I just pressed 5+ gallons of juice from a mix of Gravenstein and mystery apples. The last time I made this cider, it came out amazing, using Wyeast cider yeast and stalling fermentation at around 1.010. I let a gallon dry out to around 1.004, and it tasted good when young, but after about a year in the bottle, it had a lot of sediment and tasted a bit off. I believe after some investigation that autolysis (or possibly contamination) might have occurred, which I guess means I bottled too early, even though it spent 2 months undisturbed in a gallon glass jug (it's possible I racked some of the sediment).
I want to replicate the semi-sweet version of this as reliably as possible, in a bottled version that I can age. I can force-carb using a keg, so I'm leaning towards the stabilize/backsweeten route, vs the bottle-carb/pasteurize route.
- Am I going to lose out on any benefits of bottle carbing? People talk about the quality of the carbonation being different. I have some experience with this in beer. If the bottle carbed version is significantly better then I would consider doing that instead.
- For backsweetening, I don't want to use FAJC, lactose, or any artificial sweeteners (which to me taste uniformly terrible). I'd rather use something more neutral, but am not sure how to choose amongst, say, sucrose, Belgian candi sugar, dextrose (corn sugar), or honey (which I'm not opposed to even though it's not really neutral). Any thoughts?
- What's the soonest I should aim to have this ready to bottle? I wouldn't mind having something ready to drink around Thanksgiving, which would mean bulk aging for 2-3 months post-ferment. I'm thinking that as long as it's clear, it could be stabilized, backsweetened, and carbed; I could drink a bit on tap and bottle the rest from there. However, I recently tried bulk aging a dry cider for about 6 months (using D-47 yeast) and liked the results, but would prefer it slightly sweeter. I would like to be able to give bottles as gifts, let some age a year or more, and not lose quality in the bottle. Also, I'm using Cotes Des Blanc yeast this time, and have no experience with this yeast but I'm wondering if cider made with wine yeast inherently benefits from longer bulk aging, and whether bottle aging provides a fair approximation.
I guess that's a lot of info and questions for now. I have a good amount of experience making cider but have only tried backsweetening once, with FAJC, and wasn't crazy about it. I've also only bottled completely dry ciders, but my favorite ciders are both carbed and semi-sweet. Despite my research I haven't really gotten satisfying answers to the above questions, hence this post. I'd really appreciate any experienced cider makers willing to share their wisdom. Cheers!
I want to replicate the semi-sweet version of this as reliably as possible, in a bottled version that I can age. I can force-carb using a keg, so I'm leaning towards the stabilize/backsweeten route, vs the bottle-carb/pasteurize route.
- Am I going to lose out on any benefits of bottle carbing? People talk about the quality of the carbonation being different. I have some experience with this in beer. If the bottle carbed version is significantly better then I would consider doing that instead.
- For backsweetening, I don't want to use FAJC, lactose, or any artificial sweeteners (which to me taste uniformly terrible). I'd rather use something more neutral, but am not sure how to choose amongst, say, sucrose, Belgian candi sugar, dextrose (corn sugar), or honey (which I'm not opposed to even though it's not really neutral). Any thoughts?
- What's the soonest I should aim to have this ready to bottle? I wouldn't mind having something ready to drink around Thanksgiving, which would mean bulk aging for 2-3 months post-ferment. I'm thinking that as long as it's clear, it could be stabilized, backsweetened, and carbed; I could drink a bit on tap and bottle the rest from there. However, I recently tried bulk aging a dry cider for about 6 months (using D-47 yeast) and liked the results, but would prefer it slightly sweeter. I would like to be able to give bottles as gifts, let some age a year or more, and not lose quality in the bottle. Also, I'm using Cotes Des Blanc yeast this time, and have no experience with this yeast but I'm wondering if cider made with wine yeast inherently benefits from longer bulk aging, and whether bottle aging provides a fair approximation.
I guess that's a lot of info and questions for now. I have a good amount of experience making cider but have only tried backsweetening once, with FAJC, and wasn't crazy about it. I've also only bottled completely dry ciders, but my favorite ciders are both carbed and semi-sweet. Despite my research I haven't really gotten satisfying answers to the above questions, hence this post. I'd really appreciate any experienced cider makers willing to share their wisdom. Cheers!