help with cider kit

[barneyfife]

Hi all,

I make beer and wine all the time, and my neighbor asked me if i could make him a dry apple cider, so I purchased a vinoka apple cider kit. I asked my neighbor what sweetness he would like on a scale of 1-10. He figured he would like about a 4. So do I:
1: ferment down to a certain SG, and then add potassium sorbate to stop fermentation, or
2: ferment completely, and then back sweeten, and then add sorbate, and if so, how much sweetener to add to get to desired sweetness?

I will be force carbonating in a keg,then transfer to bottles. The instructions mention about liquid invert sugar, which didnt come with the kit. Is that used for the sweetening?

Thanks for your help
Lester

 

[ParadoxGuitarist]

Why not just try adding un-fermentable sugars to the batch to sweeten it a little.

I remember reading a Carmel Pear/Apple cider recipe that called for "burning" some honey (putting it on flame for about 20 minutes to a dark brown color) and that keeps some sweetness in it. That way you don't have worry about using any sorbate or back sweetening.

 

[barneyfife]

Why not just try adding un-fermentable sugars to the batch to sweeten it a little.

I remember reading a Carmel Pear/Apple cider recipe that called for "burning" some honey (putting it on flame for about 20 minutes to a dark brown color) and that keeps some sweetness in it. That way you don't have worry about using any sorbate or back sweetening.

I managed to get some truvia from the store (which I believe is an unfermentable), and it says "1 packet of truvia provides the same sweetness as 2 teaspoons of sugar".

According the the kit, it says it makes 24L (6 US gallons). How much of this truvia would I add to get a sweetness of say 4 or 5 on a scale of 1 to 10.
As I am a beer guy, I dont know alot about sweetening wine products.

Thanks
Lester

 

[phug]

you can wait until your cider ferments out dry, pour one glass, and then add measured amounts of truvia (while keeping track of how much) until you get the amount of desired sweetness in your drink. scale up the amount of truvia to the size of your batch, (figure out how many oz/ml in your sample drink, divide your batch size by that number of oz/ml, and divide your total batch size by that number. multiply your sweetening amount by that number, and add that to you batch.) Then prime with a fermentable sugar of your choice for carbonation only, and bottle.