Back-sweetening cider...

[hoffmeister]

Hey all-
I've brewed two batches of cider in the past, and although they turned out okay, they turned out considerably more tart than I was expecting. I know that back-sweetening cider can help counteract the intense tartness of plain fermented cider, but does anyone have any recommendations for accomplishing this? I'll be bottling this and plan on it being uncarbonated. Also, as a benchmark for what I'm looking for, I really enjoy Woodchuck and Magners and find Hornsby's too sweet. Thanks everyone!

 

[Parker36]

You have too options since it will be still:
1)Crash cool or otherwise rid yourself of you yeast and sweeten with real sugar
2)Dump some artificial sweetener in there.

Search around on this thread, I am sure this is some kind of experiment people have done with different methods/sugars/sweeteners

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/results-juice-yeast-sugar-experiments-83060/

 

[Buildmark]

I use splenda to back sweeten.

 

[RugenBrau]

sorbate it, back sweeten with sugar and bottle
I'm glad you said Hornsby was too sweet. I had it last night for the first time and I thought maybe I was making my all wrong. It is terrible!

 

[cd2448]

Hey all-
I've brewed two batches of cider in the past, and although they turned out okay, they turned out considerably more tart than I was expecting. I know that back-sweetening cider can help counteract the intense tartness of plain fermented cider, but does anyone have any recommendations for accomplishing this? I'll be bottling this and plan on it being uncarbonated. Also, as a benchmark for what I'm looking for, I really enjoy Woodchuck and Magners and find Hornsby's too sweet. Thanks everyone!

I've made apfelwein/cider using lavlin wine yeast and use lactose to backsweeten. I dissolved 1/2 lb in the priming sugar liquid at bottling time, worked a treat. (5 gallon batch). The priming sugar gets eaten by the lavlin but the lactose does not - easy.

 

[RugenBrau]

CD.....that is a great idea. I never thought of that. However...how sweet is it? I bought some lactose the other day and I was amazed at how "unsweet" it was. What was the FG?

 

[conpewter]

You have too options since it will be still:
1)Crash cool or otherwise rid yourself of you yeast and sweeten with real sugar
2)Dump some artificial sweetener in there.

Search around on this thread, I am sure this is some kind of experiment people have done with different methods/sugars/sweeteners

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/results-juice-yeast-sugar-experiments-83060/

I wouldn't count on crash cooling getting rid of the yeast, after all lagers will still carbonate just fine. use some potassium sorbate and potassium metisulfate to kill off the yeast after fermentation is done and back sweeten with some apple juice concentrate to give you the sweetness and more apple flavor (At least that is what I'm going to try)

 

[hoffmeister]

Conpewter-thanks for the suggestion! I'm probably going to go the potassium sorbate route, as the though of just cold crashing to kill the yeast makes me a little uneasy. In my five years of brewing, I haven't had anything explode on me yet, and I'd like to keep it that way
About the apple juice concentrate-how much should you use? Any suggestsions? Thanks again, everyone.

 

[conpewter]

I haven't tried it yet so it will be an experiment for me as well. I'll probably add 1/4 cup at a time to the carboy (or keg) and stir then taste and repeat. The other way to do this is to pull off a measured sample, then add accurate measurements of your sugar and once you get it where you like it, scale it up to the whole batch (Aiming a little dryer than your calculations as you can always make it sweeter)

 

[bkvail]

if you backsweeten the 5 gallons with a can of concentrate w/o killing the yeast - will it make bottle bombs?

 

[conpewter]

Depends... If you mean using the concentrate as priming sugar.. then no, if you measure it right. On the other hand it you are actually trying to backsweeten and carbonate, then you will. You can't backsweeten without killing off/disabling the yeast.

 

[newbrewnut]

I ran across this thread, I am going to be making some cider next week. I want to make a rasberry cider. I was thinking about using some rasberry concentrate to sweeten it this time instead of using lactose. As mentioned in above posts, this can be slightly explosive. I only bottle condition. I also want my cider to be carbonated. I have not come up with anything that will work for me. Are there any options for me?

 

[lapaglia]

no but it will carb your cider and still be dry when you go to taste it. 12-14 oz of concentrate in 5 gallons of cider is about the same as 5 oz priming sugar.

 

[conpewter]

If you need to bottle condition and you want a sweet cider then throw in splenda or lactose since that is not fermentable (yes this is a bit of an amendment to previous statement)

 

[RugenBrau]

Why don't you bottle condition and sweeten as the two previous post say. Then flavor it with the raspberry flavoring used for beers. That is nonfermentable.

 

[RCCOLA]

I've been following this topic as I too have a cider bubbling away, losing gravity and sweetness as we type.Someone suggested stevia to me,an unfermentable plant derived sweetener and I bought some today.It's pretty potent.Looks like it will only take about 2tsp/gal to sweeten with it.I plan to try it side by side with splenda.Anyone use it yet?

 

[loosey]

for me, lactose is not an option (allergic) and artificial sweetners just taste bad.. but I'd like to sweeten up a cider I have before kegging it... I'm hesitant (maybe unnecessarily) of dropping more campden tablets in there because I used them in the beginning after pressing the apples and im not sure if itll add an off taste or even be dangerous.. If I cold crash, add concentrate and keep the keg at 40-45F can I assume the yeast wont eat the concentrate? or am I being overly cautious and better off going back to the sulfite?

 

[conpewter]

loosey, If you used an ale or cider yeast (meaning not a lager) and you are kegging I see no reason to not do what you say.

As long as you cold crash, then transfer to your keg and keep your keg cold there will be very little chance of any fermentation starting back up after you sweeten with whatever you want. Even if you did pull it out of the fridge and it warmed up and started to ferment you still wouldn't get "keg bombs" since almost all kegs have a pressure relief valve, but of course as you mention you want to keep it cold, because you really don't want that happening.

 

[loosey]

loosey, If you used an ale or cider yeast (meaning not a lager) and you are kegging I see no reason to not do what you say.

As long as you cold crash, then transfer to your keg and keep your keg cold there will be very little chance of any fermentation starting back up after you sweeten with whatever you want. Even if you did pull it out of the fridge and it warmed up and started to ferment you still wouldn't get "keg bombs" since almost all kegs have a pressure relief valve, but of course as you mention you want to keep it cold, because you really don't want that happening.

yes i did use an ale yeast, sorry i left that out... thanks for the quick reply!

 

[RugenBrau]

Since your going to keg it, can't you sorbate it, sweeten it with whatever your heart desires and then carb it in the keg?

 

[Tusch]

Sorbate and sulfite Rugen, can't forget the k-meta

 

[RugenBrau]

You're right.....I just figure that is part of the sorbate process. My fault

 

[ftlstrings]

I use splenda to back sweeten.

Yeah, but how much? How sweet is it, and is there any 'off' flavor from it?

~M~

 

[MendoBrew]

Right now I have 5 gallons in primary fermentation. Its been there quite a while (2 months) and smells like it could use some sweetening. I was planning to bottle soon, but would like a semi sweet cider... Is there any way I can sweeten it now and still having sparkling cider???