yeast are more likely to behave badly (make off flavours, "stuck" fermentations, etc).

DO NOT heat to sanitize; you'll ruin your cider. Potassium sorbate is what you want to add to kill off the yeast. Of course, without a keg system you're stuck with still cider.

If you want sweetened but carbonated cider without a kegging system you can backsweeting with something like splenda - its not fermentable. You can then add corn sugar, bottle, can carb as per usual.

Bryan