Backsweeten Cider S-04

[Bigsky406]

I've got about 4.5 gallons of cider fremented with Safale S-04 to about 8.75%ABV. It's a nice stiff brew! I want to backsweeten it a bit. I'm going the still cider route for this batch because I want to focus on a good flavor rather than a carbonated beverage.

Anyway, I tossed five crushed campden tablets in the bottling bucket yesterday, stirred it up really well, and then covered it and put an airlock on the bucket. Today I checked to see if all the Campden had dissolved and there were still white flecks of the stuff floating on the top.

1) When can I safely add my apple-juice concentrate to back sweeten?

2) Should I care about those white flecks or will they eventually dissolve/disappear? I don't want them in my bottled, finished product.

3) Should I backsweeten right before I bottle or add it and let it sit for a few days or longer to age?

Thanks, as always, for the advice. Such a great community here!

Best,

John

 

[Yooper]

If you want to stabilize the cider, and sweeten it, you need something called "potassium sorbate". Sorbate will inhibit yeast reproduction, so that you can sweeten the cider. Normally, you use sorbate with the campden as it works better in the presence of campden (sulfite) and rack into a solution of them mixed up in some water.

You want the campden (and sorbate) to be crushed and thoroughly dissolved into the water before adding it to your cider. It's easier if you boil the water with the campden tablets in the microwave, as it seems that they dissolve better in boiling water.

Without sorbate, you don't want to sweeten the cider as adding sugar will restart the fermentation.

Campden tablets are great for using as antioxidants, and that's why winemakers use them. Wine and brewers' yeast strains are amazingly tolerant of sulfites, so winemakers use them routinely. If they killed yeast, we wouldn't use them!

 

[Bigsky406]

Hi Yooper,

Thanks for the info. So... given that I already added the Capden to the juice, what do you recommend? I'm fine with carbonation I guess, so if the fermentation starts back up after I throw a can of apple juice concentrate in there its not the end of the world for me, but do I risk bottle bombs with that much fermentable addition and/or do I have to worry about the campden flecks in the juice?

The problem is there are a 1000 different sources out there and they all tell you to do something different!

Thanks very much for your assistance. I've got this cider sitting on a chair on my kitchen counter waiting to be bottled. Not sure what the next step is but I don't want it exposed to air and risk oxidation, so I'd like to get it bottled ASAP.

 

[Yooper]

Hi Yooper,

Thanks for the info. So... given that I already added the Capden to the juice, what do you recommend? I'm fine with carbonation I guess, so if the fermentation starts back up after I throw a can of apple juice concentrate in there its not the end of the world for me, but do I risk bottle bombs with that much fermentable addition and/or do I have to worry about the campden flecks in the juice?

The problem is there are a 1000 different sources out there and they all tell you to do something different!

Thanks very much for your assistance. I've got this cider sitting on a chair on my kitchen counter waiting to be bottled. Not sure what the next step is but I don't want it exposed to air and risk oxidation, so I'd like to get it bottled ASAP.

I don't think the flecks will ever dissolve. That that doesn't bother you, then it won't harm anything and they should eventually fall to the bottom.

If you want to sweeten and carb, check out the "pasteurizing sticky" on the top of this forum. I don't drink anything sweetened so I haven't ever tried it.

I have no idea how much sugar it would take to blow up a bottle, but you could probably calculate the grams of sugar in the juice concentrate and then figure out how many grams or ounces per ounce you'd be adding.

 

[Bigsky406]

I did try the pasteurizing process from the sticky with my last batch. Thankfully I did it in a heavy aluminum pressure canner with a loose fitting lid because my fear came true and the bottle exploded into a million shards of glass. Thankfully it was mostly contained to the pressure canner, but I did find shards of amber glass for weeks afterward. I think I'll calculate the sugar content in the can of juice and compare that to recommendations for bottle conditioning. Sounds like I went with bad advice on the use of the campden tablets. Somewhere on this forum I read a post recommending the tablets to stop fermentation. Apparently that's not accurate.

Once again, thanks for your advice.

 

[Yooper]

..............Somewhere on this forum I read a post recommending the tablets to stop fermentation. Apparently that's not accurate.

Once again, thanks for your advice.

I honestly don't know where the bad info on campden (sulfites) comes from, but I read it all the time myself and always type up a response to counter that, as it's totally wrong.

I guess you could kill wine yeast will campden, but you'd have to use such a high dosage that it would render the wine undrinkable- so of course it's not done.

Winemakers use campden routinely, often with the goal to maintain 50 ppm throughout the life of the wine. I don't have an so2 meter, so I guestimate it by using 1 campden tablet per gallon at every other racking, and at bottling. So you can see that amount certainly doesn't kill wine yeast!