Back sweeten cider

[Fernpiper]

Hey guys, I am totally new to cider making and had a question for you pros out there. I am about ready to take my 6 gal of cider out of primary fermentation and was curious what I would do to improve the taste at this point if it tastes sub par. I know if I add sugar the yeast will eat it up. What about adding apple concentrate? After the yeast eats the sugar will it still add more of an apple flavor? Any ideas are appreciated.
Thanks

 

[Shred]

You need to either use something non-fermentable like Splenda (yuck!) or put your yeast to sleep with Potasium Metabisulfite and Potasium Sorbate. This is not an option if you plan to carbonate via bottle conditioning. Apple concentrate and/or brown sugar are great.

 

[Fernpiper]

So if I plan on using carbonation drops my only choice is an artificial sugar?

 

[Shred]

Unless you want to get real dicey and try cold crashing it once you think the bottles have carbed up.

 

[Shred]

... or pasteurizing once they're carbed. I've never tried this approach so I can't say what it will do to your flavor.

 

[bernardsmith]

To bring out more of the apple flavor you may need to back sweeten and that IMO, really involves removing most (if not all) of the active yeast. To remove the active yeast you want to allow the cicer to age about 6-9 months and every two months or so, to rack the cider. Racking means using a siphon to move the cider off the lees into a sanitized and clean carboy or vessel. The act of racking and aging results in almost all the active yeast being removed from your cider. At that point you can stabilize the cider by adding BOTH K-meta and K-sorbate. The addition of both chemicals to a cider with essentially no active /viable yeast means that any sugar you add (and that sugar can be table sugar, corn sugar , honey, agave, concentrated apple juice, maple syrup etc etc) will not be fermented. It will remain as a sweetener.
To know how much sugar to add you may want to bench test.

 

[BadLarry]

So I just back sweetened by adding frozen juice concentrate which was simple to do and this time I was nervous in doing so but I neutralized my yeast and then refrigerated when I liked the taste. I filled one in plastic to see how tight it got so I didn't have explosions in my beer fridge. Everything went great and tastes very good. Be sure to rack a few times too after neutralizing yeast.