Back Sweetening

[Bryan19836]

Like Stella said, you have to

1. Add sugar and bottle (this is called priming to get the carbonation)

2. Wait for it to carbonate (this is days or a couple weeks at MOST. Easiest way to keep an eye on it is to bottle one plastic bottle. When that is hard like a new bottle of soda pop, it's carbed).

3. Refrigerate or pasteurize the bottles immediately. Do not wait.

Some will say that heating the cider after fermentation but before bottling could introduce oxygen, leading to some nasty tastes (like port wine).

Hold up...won't subjecting already pressurized bottles to the extreme heat of pasteurization create the bottle-bomb scenario everyone has been warning me about?

 

[ericbw]

Hold up...won't subjecting already pressurized bottles to the extreme heat of pasteurization create the bottle-bomb scenario everyone has been warning me about?

It's not extreme heat. It needs to be at 160f for 15 seconds. That's the temp of the juice in the bottle, not the water in the pot.

And then the pressure goes down when the heat goes off.

You have to be careful, but it's not as dangerous as it sounds. Read the sticky on stove top pasteurization a few times.

 

[Firewalker11]

Since we are talking about back sweetening, I am using stevia dissolved in distilled water and injecting it right into the already carbed keg through the OUT post. The stevia flavor doesn't seem to interfere with the flavor at all, just poured a glass for a BJCP judge yesterday and all she said was that it was still young... The score sheet I insisted she fill out hit 41/50!

Is this bad? Am I a bad person for doing this?

 

[stella_tigre]

Hold up...won't subjecting already pressurized bottles to the extreme heat of pasteurization create the bottle-bomb scenario everyone has been warning me about?

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=193295

 

[Maylar]

It's not extreme heat. It needs to be at 160f for 15 seconds. That's the temp of the juice in the bottle, not the water in the pot.

And then the pressure goes down when the heat goes off.

You have to be careful, but it's not as dangerous as it sounds. Read the sticky on stove top pasteurization a few times.

There are caveats however. How safe it is depends on how much carbonation you're starting with and how good your bottles are. I did some experiments a while ago that might be worth a look...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=513435

 

[klowneyy]

Again I don't get why people are going to all of this trouble for back sweetening. Just use non fermentable sugars. I bottled my chai cider 2 days ago. Added 1 lb of lactose tasted amazing. If you want brown sugar use splenda they make a brown sugar and you won't have to worry about bottle bombs. WAY EASIER AND SAFER!

 

[stella_tigre]

Again I don't get why people are going to all of this trouble for back sweetening. Just use non fermentable sugars. I bottled my chai cider 2 days ago. Added 1 lb of lactose tasted amazing. If you want brown sugar use splenda they make a brown sugar and you won't have to worry about bottle bombs. WAY EASIER AND SAFER!

I am hoping to try some lactose or xylitol some day (or use my pears to make perry, which contain some xylitol.) Our kids don't like cider quite as dry as we do. However, some people are lactose-intolerant, and xylitol can have some...laxative effect. And if you truly want to back sweeten using the original juice, rather than adding sugars, and have it carbonated, you will need to either bottle-condition-with-pasteurizing (or putting it on ice - that can be risky) or make it still and keg it.

 

[Firewalker11]

Again I don't get why people are going to all of this trouble for back sweetening. Just use non fermentable sugars. I bottled my chai cider 2 days ago. Added 1 lb of lactose tasted amazing. If you want brown sugar use splenda they make a brown sugar and you won't have to worry about bottle bombs. WAY EASIER AND SAFER!

Stevia is non-fermentible and even the health Nazis cant find any problems with its consumption other than you are still teasing your sweet tooth.

 

[Maylar]

Stevia is non-fermentible and even the health Nazis cant find any problems with its consumption other than you are still teasing your sweet tooth.

Have you used it? Does it have any aftertaste? How sweet is it compared to sugar?

I sometimes use xylitol but I'd be willing to look at something else. I just hate artificial sweeteners.

 

[Firewalker11]

Have you used it? Does it have any aftertaste? How sweet is it compared to sugar?

I sometimes use xylitol but I'd be willing to look at something else. I just hate artificial sweeteners.

Yes, I use it to back sweeten my ciders, I have three kegs I started yesterday and will ferment them down to wherever they end up and then back sweeten them with stevia dissolved in distilled water (just a little) to taste.

I use a 2L soda/pop bottle with a pick up tube attached to a stainless steel carbonator to inject it into the OUT post, into the done and chilled cider.

I start with 1/2 cup of stevia and add from their -OR- pull back on the next keg. It works with sucrose too but you have to kill the yeast first. I dont get any sweetness from lactose and dont want chems.

 

[ericbw]

Again I don't get why people are going to all of this trouble for back sweetening. Just use non fermentable sugars. I bottled my chai cider 2 days ago. Added 1 lb of lactose tasted amazing. If you want brown sugar use splenda they make a brown sugar and you won't have to worry about bottle bombs. WAY EASIER AND SAFER!

I make cider for my gluten free and lactose intolerant friends. So lactose…

 

[klowneyy]

I make cider for my gluten free and lactose intolerant friends. So lactose…

Splenda....

 

[stella_tigre]

Splenda is bitter nastiness for some of us

 

[Firewalker11]

Yeah, to me too. Stevia seems to be a much better substitute for me.

Unrelated: As a baker, my wife can taste the difference between beet sugar and cane sugar.

 

[ericbw]

Splenda....

I know Splenda is pretty close to sugar, but I really don't like any kind of "artificial" or chemical taste.

I would like to try Xylitol, but I only see it in large packages.

I'm really curious to know about using stevia - how do you use it? Steep it in cold water? Hot water? How much? It is just sweet, or does it add other flavors, too?

 

[MarkKF]

I know Splenda is pretty close to sugar, but I really don't like any kind of "artificial" or chemical taste.



I would like to try Xylitol, but I only see it in large packages?

I use xylitol, in small amounts just to cut the dryness. 1/2-1 cup per 5 gal. 1-1/2 cup is too much for my taste. I buy it from Amazon. They have 1 or 2 lbs. packages. But look around. You can get Chinese or North American made and birch or corn based.
I buy Canadian birch based.

 

[Maylar]

I have Xylitol in the Xylo-Sweet brand and they have small packages. Available in the "alternative" sweetener section in some supermarkets and in health food stores. About 3 TBSP per gallon works for me.

I've read here of folks using Stevia too - I need to get me some and try that sometime.

 

[Firewalker11]

I know Splenda is pretty close to sugar, but I really don't like any kind of "artificial" or chemical taste.

I would like to try Xylitol, but I only see it in large packages.

I'm really curious to know about using stevia - how do you use it? Steep it in cold water? Hot water? How much? It is just sweet, or does it add other flavors, too?

I have found the Stevia In The Raw brand to be measurable the same as sucrose, cup for cup. It dissolves instantly in warm water and has no discernible flavor in cider.

 

[TheMarkWhite]

well I just pasteurized my cider batch. I was a little nervous about bottle bombs.

I fermented with a cinnamon stick and 2 cloves in each gallon. Come to find out, that's wasn't a good idea for me. It was super bitter after fermentation. So I compensated with lots of sugar. And I mean lots. I lost count after I added a cup or two because I was so angry, haha. So I just added until I thought it tasted okay.

I bottled however didn't fill a Soda bottle. I filled a water bottle. One of the ones with the short top. Not a good idea. Those things can't handle pressure what so ever. So i opened one every couple days. It took almost a week and a half to fully carbonate. The carbonation helped mellow out some of the spice flavor as well. A tad sweet for my liking but at least nothing exploded.