Backsweetening Starting Point

[dougget]

Hi,
After making a very dry batch of cider I have decided to try backsweetening. I plan to make simple syrups with white sugar and brown sugar just to experiment with two flavors.
Just wanted to check my plan with y'all.

I use 1 liter bottles with flip tops.
I plan to ferment for whatever time it takes. 5 Gal carboy.
Then rack into a second carboy to let sediment fall out for a couple of days.
Then add simple syrup to each bottle and fill with cider and seal.
I plan to let the bottle ferment for 1 week to create some carbonation.
Pasteurize using the Stove-Top method described in this forum and chill.

Does this sound like a good (and simple) to proceed?
How much simple syrup per liter is a good recommended starting point?
As a reference, I like the Angry Orchard 'Crisp' commercial cider... so a sweetness around that level would be very nice.

Thank you in advance,
Doug

 

[CKuhns]

What you need to find out is what is your current Specific Gravity. That will tell you how much sugar (if any) you have remaining for the suspended yeast to consume after bottling.

If your SG is 1.000 then add 4.5 oz of cane sugar to five gallons of cider by dissolving the sugar in a couple of cups or so of your cider over very low heat. (Adjust the volume of sugar appropriately for anything above 1.000 or if a bit different than 5 gallons. i.e. if at 1.005 just bottle and let the yeast do its thing.) Allow your cider syrup to cool and then dump it in the bottling bucket and the cider on top to mix it well and bottle. No need to add a little syrup to each bottle as long as its mixed well.
This calculator works pretty well and echos some of my comments. Priming Sugar Calculator for Cider Carbonation - Home Cider Making

The 4.5 oz of cane sugar in 5 gallons raises the SG about .003 and if all the sugar is consumed gives you roughly 2.5 or so atmospheres of CO2 probably similar to the carbonation in Angry O.

Depending upon how well you clarified and or racked and the amount of yeast left in solution a week may or may not be enough to carbonate it. I would suggest to fill an empty soda bottle after adding your sugar and mixing well and cap tightly as your "control". Grab a fresh or unopened soda and leave all your bottles (soda bottles included) at room temp. Check the cider soda bottle each day morning and evening. When you squeeze it and it feels like the unopened soda it is carbonated and again if you mixed your cider and sugar well all your bottles should be equally carbonated. Then refrigerate or not and enjoy.

It will not add anything to the sweetness as your yeast will eat the sugars to produce the CO2 and they get the benefit of the sweetness. But carbonation for some people does kind of "trick" the tongue into thinking its sweeter than it is. For others it tastes a little more tart or acidic.

If in-fact you want it carbonated and sweeter then you only have a couple of options.
1. Do the same as above but add more sugar and pasteurize the bottles when you hit the CO2 you desire. IMO very risky as it is possible that hot cider could be released through the swing tops during the heating cycle and isn't very fun, but certainly an option see Pappers "Sticky" on pasteurization at the top of the forum.
2. Do the same as above but add a small amount of a non-fermentable sweetener like Xylitol to taste prior to adding your 4.5 oz of sugar / syrup solution before bottling.

 

[Chalkyt]

All of the above, plus if you want to heat pasteurise look up a post by Bembel (11 May 2016) and JimRausch (16 April 2018). The current approach to heat pasteurising according to both Lea and Jollicoeur is to expose the cider to 65C (149F) for 10 minutes to get 50 pasteurisation units or PUs (pasteurisation occurs above 60C both when heating up and cooling down).

I use a method similar to JimRausch's cooler method, but without the preheating. I have monitored temperature and time and find that taking 15C bottles up to 65C takes about 10 minutes in a water bath of 70C, then removing and letting them cool down for another 10 minutes or so will generate the 50PUs needed (as per the above 65C for 10 minutes). This doesn't need to be too precise as there is some evidence that over 30 PUs will do the pasteurisation job for cider.

At 65C, a bottle carbonated to around 2.0 atm will generate around 85psi of pressure, and at 2.5atm around110psi. Beer bottles are generally believed to be rated at around 100psi. So at 65C there is some margin of safety as long as the carbonation is below 2.5atm as my (unfortunate) experience is that bottle bombs can occur at around 150psi. Similarly, temperatures above 65C very quickly take you into "bottle bomb" territory.

 

[GeneDaniels1963]

try FAJC instead of sugar. It will really increase the apple taste, or at least I like it that way

 

[Cooknhogz]

FAJC,,,3 1/2- 4 cans to 5 gallon batch if using wine or cider yeast. 2 1/2- 3 cans if using beer yeast. I keg all my cider and tastes close to or in my opinion, better than Angry Orchard.