My first batch. I've got 4.5 gallons of flat cider (white wine yeast, a little orange juice, and some dead yeast) fully fermented. I'm ready to heat, mix in a homemade brown sugar syrup, and bottle the whole batch.
I'm looking for recommendations of what proportion of this brown sugar syrup I should mix in. (Unless is it strongly recommended I use maple syrup or honey.) With test bottles I used as much as 2 oz brown sugar syrup per 10 oz cider, and though it was quite tasty--though not super-sweet--it was extremely fizzy and overflowed the bottle when uncapped. Is this much fizziness just the price to pay for putting in so much sugar, or is there a good method for reducing the fizz? And does the alcohol content rise with more sugar? Sorry if all this has been addressed before.
The test bottles also tasted yeasty at the bottom; will running the cider through a tea strainer en route to the heating pan help this?
I'm looking for recommendations of what proportion of this brown sugar syrup I should mix in. (Unless is it strongly recommended I use maple syrup or honey.) With test bottles I used as much as 2 oz brown sugar syrup per 10 oz cider, and though it was quite tasty--though not super-sweet--it was extremely fizzy and overflowed the bottle when uncapped. Is this much fizziness just the price to pay for putting in so much sugar, or is there a good method for reducing the fizz? And does the alcohol content rise with more sugar? Sorry if all this has been addressed before.
The test bottles also tasted yeasty at the bottom; will running the cider through a tea strainer en route to the heating pan help this?