Backsweetening and Dilluting Cider's ABV

[cheyneco]

So I got to thinking...my last batch of cider had a starting gravity of 1.054. It fermented to 0.994, giving it an abv of about 7.8%. The batch before that was 1.064 and finished at 1.000, so around 8.4% abv. Both were back sweetened with apple juice concentrate. Both took a while to age, but tasted pretty good after a couple months. The only problem is they had a very strong alcohol taste, very similar to a wine almost. I'd prefer them to taste a little more like a refreshing crisp drink than a sweet wine.

So my thought for my next batch was to start the same way, around 1.055 or 1.060 and ferment it dry. Transfer to secondary and leave it alone for a month or two then backsweeten it with a generous amount of apple juice. I'll use a 1 gallon batch for an example:

1 gallon apple juice, SG of 1.055 from the bottle. Ferment dry to .996-1.000. Roughly 7.5%
Backsweeten with 1/2 gallon of applejuice, bringing the gravity up to around 1.015-1.018 and the abv to around 5%. Let it bottle carb a few days until good and carbed then pasteurize or stick in the fridge.

A 1 gallon batch would yield nearly 1.5 gallons this way, minus the sediment which is usually pretty minimal.



Are my thoughts correct that I would end up with a 5% abv sweet cider? Would it be too sweet? Would it age any quicker this way? Any downsides to this method? I haven't heard of anyone back sweetening with this much juice in any recipe...

 

[cheyneco]

Anyone?

 

[bernardsmith]

I guess I would be nervous about creating too much carbonation to be held safely in any bottle you might use. Bottle carbing uses about 3/4 of a cup of sugar per gallon (about 4 or 5 oz) and that quantity of sugar produces about 1 volume of CO2. But you want to both backsweeten AND bottle carb. Won't bottle carbing eat up any of the sugar you add to backsweeten.and spit out CO2?

 

[cheyneco]

I plan to stove top pasteurized once carbonation is where I want it.

Guess I'll test this theory on my own.

 

[bernardsmith]

I guess I would be nervous about creating too much carbonation to be held safely in any bottle you might use. Bottle carbing uses about 3/4 of a cup of sugar per gallon (about 4 or 5 oz) and that quantity of sugar produces about 1 volume of CO2. But you want to both backsweeten AND bottle carb. Won't bottle carbing eat up any of the sugar you add to backsweeten.and spit out CO2?

My mistake. I meant to say 3/4 cup per FIVE gallons or about 1.2 oz per gallon.